Welcome to my new blog and truth to be told, my first time blogging as superintendent.
My purpose will be to share reflections here about 番茄影视 Public Schools in a more informal way, similar to my Walking in the Shoes emails and .
It鈥檚 important to me that families, business and community leaders have many ways to connect with me and staff 鈥 to share your celebrations, dreams and wonders about our school system.
I recently met with a single mom who shared her frustration about wanting to engage at the district-level, but not being able to serve on my Parent Advisory Committee or other groups that meet during the day. I take that to heart. So, thanks for reading and letting me into your home or office at a time that works for you. I鈥檒l continue to email and call parents to share important updates, too. I called families in Spanish last month and thankfully avoided a major language blunder with a little assistance.
I鈥檒l also keep attending many parent meetings and events, and extend an offer that if you have 8 or so friends gathering for book club or coffee, consider inviting me to share what鈥檚 on your mind. Ruth Rasmussen keeps my calendar and can be reached at Ruth.Rasmussen@bellinghamschools.org or 676-6501. If the time and date work, I鈥檓 happy to sit down and chat! All I ask is that you share your important perspective and, as One Schoolhouse聽 (which is part of The 番茄影视 Promise and focuses on equity and excellence for all students.), that we鈥檙e all able to step back to acknowledge and consider different viewpoints, too.
Comments (3)
Dr. Baker, congratulations for the distinction of being one of the top 30 districts in the nation of National Board Certified Teachers!
Also, enjoyed the video of, “walking in the shoes.”
Keep up the great work, Gary
Thanks, Gary! We are so proud of our staff. 番茄影视 is an amazing place to learn, live and work! Thank you for the comment about the video, too. I’m learning so much “walking in the shoes” of our students and staff.
The proposal for the 2016-2017 start times re.: Elementary schools 7:45 am -2:15 pm are obviously the result of a person(s)’s thought process sitting behind a desk, crunching numbers and having absolutely no idea as to what the needs of a child age 5-6 are in regards to healthy sleep patterns. Having to be at school at 8:25 am (current schedule) is difficult enough. Setting the start time 45 minutes earlier is ridiculous. I strongly suggest to put the emphasis on the working parent situation (both parents in many cases, writer of this comment included) and the pressure due to economic reasoning applied to this sort of theory aside for a moment, and ask this question: What is in the best interest of our children (our country’s future)? In addition to the lack of staffing in our schools we now decide to slowly suggest school times that have previously only been known to factory workers and people working in graveyard shifts (no disrespect to these hard working folks!) It is embarrassing how fundamentally off course our school system is compared to other countries. One elementary teacher/25 children (approx.), age 5-6. Good Luck! Oh right, and lousy pay, another incentive to make a career in education so very tempting. It’s all about numbers and statistics while our children ARE ALL left behind opposite the motto of “no child left behind”. There is just not enough room to express the insanity of what disaster our schools are steering to if we are not courageous enough to look at other, working school systems around the world, and start making improvements before the effects of our inadequacies to implement efficient schedules and curriculums are irreversible.