August
15, 2007
Dear Parents and Members of the Community,
Thinking About the New Year
Having spent my whole life in education, the only calendar that has meaning for me is the school calendar. June has always been the time to celebrate and say goodbye to students and those colleagues who are retiring or moving on. July is for family and recharging batteries. And now in August we gear up for a new year.
Starting a school year is akin to launching a spacecraft. There is so much prep work that nobody sees before the launch. Custodians spend the summer deep cleaning. Students are enrolled. Cafeterias are restocked and prepared for ravenous youthful appetites. Staff is hired; mountains of paperwork are sent to families and then returned, processed. Hours and hours are spent making sure each and every student has the appropriate classes and a highly qualified teaching staff. Then with a roar, the new school year is launched. Every August, in thousands of schools, so many difficult, complicated, interrelated things come together in seemingly effortless fashion.
In Palo Alto, about 830 families will be taking kindergarteners to our schools. Emotions run high for many; the excitement of sending off a first child, the hesitation of letting go of their “baby.” They will be entrusting to our care their most precious possession – their child – full of all their hopes and a manifestation of their dreams and optimism.
I vividly remember that first day thirteen years ago when I walked my oldest son to school, my wife pushing two of his younger siblings in a double jogger and my carrying the last one, an infant, in a backpack. I imagine that all those with children have memories, if not many precious pictures, of that very first school day as a parent.
And now, last week, I put this oldest son, now a young man, on a plane to Latin America for the start of a “Gap Year” before he goes off to college. He is hurling into the universe, and we trust him to the world with confidence that the things he has learned from his teachers, his experiences both good and bad, and lessons from my wife and me will hold him in good stead.
It is awesome work we do as educators. We look forward to our partnership with parents and the community realizing our collective dreams for this next generation.
School starts August 28. It is going to be a good day!
Kevin Skelly , Ph.D.
Superintendent |