A Web-based newsletter for the staff of Everett Public Schools
Sept 7, 2010 Welcome Back (NewsLinks articles are now archived on Docushare)
MESSAGE FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT
As we prepare to open our doors to 18,000 students who can't wait to return to our schools, I share with you a part of a message Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave students more than 40 years ago. As we work daily to inspire and touch the lives of our students, his words to those students and the implications of those words for us are as true now as they were then.
Just six months before he was assassinated, Dr. King began his speech to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia by asking, “What is your life’s blueprint?”
Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and … a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.
Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.
I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint:
· Number one in your life's blueprint should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
· Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor.
You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well. And when you discover what you will be in your life … don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.
If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures; sweep streets like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. …
If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. … Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.
Dr. King’s words remind us that the power of our words and our actions can heal, inspire, and motivate. On this eve of back-to-school, thank you for all you have done and will do to inspire each child to draw a solid life blueprint.
KEY DATES FOR NEXT SCHOOL YEAR – important dates and celebrations you won’t want to miss planning for now!
POLICY & PROCEDURE INFO – links to all policies and procedures are online
Everett Public Schools does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities. Designated to handle inquiries about nondiscrimination policies are: Affirmative Action Officer, Carol Stolz, 3715 Oakes Ave., Everett, WA 98201, 425-385-4106; Title IX Officer, Randi Seaberg, 3715 Oakes Ave., Everett, WA 98201, 425-385-4104; ADA Coordinator, Kristine McDowell, 202 Alder St., Everett, WA 98203, 425-385-5250; Section 504 Coordinator, Becky Ballbach, 4730 Colby Ave., Everett, WA 98203, 425-385-4086. (Email address for each is FirstInitialLastName@everettsd.org)
Diane Bradford
Communications Dept.
Everett Public Schools
425-385-4040
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