Dear North Shore Families, Faculty and Students,
I hope that you are well and that you are preparing for a relaxing and fun summer season.
Just a few hours ago, the Class of 2024 officially graduated from North Shore High School. Over the past week, many of our younger students have also enjoyed celebrating the milestones of moving on from their elementary schools or North Shore Middle School. Moreover, all of our students are successfully growing into the next stage of their journey.
Our faculty, staff, families, students, Board, and administrators work together and take so much time and effort to make these events special for our students. The collaborative energy given to these events is a symbolic example of how the North Shore Schools operate each day. In short, what makes us, us, is us working together, to create the most positive and personalized experience we can for our most precious natural resource, our students.
All members of our school community (our parents, faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni, Board, and residents) regularly collaborate to support the special North Shore student experience through volunteering to support community/school organizations, volunteering to serve on District committees, taking time to attend school meetings, raising concerns, and asking excellent questions. In a challenging budget year with true financial challenges, this school community wrapped its arms around our schools to decisively support and protect our student programs.
The 2023-2024 school year was also a successful year of learning, growth, and achievement for our students, our faculty, and our entire community.
Our students and faculty achieved amazing results not only in their academic performance, but also in their performance in extra-curricular club competitions, community service, the fine and performing arts, athletics, science research, and robotics.
As a District, we conducted program reviews in special education and post-secondary school transitions, we made progress towards longer-term goals like our elementary literacy program and our academic intervention services plan (MTSS), we began discussing new protocols and supports to balance technology use with student wellness, and we also began to collaborate on new plans for capital improvement and revenue generation.
As your superintendent, I am truly grateful to serve you. Whatever your role is on our Viking Ship, I am thankful for you and for what makes us, us. While no school district is perfect, I am most proud of how we acknowledge that fact and always strive to listen, learn, and do better. That is indeed the essence of education. Our culture of inquiry, innovation, and idea generation allows our schools and our school community to stay engaging, relevant, and exciting.
As we move into the summer season at “The Shore,” our buildings will be busy with our administrators and clerical staff planning for next year, our maintenance and custodial teams preparing our buildings and grounds, our faculty designing new curricula and engaging in professional learning, and our schools hosting our TENS and Extended School Year programs for students. Because of our commitment to continuous improvement, we always say that “summers are never quiet at The Shore!”
As I complete my 24th year as an educator (my 15th year as an employee of The North Shore Schools) and enter into my third year as your Superintendent, I look forward to our continued work together.
Have a wonderful, healthy, and happy summer!
Go Vikings, Go!
Sincerely,
Your Superintendent of Schools