Milton Educators, You Rock!

Last week, the teachers and staff members of the School District of Milton hosted parents, guardians, and family members of students at “conferences”. My guess is that most families take conferences for granted and are positively anticipatory about them. It is also likely that most value the opportunity to get up close and personal with a professional adult who may well spend more waking hours with their children than they do themselves. I believe that this contact is critically important for both sides of the equation. Thank you, families, for participating.

I also want to acknowledge that “conferences” don’t just happen. There is significant extra time and effort on the part of all school personnel to adequately prepare for this key activity. The custodial crews take pride in ensuring that our buildings are clean, attractive, and welcoming. Our teachers invest hours and hours in preparation to ensure that conferences are as efficacious as possible. They sacrifice their own personal & family time to provide evening hours for families who just can’t make it in a “normal” work day. Some educators are energized by conferences but most are exhausted. Please don't misunderstand me - this is a good exhaustion, a pleasant and contented tired - not unlike an intense run or a good bike workout. It's the feeling that comes with the knowledge that you worked hard, expended significant energy, gave all you have for that in which you believe. You feel good and our kids and grandkids are the beneficiaries.  After all, Kids Matter.

Milton Educators, thanks so much for your time, your dedication, your professionalism, and your caring. You are building lives and thereby building our community. I applaud you! You are Milton and, together, we are Milton.

Jon Cruzan

#cruzan4milton#WAM

Out of The Mouth of Babes

If you attended the regular School Board meeting last night, watched the Facebook live feed, or caught the video from the live feed sometime later, I hope you noticed a bright light of hope and courage.  Four Milton students owned the rostrum and addressed not only the Board but also School District Administrators, more than 50 citizens, and the press. 

I call this courage because many Miltonites would pale and shrink from the prospect of speaking in front of this many people in a small, relatively enclosed space, especially if that audience included those who might take issue with the position they were presenting.  Speaking in public rises to near the top of the list of our greatest fears.

I call this a bright light of hope because of the manner in which these students delivered their message.  Alexis, Chelsea, and Kennedy are middle school students, maybe 13 or 14 years old.  Macy is a third grader, maybe 8 or 9.  These girls were prepared. They were articulate. They were passionate. They were mature beyond their years.  They gave up their personal time (one came directly from swim practice & returned to the pool immediately after her presentation) to speak to the community on a topic about which they care deeply.  They were awesome!

Alexis, Chelsea, Kennedy, & Macy are young girls.  They are products of our school system and our outstanding programs and teachers.  The bright light of hope I saw was that they were passionate, opinionated, and willing to share their perspective in a way that clearly demonstrated the core values of RESPONSIBLE, RESPECTFUL, SAFE, and KIND.   These values are presented, taught, and lived throughout our school district from 4-k to 12^th grade.  Alexis, Chelsea, Kennedy & Macy lived those values at the Board meeting and modeled behavior we could all do well to emulate.  I do not personally know these girls but I was so proud.  There is hope. These girls are Milton. We Are Milton. #WAM