Welcome to 2017! The holidays are over, so I guess now we can really buckle down and start to focus on those resolutions. We also get to spend the next couple of months writing the wrong date on documents anytime we have to sign something! I usually do okay with this since I sign my name so much, but I will probably get some of these dates wrong! Nevertheless, when one year ends and another begins, we tend to get nostalgic for the year that just 'was' and look forward with eager anticipation to the year that will 'be'. My last blog of 2016 focused on many of the great things that happened in 2016, so now let's look forward with eager anticipation to 2017! Good things are scheduled to happen!
For starters, we continue to make plans to introduce the statewide voluntary preschool to Hudson in time for the 2017-2018 school year. As I shared in October, Hudson is one of only a handful of districts in Iowa that currently does not offer the statewide voluntary preschool and it appears that our window of opportunity may be closing. We have been meeting regularly with representatives from the AEA who are offering technical assistance and guidance during planning. Official planning and application material was made available right before the holidays, so we will really begin to see this develop and take shape in the coming months. For those of you with youngsters who will be four years old for the next school year, please stay tuned for an upcoming family meeting where we will be able to share some of the details of what we are planning.
Another exciting item to look forward to this year is in direct relation to our strategic plan titled, 'Hudson 2020'. Adopted by the Board of Directors on July 22, 2013 with input from our parents, community members, and other stakeholders, this plan laid out in broad terms items and issues the district set to address by 2020. Item number four of the plan spoke specifically of building projects and pointed to the elementary school as an area of priority for the district. Over the course of the last several months, we have been working with an architectural firm on an elementary renovation project. Scheduled to be completed in several phases spanning multiple years, we are very close to having the first phase of this project ready for bid. If all goes as expected, it will be our intention to have the first phase of this project completed in time for the 2017-2018 school year.
Pretty exciting projects if you ask me! While there will certainly be other projects and issues that come up, these will probably be the ones that make our mark on 2017. Which brings me finally to my 'one word'. Or in this case, words: 'Be Patient'. As we have been planning and developing these projects, there have been challenges. Generating and finding the necessary revenue to start up the preschool for example. Or budget estimations being a little higher than I would have liked as another. Some of these roadblocks still exist, but the good news is that by exercising patience we can begin to see a way forward. Perhaps we may have to think about things a little bit differently, or travel an alternate path. But in the end it will all be worth it!
I have to continually remind myself that these things take time! I am sure there will be setbacks and obstacles along the way as these projects and others like them develop, mature, and ultimately come to fruition. But to expect immediate results just isn't the way life works. So Happy New Year, and Be Patient!
For starters, we continue to make plans to introduce the statewide voluntary preschool to Hudson in time for the 2017-2018 school year. As I shared in October, Hudson is one of only a handful of districts in Iowa that currently does not offer the statewide voluntary preschool and it appears that our window of opportunity may be closing. We have been meeting regularly with representatives from the AEA who are offering technical assistance and guidance during planning. Official planning and application material was made available right before the holidays, so we will really begin to see this develop and take shape in the coming months. For those of you with youngsters who will be four years old for the next school year, please stay tuned for an upcoming family meeting where we will be able to share some of the details of what we are planning.
Another exciting item to look forward to this year is in direct relation to our strategic plan titled, 'Hudson 2020'. Adopted by the Board of Directors on July 22, 2013 with input from our parents, community members, and other stakeholders, this plan laid out in broad terms items and issues the district set to address by 2020. Item number four of the plan spoke specifically of building projects and pointed to the elementary school as an area of priority for the district. Over the course of the last several months, we have been working with an architectural firm on an elementary renovation project. Scheduled to be completed in several phases spanning multiple years, we are very close to having the first phase of this project ready for bid. If all goes as expected, it will be our intention to have the first phase of this project completed in time for the 2017-2018 school year.
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| Students hard at work in Geometry class right before break. |
I have to continually remind myself that these things take time! I am sure there will be setbacks and obstacles along the way as these projects and others like them develop, mature, and ultimately come to fruition. But to expect immediate results just isn't the way life works. So Happy New Year, and Be Patient!
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