Superintendent’s Message – July 10, 2017

  • Welcome to our first board meeting of the 2017-2018 school year! We truly appreciate you attending, listening, and providing input as part of the Sweetwater community.
  • I can hardly believe it’s the start of another school year. At the same time, I am extremely excited to keep our work moving forward with intention and purpose.
  • One of my summer reads was a small book by Simon Sinek entitled, “Together is Better.” This small but powerful book reminds me of the purpose behind a training attended by a Sweetwater Team comprised of presidents from our Labor Groups, Trustees, and the Cabinet members. The institute happened here in San Diego on June 20-21. Special keynotes by Michael Fullan and Dr. Pedro Noguera and the workshops emphasized the theme that students thrive when schools and the district are collaborative places for staff, students, families, and the community.
  • A quote from Mr. Sinek’s book says, “Most of us live our lives by accident – we live as it happens. Fulfillment comes when we live our lives on purpose.”
  • Back in January 2016, this same Sweetwater Team of stakeholders emailed a message to all employees sharing that we were committed to forging a relationship based on purposeful collaboration through strong communication. Since that time, we have met regularly to address district issues in an open, transparent manner. We believe because of this commitment, contract negotiations were different than ever before. During the 2-day institute, we mutually agreed that we have an even stronger commitment to purposeful collaboration because we believe working together is better for everyone. When we are unified, our students win!
  • As we move forward as a Sweetwater Team, we want all employees to not just feel like we work for a district, but that we feel like we work for and with each other.
  • We realize that, truly, if we want to go far, we must go together.
  • Doing the work to educate young people in a way that positively impacts their future and our world means we cannot do this work alone. As individuals, we can’t effectively do the heavy lifting alone, and we aren’t as efficient solving complex problems by ourselves. “But together?
  • Together we are remarkable. And according to Sinek, “the ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people can pull together as a team.” Together is better!
  • Sinek goes on to say that a team is not a group of people who just work together. “A team is a group of people who trust each other.” Part of developing trust is finding that balance between our head and our heart in every decision we make and every act we take.
  • I am inspired by our employees, by our students and families. I am inspired by our active community members. I am inspired by the direction we are moving as a district. I believe inspiration is connected to passion. Simon Sinek says it this way, “working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”
  • As a Sweetwater Team, all players (Labor Groups, district leadership, Board of Trustees) are committed to continuing and expanding our purposeful collaboration. Over the next month we will be sharing more about the Sweetwater Collaboration Model with staff. We invite all employees, students, families, and community to please join our team on this journey!