January 8, 2015 Board Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual Board members.

 

 Tonight, I feel a renewed hope for the future of our district.  Ms. Jolieen Bertram and Mr. Elmer Utz were sworn in and are now officially members of the Pendleton County School Board.  Welcome Jolieen and Elmer.  It is nice to add another “mom” on the board and make it more gender balanced.  I shared in my opening comments that Mr. Utz, Mr. Spence, and I were all members of the PCHS Class of 1985.  All through school, our class was known as the “bad class”.  I remember distinctly an administrator mentioning that our classmates were going nowhere in life.  It is interesting that 60% of your district school board were members of this “hopeless” class.  I don’t really think our class was hopeless.  We just had many people in our class that did not have a clear idea of where they were headed.  They had many of the same struggles that our students face today.  This makes me reluctant to “label” students because we as educators don’t have a crystal ball.  Future success in life can never be predicted.

 

This morning I heard the most inspiring message from NKU’s President Geoffrey Mearns.  He shared some absolutely amazing stories about several of our NKU students.  One student who battled drug addiction has recently finished his degree and has been accepted into NKU’s graduate counseling program.  Another student who despite a heart problem that required him to get an internal defibrillator is continuing to play basketball for the University and doing extremely well.  The reason I share these stories is students are very resilient. If they have someone to truly believe in them, students can overcome these setbacks and move forward.  President Mearns asked that the faculty to recommit themselves to keeping the focus on student success.  He said that if we can ignite a spark in us, together our flame can be a light for our community.  Sitting in the audience, I couldn’t help but think about the Pendleton County School District and how his message could be applied to our district.  I have always been committed to students’ success, but I want to recommit myself to focus on student success in this coming year.  I know that our new board can be the flame that is the light for our community.  I encourage others to fuel the flame and to recommit to student success in 2015!