Finishing Strong

We are just over a month left until the end of the 2020-21 school year! Boy has it been a year. Just a few months ago we were adapting to distance education, getting facility safety protocols in place to expand in-person learning, figuring out how to bring back athletics and scrambling to find a vaccination appointment. Now our teachers have mastered distance education, we have opened our facilities to larger in-person cohorts, some sports seasons have come to an end and now anyone over 16 can get vaccinated. Yes, this school year started off as one we could not wait to end, and we will finish it strong.
As May arrives, we are in the home stretch. We are preparing to celebrate the perseverance and resilience of the graduating class of 2021. We can see it on the horizon, and we are eager to get there. And the most exciting news of all is that we are all anticipating we will have amazing in-person graduation celebrations!
We can’t wait to turn the page in this book. One would be hard pressed to find a student or staff member who has not in some way been touched by the pandemic. Some have seen a caregiver lose their job, experienced or witnessed illness, been challenged with the barriers to engaged successfully with technology and much more. The pandemic shined a light on so very much in our schools, our communities and our country. Economic, educational, social and racial inequities were unmasked and now we are coming to grips with the related hurt and trauma. As we begin to put the pieces back together towards normal, it is the job of the board of education to make sure that in the midst of these significant shifts, that we do all we can to support student and staff well-being.
Indeed, the light is at the end of the long and dark COVID-19 tunnel and we are committed to finishing strong. Some things will get back to what we were used to as normal and some things will change and move us towards post-pandemic healing and renewal. I was recently asked to follow the decisions of great leader to show true leadership. I would say that good leaders are not followers, not even of other leaders. They are inspired and motivated to do what is right and make a difference, based on the circumstances they find themselves in, regardless of the challenges they may face in doing so. Given all we have gone through as a District in the last two years, there is no better time than now to do just that.
Thank you for your confidence in me. I appreciate every email I receive. Advocating for children and being accountable to you is my sworn duty. Final thought, we can’t wait to return to school full-time five days a week. Continuing the many safety protocols we put in place this last year will help us get there. Please continue to stay connected and engaged. I am available at cmoore@hartdistrict.org.