Proud Superintendent

Proud Superintendent

What makes a school great?  This is obviously an overloaded question, which would most likely yield and overloaded answer.  I will keep it simple.

The answer….it depends on who you’re asking.  If you ask the legislator’s that passed the No Child Left Behind legislation the answer is high test scores.  If your students do well on the State test; then you are a great school.   We have to focus on the parts that make up the whole in order to achieve such greatness.   

Have you ever made Rice Crispy Bars but forgot the Marshmallow’s?  How about Spaghetti and forgot the sauce?  Do you know where I’m going with this?

Certainly the ingredients to a great school include more than just test scores, and I can tell you at GCC we are whipping up a great batch of school each and everyday.  I’m proud to be the Superintendent of such a great school.  We often focus on the negative in this world and we tend to overlook the positives.  This is wrong.  We should take pride in our positives, and learn from our negatives. 

I recently read a great article about how Golf applies to our lives.  What does a golfer remember after a round of golf?  The simple answer is – the great shot he/she hit on that one hole.  Of course a golfer hits a number of bad shots, but the one thing he/she remembers is the great one, and it’s the great shot that keeps them going back out for more golf.  Why can’t we apply this to our lives today?   The answer is……..drum roll please………..I said drum roll please…………… we can, and we need to start today.  

So lets begin.

The pride that the communities of Cooperstown and Hannaford have in their school goes unmatched by any other.  I’m willing to take bets on it.  If you have ever wondered why students don’t cheer, or even don’t attend school events anymore – wonder no more.  Please come to a GCC event.   Sportsmanship and Pride are two things that our patrons and students take with them to all of our events.    The support that our communities have for our kids, and the support that our kids have for each other is a site to see. 

The Cooperstown gymnasium is maybe the only place where you could play “If your happy and you know it” at a sporting event and the entire crowd takes part (including teenagers :).  Yep, they put their right foot in and then they take their right foot out, and you better watch out because they shake it all about.   They do the hokey pokey and they cheer and support one another. 

What makes a great school?  It is more than test scores.  It is a pride in doing what we do.  We live, we learn, we play.  We lift each other up.  We lend a helping hand, and we take pride in everything we do.  This is what makes a great school.   As for tests scores making a great school…I think of it like this.  Making progress in our scores should be a major goal for our student’s and teachers.  Supporting each other in everything we do is a major activity of reaching that goal.  If we can motivate, inspire, and support each and every day – we cannot do wrong, and we will continue to see progress.

Thank you to the communities of Cooperstown and Hannaford for supporting our students in all that they do.  I look forward to doing the Hokey Pokey with you real soon.