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Good Morning members of the Board, cabinet, administrators, guests, and faculty and staff.

On Friday, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to help welcome our new teachers and clinicians to the district. I told them how glad I was to have them here in what is the education equivalent of a sellers market. I am equally glad to see all of you here today. Thank you for being here. As I told them and I have told you before, this place matters to me, and I want us to be the very best that we can be.

While focusing my thoughts for what I wanted to say to you today, I reread last year’s speech. It was a good speech. I talked about how proud I was of what we had managed to accomplish the year before, that we had built relationships and facilitated learning in a year unlike any other we had seen. I remarked how great it would be to start a year without Zoom teaching. We knew there would be new challenges, but how bad could it be.

By Thanksgiving, though, I was telling people that we knew the year would be challenging, but that no one seemed prepared for how challenging it would be. Yeah, last year was rough.

Yet, there were moments when we were successful. We still built relationships with kids, they still learned. And I know that I learned an awful lot; I suspect you did, too.

One of my favorite notions came from Elena Aguilar’s wonderful book Onward . She asks us to pay attention to the stories we tell. She asks us to control the narrative and the way we interpret events by telling empowering stories. She states, “you make the choice about the story to tell. When telling empowering stories, your optimism may expand.”

So this year, I choose optimism. I choose hope. I choose to believe that we can and do and will make a difference in the lives of our students.

Now choosing optimism doesn’t mean sticking our heads in the sand. It doesn’t mean we stop identifying and trying to solve problems. It doesn’t mean we stop advocating for changes we need or the conditions that we expect. I will advocate for us and push back when it’s needed.

But optimism might allow us to collaborate instead of simply fighting. I just don’t think we have to be mad all the time. We are more resilient than that.

I believe in public education.

I believe in District 87.

I believe in you.

Thank you for all you do for kids and each other; have a great year.

I am so pleased to be able to welcome everyone to this new school year. I am saddened that we cannot be together to see you all. I especially like the part of the meeting when Dr. Reilly usually asks everyone to stand up based on how long they have taught in the district. I love the history of it and the possibilities.

You see and hear “It’s great to be in District 87” a lot around here, and honestly, I believe it. I love this district. I have taught my entire career, literally a generation, here. Mike and I raised our family here with all three of our kids graduating from BHS. I believe in what we do here.

Over the course of 28 years, you can bet I have seen a thing or two. I have former 7J’ers who are doctors, nurses, professional athletes, jewelry designers, entrepreneurs, some District 87 teachers — probably everything you can imagine. And let me tell you, the first time a former student walks in as the parent, it’s jarring but it’s also pretty cool.

I have come to hate the word “unprecedented,” yet I have not found a better choice for the times we find ourselves in. These past three semesters have been the strangest and most challenging I have experienced. I am sure they were for you, too. Yet you adapted and changed course time and again to meet those challenges.

Last spring, I reminded the district’s bargaining committee that even before the pandemic we were charged with doing something that had not been asked of a school system until less than a generation ago — to educate every child in our community to be college and career ready.

Last school year, we worked to educate every child in our community to be college and career ready while dealing with a global pandemic, an economic crisis, and overdue social justice reforms.

And we did it via Zoom.
I am so proud of you.

Despite all these experiences and changes, and knowing full well that new changes may be required, we are all here ready to do it all again.

We are understandably concerned about a host of issues ranging from physical health, to emotional well-being, to of course academics. Some of these issues will loom larger than they would in a normal year— whatever that even is.

But here in District 87, we have always met our students where they were. Name any metric you can think of and we have always had a broad range in our classrooms. We have also always given our kids our very best efforts. We give them our all. This year will be no different.

We will connect with our students.
We will look after them.
We will show them what’s possible through the stories that we share, the world that we show them, the opportunities that we give them to grow.

We will see just how far we can take them — or maybe just how far they can take us.

Maybe that’s the greatest gift of teaching — imagining the possibilities.

We can show our students what is possible. We can help them see what they can accomplish. If we are lucky, they will go out into the world and do it.

And those acts will justify all our efforts.

Take time to take care of yourself; I hope you have an amazing year.

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