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Mrs. Carole A. Pickering, Superintendent of Schools
The following remarks were given to the staff of the Hyde Park Central School District at the first Superintendent's Conference of the 2004-2005 School Year on September 8, 2004. Although her remarks were addressed to employees, they convey core principles of our school district that should be shared with all. Welcome! If you are a new employee of the Hyde Park Central School District, please stand so that we can applaud you for joining us! If you have had a summer break between school sessions, welcome home, and if you never left in order to do critical summer work in preparation for the new year, good morning and thank you! I confess to being an "election night junkie." My earliest memory of television was in 1952 watching the Democratic Convention with my parents. Adlai Stevenson was nominated for president and was strongly supported by Eleanor Roosevelt. Thanks to several good influences, especially my high school history teacher, my belief in democracy and active involvement has never waned. And so I notice with great interest the care, sacrifice and activism that many American citizens have brought to us through important anniversaries memorialized in 2004:
Scores of opinions appear in all the media as to the degree of progress that has been made on these basic humanitarian issues, and we too, could debate the degree of success. What is not arguable however, is that care, and courage and active involvement have moved America forward in its continuous struggle to live out its creed. Directly applied to us in Hyde Park, each of us individually and as a community has a similar obligation to identify our common vision and mission and to carry forward the legacy left by those before us in an unending relay of human possibilities. Directly applied to us in Hyde Park, we can proudly point to good progress toward districtwide goals. We also know we have just begun the long, hard climb toward the kind of school improvement we want and need. We have schools to repair, facilities to hopefully expand, and academic achievement to raise. We have relationships to build, rifts to repair, and morale to boost. We will sharpen our focus on care and competence and all that those two simple words imply, and I will ask us to consider two more "c" words to add to our organizational values. These are civility and community. If we are to value civility, it means we will improve our civil behavior and require others to do the same. This means, at a minimum, a return to manners, greeting people properly, and appropriate audience behaviors, whether in a school assembly, a board meeting or a graduation. We can strongly disagree and are ever encouraged to speak out, but rudeness, lack of listening, interrupting one another, etc., need to be worked on both with students as well as our adult selves. When we do a better job at civility, we will move closer to a true community that can be described as a unified body of people with common interests, linked by common values and goals. Only in the true spirit of community that can tolerate and even welcome diversity, can we succeed in the daunting tasks before us. Every group in the organization must work to operate with civility and in community whether it be a sub-committee or a school; and every school has to see itself connected to every other school in a K-12 continuum. This sense of civility and community must include the continuous development of positive partnerships among administrators and the leadership of all our unions. We are all connected and when we fully realize this and act upon it, we will have the human capacity to achieve anything we want, need and value. The fifth "c" word character, undergirds all the others. Simply put, this means doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. In pursuit of excellence toward identified goals, we are most fortunate to have a Board of Education that cares, acts competently and civilly, and strives toward true community. In the next month, our board will act on the recommendations of the facilities steering committee and the Thomas Architectural firm employed by the district. We are likely to ask the wider Hyde Park community to support and finance badly needed renovations and expansion to accommodate the current and future needs of our students. When these decisions are made, we will need the active leadership and participation of everyone and every group. We will need to develop improved partnerships with our parents and other community members. We will have to unite as never before to participate in that unending relay of human possibilities; to advance this public school district for our twenty-first century students. Like the passing of the Olympic torch for over 25 centuries, this unending relay is what makes our jobs in the present so important. Knowing the Hyde Park community, it will stand up to be counted and counted upon. In the context and climate of a presidential election year, a study was recently done on identifying the really, truly great U.S. presidents. The criteria were threefold: (1) extreme and highly complex challenges, (2) creative and visionary responses to these, and (3) success in dealing with these extreme challenges through long-term solutions and societal improvements. The study concluded that only three presidents met these three criteria: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. While I personally might have added Thomas Jefferson, we should be ever mindful of the legacy left to us by FDR. Though he was far from perfect, and while historians still argue over the merits of his presidency, no one can doubt that he successfully led America through extreme and complex crises with vision and democratic values that included quality public education for all. In that unending relay of human possibilities, let us promise each other to become active participants in restoring and reviving the reputation of the Hyde Park School District. Let's promise to become active participants in delivering a school system that all children deserve and employees want to work in, a school system that the entire community is proud of and can afford. For my part, I promise to lead, learn, and listen with care and competence. I will strive to model civility and with all of you, to develop true community. In the next two weeks, I will meet with every student in every school while continuing to visit classrooms regularly. I will attend PTA meetings and facilitate in the renewal of our District Leadership Team. I will diligently strive to develop working relationships with the wider Hyde Park community including elected leaders, and to find voices for us in Albany and in Washington. I also would like to use this moment to say thank you for the honor and privilege to serve as your Superintendent of Schools and for your generous words of support and good will. Together we are going to have an exceptionally good year and when we meet here next September, we will count our victories together. Thank you for all you do and will continue to do on behalf of Hyde Park's children. Celebrate this moment! celebrate this day! and celebrate this year! Thank you very much! Opening Day Remarks, September 2004 Superintendent of Schools, Mrs. Carole A. Pickering |
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