The Difference Between Winning & Achievement

While we are fortunate to live in a great community here in Milton, we cannot deny that we live in a competitive world. Our students will need to compete to secure the jobs they seek or enroll in post-secondary education that further develops and rounds out their lives. Competing is part of our lives. That competition is most often defined by winning and losing, i.e. get that job or get into college and you have “won”. Conversely, if you aren’t hired or accepted, you’ve “lost”.

In Milton, we focus on core values like Opportunity, Achievement and Community. Certainly there are similarities, but there is a distinct difference between achievement and winning. The dictionary defines winning as being successful or victorious. Achievement, on the other hand, is defined as a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill. The difference in these definitions is significant. It is understandable that we celebrate winning, but our core value is rooted in achievement. In achievement, that core value takes on life and becomes dynamic.

I write this as someone who has been fortunate to “win” a seat on our School Board, serve as President of the School Board, and, most recently, “lost” an election. But more impactful than all of those success or failure measurements, is what we as a community have done to make our school district a place of significant achievement that we can and should celebrate for our students.

Please don’t misinterpret the tone of this post. We have a lot of areas where we can and must improve. But we also have so very much of which to be proud and we should celebrate these achievements successfully accomplished through great courage and skill.

Among these things are:

The highest enrollment ever in Milton’s proud history.

We generated significant, energized, community engagement in a Stakeholder Driven Strategic Planning Process resulting in a highly useful, living Strategic Plan that guides our initiatives.

Established the School District as a state-wide, regional, and nation-wide leader and education innovator by becoming an early implementer of a K-12, One-to-One, Technology Program. This catapulted our professional staff into leadership and resource roles among other school systems but more importantly, leveled the technology playing field for our students.

We lowered school district taxes three years in a row following a significant economic recession.

We began a community engagement process to address facility needs resulting in presenting two referendum questions.

We successfully passed an operational referendum to help maintain existing educational programming.

Our taxpayers enjoy the lowest school mill rate in the Badger Conference and throughout Rock County.

Following contentious and controversial state legislation, we designed and implemented a successful teacher compensation model designed to recruit and retain high quality staff. Milton’s model is being sought out by many other school districts.

We significantly improved relations and communications with the MEA and clearly have created a collaborative, positive working relationship based on trust, mutual respect, and professionalism.

We enhanced relationships with community partners through effective and innovative use of Fund 80, thereby enabling financial support for community programming designed to assist at-risk youth.

We launched a communications program that has drawn regional and national recognition for its impactful initiatives. Through well-planned, systematic, and creative use of our website and social media we reach thousands of people weekly. A significant advance in our competitive enrollment environment.

Our High School students consistently rank among the highest in the area in ACT scores.

Four of our seven schools Significantly Exceed Expectations as designated by our State Report Card.

These achievements were accomplished through courage and skill. We challenged the status quo with the belief that we can and should make things better for our kids and the community. I have been so fortunate to work with a dedicated group of fellow school board members, administrative and support staff and district stakeholders throughout my 9 years of service. We established and shared a vision, and, together, we achieved much for which this community can and should be proud.

For me, achievement that improves our community for our kids and for our shared future far outweighs winning any day, any time.

Even more personally, my school board service has enabled me to forge deep, meaningful, impactful, & dynamic relationships with true professionals, many of whom sit in this room tonight. I have learned from them. I have shared with them. I have grown with them. I have celebrated with them. I have cried with them They have forever changed my life positively as I watch them pour their very being into our kids.

I will end with a short quote from my favorite American author, Wallace Stegner. This is from his book, The Big Rock Candy Mountain.

“Perhaps that is what it meant, all of it. It was good to have been along and to have shared it. There were things he had learned that could not be taken from him.”

Kids Matter

Jon Cruzan

Outgoing President, School District of Milton Board of Education  

Our Kids Show Us How

Just last Thursday, I had the opportunity to spend some time at one of our schools to listen to first graders read in their annual interpretive reading contest.  I was amazed at how skilled these young students were as they stood in front of me, the other judges, and their peers to read their selections.  The inflection in their voices was indicative of how much they had been practicing, and how passionate they were about reading to their fellow students.

Their excitement and enthusiasm about school and the work they were doing was contagious.  Although the contest was very competitive, you wouldn’t have known.  These kids clapped and cheered loudly for each other, as only first graders can do, as each student finished their selection.  The few hours I spent with these kids caused me to learn and reflect a lot about our schools and our community.

Although I already knew, the point was driven home to me as to how skilled our professional staff is at engaging students and their parents in teaching our kids how to read.  Some of these students were as young as six or seven years old, yet they were reading at grade levels far above first grade.

I was also pleased to see how these students treated each other.  They sat quietly in the library and listened to each other read and, even though they were competing against each other, they spent most of their time cheering and clapping for each other.  It was as if they were celebrating learning to read and exercising that skill by courageously standing alone in front of their peers and judges to share their selections.  Rather than a competition, it was the pure joy and pride of demonstrating and sharing a learned life skill.  What a sense of community these kids have for each other.

I went to the school to listen and came away a learner. As we head to the ballot box on Tuesday, April 4, I am reminded of what these first graders taught me.  These children are our future, and we want them to learn to grow in schools that we courageously strive to make better.  And although we on the ballot are contestants, we are also all collectively members of a community, who, just like those first graders, want good things for each other.

These are our kids and this is our future.  These first graders will forever remember the experiences, like great interpretive reading contests, we are providing for them. Let’s work together and make those experiences even better for them, and the students coming after them.  We can learn a lot from them.  I know I sure did.

Please plan time in your day to vote on April 4^th.  Our kids deserve it.

OPPORTUNITY, ACHIEVEMENT, COMMUNITY – together we can make it happen.

Jon Cruzan

President, School District of Milton Board of Education