Back to School
September 20th, 2011It’s time to celebrate the start of a new school year. The first day of classes at the university is less than a week away, and I’m excited for the return of our students. You can feel the energy increasing across the campus.
Our friends at the Eugene 4J, Bethel, Springfield and Lane County districts welcomed back their students two weeks ago. The change in the community was palpable, and I enjoyed the first-day-of-school stories I heard from colleagues who have children in our local school systems.
As we begin the academic year, the State of Oregon continues its effort to re-envision and make seamless public education from PreK-20. This is a time of monumental change for education in this state. And therefore, it is a time when our partnerships and collaborations with our colleagues across the education continuum have never been more important. We must always remain attentive to what is happening in our schools and work together when there are gaps and opportunities to do better.
I know from my monthly conversations with our local superintendents and community college president that we have outstanding leadership in this community. I am delighted to call them colleagues and honored to call them friends. We should all take pride in the quality of education in our local districts and work hard to help them retain that quality. We will support and encourage each other in order to have the best year possible.
