As our students count down the last few days of school and the rest of us hope to see warmer weather with the advent of summer, we reflect back on a year that holds both challenges and opportunities. Along with the recognition our students get at their award ceremonies, we need to both be thankful for our successes and use these as a springboard for even greater accomplishments in the future.
We’ve faced a difficult year as we transition to a six-town district and work through the financial, legal, and operational changes that this entails. Yet we’ve offered some great opportunities to our students along with a solid educational foundation for their future growth. Whether one reviews the large number of ‘first generation’ college attendees, considers the colleges our students have been accepted into, reflects upon the success of our student activity groups such as the Model United Nations Club and Schools Match Wits Team, or even simply recalls the student speeches at graduation, it’s evident that our towns have done a great job in providing a wonderful education for such a small district. As awards are given to the remaining students for their hard work and dedication, we can look forward to even more good things to occur due in no small part to a wonderful staff that supports and encourages our students across a wide range of endeavors. Our staff make opportunities possible by providing students with numerous hands-on activities, a range of athletic opportunities, band and choral groups, drama, field days, field trips, class trips, after-school activities, club activities, and a potpourri of other opportunities. Combined with on-line courses, dual enrollment, in school courses (including honors and Advanced Placement) one can see that, despite the constraints inherent in a small district, Gateway provides a wealth of opportunities often equal to those found in much larger districts.
I’m also aware in talking with our graduates that they feel Gateway has done a great job of preparing them for the world—whether their future lies in the military, employment, or continuing their education. Of course these successes are only made possible because the district also works with families, volunteers, and organizations to ensure that opportunities are available; it’s true that the school is only part of the puzzle in providing the support for students to succeed.
As our students move into vacation mode, it’s important for students’ future successes that the families, communities, and outside groups work to ensure that students use their academic skills by reading, engaging in discussions of world events (from current events to what’s happening out in the yard), using and improving their writing and creative skills, and generally being challenged to expand the application of their knowledge and skills to the world around us. If we can assist students in seeing that they can apply their ‘academic’ skills to the ‘real world’ in terms of problem solving, creating something, or even just holding up their end of a conversation, we’ll be helping them link their education to daily life, making education more relevant and more apt to be thought of as a life-long process rather than one that has a finite end in June or upon graduation.
