I was talking to one of my former students about a week ago and we started discussing the turnover at my previous district. For many people turnover and change are very difficult and they can be trying times for schools to overcome. At one point, the student, currently a senior, said to me, 'It's a rebuilding year. We'll be fine.'

Kids sometimes have that aura of resilience that adults don't always have. She may be 18 but she's still a kid to me. If you follow any professional or college sports, you know what a 'Rebuilding Year' is. It's coachspeak for 'we lost a lot of key people and we are not going to be very good this year.' Its a preemptive excuse for a dismal season.

We could easily say that West Perry has undergone a 'rebuilding year.' All of the central administration and the elementary administration have less than a year in their current positions. We could say that but that would be an excuse. While we appreciate your grace as we make our way forward, we don't make excuses. We have a job to do and we take that job seriously. We've lost a lot of key staff this year but our goal is to be better than good!

In education you do rebuild from time to time but you don't get to write off an entire year when you do it. The expectations remain the same. As Mike Tomlin likes to say, "The standard is the standard." I can assure you that the staff here is not writing off a year. Everyone has been and continues to be working diligently to come up to speed as quickly as possible. Some have even exceeded the speed that was hoped for. That's important because that is our goal. Not that we need to go fast but that we need to take what we were given and continue to build to greatness.

Forever forward! We are just getting started!