Schools Superintendent John Ramos sent a lengthy letter to residents and parents this past week. It has drawn a lot of attention.
See it below and see what you think:
Dear South Orange Maplewood School District,
It is easy to lose sight of the goal.
Sure,
we attend meetings and trainings, we discuss ideas both big and small,
we learn the culture and norms and, if we’ve been paying attention, we
set out with direction and purpose. But then life happens. Or, in our
case, the daily life of school happens. It is easy to get caught up in
the individual instances, to be beset by the latest crisis…to lose sight
of the goal.
The goal of SOMSD is captured in the recently approved, Board of Education and community endorsed MISSION STATEMENT:
The
mission of the South Orange Maplewood School District is to empower and
inspire each student to explore and imagine, to pursue personal
passions, and to collectively create a better future by creating a
learner-centered environment through multiple pathways; reimagined
structures, systems and supports; innovative teaching; partnering with
families; and maximizing community expertise and resources.
With
this bold proclamation, the District has claimed its purpose and
direction – true north! Board of Education policies wrap around and
guide our daily pursuits, with the Access and Equity policy at the heart
of everything we do.
The
work that is required to obtain this mission is where our focus must be
centered. That work’s component parts are detailed in the Strategic
Plan. This collaborative effort represents the values of our community
and the needs of our students. It addresses every aspect of the
work that we must do to create the school district we want for our
children – from curriculum and professional development, to student
support and engagement, to cultural competency, to partnering with
families and the community, to clear, transparent communications.
The
Action Plans which are part of the Strategic Plan are an incredible
gift to us from the community. Volunteer teams of educators, parents,
students, and other community members shared their time, their passion
for innovative education, and their commitment to the very best for
SOMSD and developed 46 different initiatives that have the potential to
help us begin the transformation of our district.
We
plan to begin to implement some of these initiatives in 2017-2018 –
starting first with the “low hanging fruit” and most urgent. We intend
to work with faculty to identify which initiatives to pursue next, and
create an implementation schedule for the next three years.
I
firmly believe that sustained, systematic attention to the new mission,
and to implementing initiatives to help us move ever closer to that
mission, will help us build an educational system which truly engages
every student, and which prepares students for a future that we have yet
to imagine.
All
of this is not to say that we don’t do crises anymore. Of course, we
need to embrace the real issues and concerns that emerge in our schools
and community. Recent incidents have highlighted areas in which we need
to do further work, and much of that work is already embedded in the
action plans. These incidents have also strengthened our partnerships
with the larger community, and forged a renewed commitment to work
together to address the underlying issues which hold us back from being
the community and school district that we all hope to be.
Yet
and still, we must keep our eye on the goal if we expect to achieve the
organizational transformation required to minimize such crises going
forward.
Let’s guard our focus carefully. Our students need us to be ever mindful of the goal.
Sincerely, John J. Ramos, Sr., Ed.D.
