Hi everyone!
We’re getting really close and I’m starting to believe that the light at the end of the tunnel is something other than a train. Frankly though, I don’t truly breathe freely until the morning after graduation when all the graduates appear to have made it home safely after their celebrations.
I did a snapshot a couple of weeks ago where I talked about watching my son run the mile at a meet over at Taylorsville High – how during the first three laps the kids seem to be running at an impossible pace and then they speed up even more for the last lap, and then collapse after crossing the finish line. I know that’s how many of you (us) feel, that we kept an impossible pace going all school year long and then ratcheted it up into an all-out sprint for this final quarter. I sincerely thank you for the races you’ve run.
As I’ve thought about how far the metaphor can be stretched, I’d like to tug it a bit further. After he ran the mile, I watched my son limp over to the tree where the rest of his team was. There were hugs and high-fives all around, then he sat down and guzzled some water and ate a snack of some kind. After that he kind of collapsed and covered his face with a smelly t-shirt for a bit and I think he may well have been sleeping. After a long while he popped up and called on a couple of team members so they could warm up in preparation for the 800 meter run.
I’m extremely hopeful, as the next 72 or so hours pass, that we’ll give beleaguered and wearied hugs and high-fives to each other and then go crash for a while, doing whatever it is that fills our own personal buckets (or sharpens our saws etc.). For most of our teachers, eight to ten weeks from now you’ll hunt up some peers and start warming up for the next race. Many of our support staff have a much shorter turn around as they jump into deep cleaning, refurbishing of facilities and equipment and other kinds of preparation activities – I hope all of you take the time to stretch tired muscles and have time to really refresh. You deserve it.
I think most of you know by now that once ratification is complete, Granite appears to have the best settlement of all the districts in the state. The board of education really stepped out to do right by employees. Thanks to the associations for all their great work as well. For the many of you whom this affects, we’re likely going to be able to have a reduction in the number of district assessments next year as well (with your participation and feedback this past year we think we will be able to modify the tools to get the information needed to inform teachers, parents and students in a better format, more quickly and with fewer administrations than in the past). I’m also greatly pleased that in virtually every category our SAGE scores improved significantly over last year, your efforts and focus – and I mean everybody’s efforts and focus – really have paid off. The game changed rules and we’ve all made adjustments to compete and win in the new context. You all deserve all the credit and I couldn’t be prouder!
Thanks for all you do – have a great summer and we’ll see you in the fall!
Martin