Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Community and School PRIDE

I woke up this morning to see on Twitter that Grand Central Foods, one of our grocery stores in town, displayed some of their soft drinks in a way that it shows Y DUKES. How cool is that?

It's just another small, recent example of how awesome York is and how much support this community provides to York Public Schools. Over the lunch hour this past Friday, I ran some errands to the dry cleaners, post office, and bank. In each place, people were wearing York Dukes shirts and were showing excitement for the many successful programs we have.

Our students have also bought in to how amazing York is as a community. They understand that when they are part of an organization, cast, group, program, or team that they're not just representing themselves and their families but also their school and their community.

Our recent "Back to School Celebration" and Community Pep Rally, with over 750 folks in attendance, is another strong indicator of how connected York and York Public Schools are. We're intertwined and that's the way it should be. Just since school started, I've had parents stop me to tell me how much they appreciate the new ICU program to battle apathy towards missing assignments, how much they appreciate the new STEM offerings at YMS, and the expanded business and work certification programming at YHS. YES parents have expressed excitement over the DESSA/Social-Emotional curriculum we're implementing as well. Life is good.

We've also hosted meetings with about 30 farmers in the past few weeks to work hand-in-hand on the massive issue of school funding and an over-reliance on local property taxes. We won't be divided and conquered like some politicians want. We're together moving forward to look for solutions.

It's an honor to work with and for a community that supports our young people as much as they do. The business leaders of York are wonderful to work with. We're blessed with many amazing and helpful parents. We have a tremendous relationship with both PreK-8th parochial schools in town, Emmanuel Faith-Lutheran as well as St. Joseph's Catholic.

Nebraska is an amazing place. There are so many awesome communities and school systems that work hand-in-hand and help identify each other. It is so neat to see all of the places in our great state that support their schools and young people. Community/School pride is alive and well!

Like my answering machine in the office says, "It's a great day to be a York Duke."

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