Remarks

Opening remarks. What are opening remarks? Thursday was the first day of school for teachers. Students will arrive Monday. Thursday was the day when all 300+ staff members of the Marietta City Schools gathered to set the course for the new year. And they had to endure opening remarks. Some of those remarks were to be given by your writer.
As I struggled ahead of time to find words worthy of taking their time, I had kept my ears open for weeks hoping to hear something worth saying. Barely twelve hours before the event was to occur, I finally heard them.
But it was the time spent just before the meeting was to begin that was most telling about what is happening in your schools. I arrived early and just hung around in the lobby smiling and greeting and listening. And watching. And feeling the atmosphere.
We have a new Superintendent, two of our school staffs have new Principals, and we have four new employees who have come to us from other careers. All of these individuals have chosen the assignments they are about to undertake. They all have positive expectations of the time just ahead.
With talk lately about taking a new look at our aging buildings and what can be done, there is at least a sense that great things may happen. Yes, we still have financial challenges, but a new perspective is being brought to the whole question of education in the Marietta City Schools thanks in large measure to your new Superintendent. I could feel it in the lobby ahead of the meeting. A buzz.
Not since having been in China in 1988 had I gotten such a feeling of anticipation and expectation from a group of people. A sense of the possible. Expectation. The past few weeks of Olympic activities have shown us what possibilities and expectations can produce. The China I have seen on TV bears no resemblance to the China I saw twenty years ago.
Time for the meeting to start and I was first on the agenda with opening remarks. Right after the Pledge of Allegiance. Fortunately I had found the words I needed the evening before.
At a party thrown by the Putnam School staff for their departing Principal, Mr. Finley, there were many comments and observations. And a few tears. And excitement about their new Principal, Mr. Arnold. He is living up to their expectations. They are breaking him in gently.
It was Mr. Finley’s parting comments that were worthy of sharing. Although he was speaking to and about his staff and his twenty three years at Putnam School, his words were worthy of the entire district and every school. What the staff delivers every day.
He said, “You know, as I look back on my time at Putnam and working with this staff what makes it special is that you always assume the attitude of what CAN be done…..not why it can’t be done. That’s what makes the difference.”
Those few words set the tone for what is happening in your entire district. The district has traveled some rocky roads since I began watching in 1973. There have been many challenges and great accomplishments along the way. The moves forward have always been because of the focus on what CAN be done. There is a renewed sense of the possible in the Marietta City Schools. It is time now to move ahead with an expectation of what CAN be done.