Good morning, Start with the Pledge…
On behalf of the Nanuet Board of Education, I would like to welcome you to this 2003-2004 school year.
(Introduce board members, Anne Byrne, Karen Franchino, Dr. Harold Fogelman, Charlene Caulk, Tom Morr, Jim Mahr, district clerk (Lucille Anemone), Dr. McNeill, Dr. Fuhrman, and Phil Sions – have those who are present stand)
First, a special thank you to everyone involved in preparing the wonderful luncheon we are enjoying together today.
Many individuals are responsible for planning and delivering our educational program.
administrators, directors of special education and technology, teachers, librarians, speech and language therapists, psychologists, nurses, secretaries, tutors, teacher aides, and teacher assistants, counselors, coaches, family resource center staff and volunteers, bus drivers, custodians, maintenance workers, buildings and grounds staff and cafeteria personnel.
Many of you have worked over the summer to prepare for the new school year. Thank you for your professionalism and commitment to our children.
I’d like to welcome our new teachers -- how lucky you are to be working with such a talented staff in one of the best school systems in New York State.
We know that our success is dependent on the cooperation and the active involvement of our families and community organizations. A special thank you to our PTA and Family Resource Centers for providing programs that keep that involvement alive.
In closing, I would like to share one event from last year’s 8th grade moving up ceremony that I will never forget and which inspired what I’d like to share with you as my final thought today.
You know the routine, the subject is named and the student with the highest grade is called forward, and he or she marches up to receive the award.
But one student was called forward in a different way. He was not called forward as the student with the highest grade – he was called forward as “an author in the making”. The smile on xxxxxxxxxx's face and the emotion that went with it made that a magical moment.
Indeed each one of us in this room today is “someone in the making” and we will be “someone in the making”, if we’re lucky, until we take our last breath.
Our students, no matter how young or how old, are in the process of becoming, being formed as human beings. Everything they do and say can inform our decisions about how to further their growth and nurture their potential.
Our words, our actions, a single look -- can encourage or discourage, build up or tear down, show empathy or show apathy.
Martin Buber, the existentialist philosopher had a phrase, “confirming the other” which has everything to do with nurturing the process of becoming.
Increasing student achievement is a primary goal of this Board, but we know that it can only be realized when all of the members of our school community feel valued not only for what they do, but also for who they are as human beings.
I am proud to be a part of this community -- you are precious -- consider yourselves hugged!
- Bartleby
- Searchable Nonfiction in the Works... " Executives at Amazon.com are negotiating with several of the largest book publishers about an ambitious and expensive plan to assemble a searchable online archive with the texts of tens of thousands of books of nonfiction.."