A few weeks back I wrote a guest column for the Saint Peter Herald. For all you e-readers who may have missed it, here it is:
I love telling people that I'm from Saint Peter. One of the things I always like to share about our town is that it truly is an "education community".
As the principal at Saint Peter Middle/High School, I witness our community’s focus on education every day. It’s demonstrated by teachers’ unwavering commitment to students; by parents advocating for and supporting the very best education for their children; and by community members consistently seeking out partnership opportunities with our schools. One of Saint Peter’s strongest, most vibrant partnerships exists between Saint Peter Public Schools and Gustavus Adolphus College.
Earlier this year I started running a tally of all the school district-college connections that exist. It's become quite a long list, and one that continues to grow. It's probably no surprise that South, North and the Middle/High School host Gustavus students working on their teaching degrees. While these practicum and student-teaching relationships have been around for decades, exciting partnerships exist with various other college programs, offices and classes. For example, Gustavus students enrolled in "Understanding Individual Student Needs" collaborate with our schools to conduct service-learning action research on current issues being addressed by Saint Peter schools. Collaboration with the Gustavus Community Service Center is wide-ranging, including classroom assistance/tutoring, after-school mentoring groups, programming for students with special needs, Big Partner/Little Partner...and the list goes on and on!
Gustavus is 40-feet away from our high school campus. The proximity of our two learning institutions allows students from both sides of the street to interact with each other and with each other's schools. Our students not only have access to a world-class college campus, but are encouraged attend conferences, lectures and fine arts events. In each of our public school buildings, Gustavus classes and groups are provided authentic learning environments in which to practice and develop their organizational and leadership skills, and engage in meaningful service-learning. Just this month, we have begun working together to determine how to best enhance ethics, character and leadership education experiences for students at both institutions. In the end, these “win-win” partnerships add significant value to all our students, Saints and Gusties!
It's clear to me that our community values and expects our institutions to work together whenever possible. The latest example of this comes from the work of the Standards for Resource Allocation Task Force, a school-community task force responsible for developing guiding principles for future resource allocation. This group, made up of community leaders, parents and educators, identified "maximizing community partnerships" as a guiding standard for the school district.
I’m proud to live in a community and work in a school district that believes that working together is the way to go. And as a Gustie alum, I am really proud that my alma mater continues to see meaningful and relevant community partnerships as central to its mission. The ultimate benefactors of these connections are our students. And for an education community like ours, that’s priceless!
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