Dear FPS Community,

I recently brought my nine year old daughter Grace to a playground birthday party.  When we got there she told me not to get out of the car; she would walk in by herself.  None of my kids had ever said that at age 9 so I had to ask why. That was my first mistake.  
“You don’t look so nice.”
“Well honey, I just came from working in the yard.  It's not so bad.”
“Dad, it's not so great either.  The party is over at 12:30.”
And off she went.

Second mistake. I return a little before 12:30, clean shirt and all, and go onto the playground.  I want these parents to know she has a father who cares for her.  Grace is actually happy to see me and introduces me to the birthday boy’s father. “This is my dad,” she says, “He looks like my grandfather, but he is actually my dad.”  Should have stayed in the car.

So this is a long way to share that experience only gets you so far and you learn something new every day.  As I enter my 36th year in education I am continually reminded that the most wonderful thing about working in education is the constant change in students and staff which keeps us learning at all times.  It is also one of the most challenging aspects of our work.  Constant change can shift our focus if we are not careful.  Our need for a dedicated plan of improvement is great.

As I wrote last month we are working to develop our next five year District Improvement Plan.  Our committee has drafted four goals which I shared with the Board of Education and other town boards this past week and which I share with you below.  Included with these goals are the data sources that will be used to refine the goals and their plans.

There is much work still to be done.  For each of these five year goals we will draft specific one year goals with accompanying action steps and budget impacts.  That is the work to be completed in the next couple of months before the Board of Education reviews a first draft in February, 2022.

Before I let you go I want to thank every member of the community who has worked so hard to keep our school community strong over the first two months of the school year.  It is everyone’s combined efforts that have kept our quarantine numbers low and the great majority of our students in school. 

Take care,
Mike