First of all, I would like to thank the community for the warm and wonderful welcome that I have received since I returned to the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My wife, Jana, and I are delighted to have found the perfect home here in Kent and have enjoyed getting to know and love our new community over the past couple of months during this transition.
I am pleased to share that I was able to attend all the high-school graduations and visit each of our 40 schools before the last day of school. During my visits to so many classrooms, seeing teachers at work, meeting with school principals, speaking with department administrators, and meeting parents, I have been inspired by these experiences and am thrilled to be able to serve the entire community as your Kent School District superintendent.
The opportunity to visit classrooms, speak to students and teachers, and even sit in on some school-improvement team meetings, has been truly inspiring, as I’ve watched teachers and support staff working together to enrich the educational experiences of all our students.
In addition, I was honored to be present when our district’s Teacher of the Year, Michelle Kelly from Kent Elementary, learned that she is now a finalist for Washington State Teacher of the Year! It was truly a joy to see the smiles on her students’ faces that day.
That same week, I was present when Denise Khazoyan, Northwood Middle School math teacher, was announced as the Ivar’s Teacher of the Year Grand Prize winner. These were excellent weeks indeed, and were capped off with the great news that two of our elementary schools, Panther Lake and Neely-O’Brien, earned Washington State’s Title I Improvement Award for their outstanding results in increasing student achievement and academic success schoolwide for every subgroup of students. This award underscores the tremendous difference that teachers, support staff, principals, parents, and the entire school community are making when they work together and place our students at the center of everything we do.
On several of my school-visitation days, I was fortunate to be accompanied by school board members as well. This provided me with quality, one-on-one time to discuss future possibilities and plans for our district, and advance our continued commitment to excellence for all. Many of you are familiar with our board of directors; for those of you who are not, please know we are very fortunate in Kent School District to have five highly dedicated and caring professionals representing your interests and, most importantly, unified around the best interests of our students. I am excited and honored to be working with them for all of our children.
It is evident that there are a lot of great things that are happening here. However, it is also clear that there is much work to be done as we build on the current system and address the many challenges we have in order to ensure that every single child achieves at high levels and reaches their full potential.
We are all on this reform journey in education together because the quality of education in Kent School District is directly linked to the quality of life for everyone in our community. As a district, we have the capacity to move to the next level, while also honoring and acknowledging the hard work that has occurred over the past decade.
As the saying goes, when it comes to quality there is no finish line. I look forward to joining this district’s many fine educators as well as all stakeholders on this journey — working together, we will ensure every child’s success.
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