Well, Labor Day has come and gone and we are now back in school. Coming back early as we did last week made a big difference. Students and teachers were able to "hit the ground running" today after spending last week going over expectations and getting initial assignments underway. We have had an exceptionally positive school opening and that bodes well for yet another successful school year.

Though it apparently had little impact on our student body, the controversey over President Obama's speech to the nation's students today was somewhat disconcerting. I have had a difficult time understanding why there was any meaningful oppostion to his speech. I watched it with students today and thought that his message was right on target...take responsibility for your own learning, education is essential to future success, overcome challenges and avoid making excuses which get in the way of learning.... These are the same messages we try to convey to our students each and every day. Even for people who disagree with his politics or his style, he is still the President of the United States and we all owe him the respect that is due that office, especially when he says he has a positive message for our young people. I believe our students receieved the message well and, I must say that I am proud of our superintendent and my colleagues on our administrative team for making the decision to air the speech for our students. I believe we served our students well today and we will all take President Obama's message to heart and carry it forward throughout this new school year.

As always, I would be interested in what you think.