About a year ago, we experienced a lot of stress, as a district.
Really trying to bring together a lot of conflicting interests.
And going into the school year I didn't really
know what to expect except that I was optimistic.
The district was somewhat fragile and complicated.
Frankly, for an entire school year,
we did not hire a superintendent or high school principals.
So the commissioner of education felt that the governance issue
needed to be addressed so we could
move the district forward.
We had five goals--
stewardship, absenteeism, graduation rate,
college readiness, and early literacy.
Those were five areas that needed improvement.
The decision was basically to remove the existing
board of trustees and to place a board of managers
here in Edgewood ISD.
Since the board of managers and myself were sworn in,
we have a new vision.
We have a new mission for Edgewood.
And now with a new strategic plan,
we feel like we have a roadmap for success.
I came here thinking, OK, well I'm
going to be a part of one action on one topic.
But this is different.
This is going in front of the board and that, to me,
is the level where you are saying this is business.
I think it's great that we have a variety of stakeholders here.
We all want the same thing.
We all want student success at Edgewood.
The question is, how do we get there?
Our graduation rate is still not at 100%.
Our strand is improving literacy.
It's not just beginning of the year training, it's ongoing.
I think what we've really focused
on is creating a plan over the next three to five years
where we're going to bring together
everyone in the district to make sure everyone's
on the same page.
And you can go from one campus to the next
and really see a system of best practices employed
throughout the district consistently.
The thing that I think is really, really strong here
in Edgewood are it's people.
I love that they just included everybody.
It'll make this a better buy-in for the community.
We have a new mission.
We have a new vision.
We have new goals.
We have new strategies.
We heard some really touching stories,
both from the students, and we heard
the parents who care nothing more than about their child's
education.
I may go drop off my daughter or pick her up from school,
and you really don't know what's going on behind the scenes
at school.
But sitting in these meetings they really
expect and want to help each and every student,
and give everyone a bright future.
She actually helped us revise one of the action steps we had.
They take to heart what I have to say.
Because I'm not only representing myself,
but all the students and the Edgewood community.
To see everyone come together and really develop these plans,
it was as if I was seeing our dreams grow
right in front of me.
And I was happy and so excited to be a part of that.
To actually hear firsthand the struggles
that a principal, and or teacher, and or student
has to go through is just amazing.
We're not where we want to be, but we're not where we were.
For Edgewood to have met standard
is not a small accomplishment.
It's a very, very big accomplishment.
Five years down the road, I can't wait to see what we do.
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