Leave it to The Monroe Times to frantically search for clouds on an otherwise sunny day.
For those who skipped Monday night's Monroe School Board meeting, some great things happened that demonstrate how fortunate we are in Monroe to have people passionate and supportive about preparing our students for the future.
First off, the Monroe School District recognized Barb Robertson, long-time English teacher at the high school, as its September recipient of the Lamp of Learning award for outstanding contributions to the district, its students, and families. Barb has been an exceptional teacher for many years at our high school, and has been a great asset to our students as they prepare for a world more demanding of high-level literacy and communication skills than ever before.
Next, our new teachers were introduced to the school board, and some social time was enjoyed as we learned more about these men and women who have big shoes to fill, based on the retiring teachers we said goodbye to last June. These new staff members have joined us at a time of great anticipation and opportunity, as we continue to move our district forward to meet the challenges of training students for a world subject to and defined by change.
We also saw the generosity of our community in action, with more than $10,000 donated to our district to support technology and skill development in our schools. A new computer-controlled mill for our tech ed and engineering students will soon be installed in our high school, and a mobile technology lab is also on the way to give more students access to technology integrated within their courses.
Finally, a team of teachers and administrators shared their experiences from this summer's Model Schools Conference, where top-performing schools from all over the nation presented new ways of getting results far beyond the norm. It was exciting to see our staff as "learners," rather than "teachers," and to hear them share their vision of how they hope to apply what they learned to their own classrooms and schools.
Unfortunately, if you picked up the Tuesday morning edition (Sept. 25, 2012) of the Monroe Times, you would have had to struggle past the large bold headline "Board Denies Youth Option Request" to learn that anything else even happened at the meeting.
How the Monroe Times can sit quietly through all of the good that goes on in our district, only to blare loudly about the negative, is beyond me. What's next? A big headline after our next Cheese Days that reads "Festival Generates Record Volume of Garbage"?
As a community newspaper, the Monroe Times needs to hold itself to a higher standard for reporting on "the good" that goes on here. If you want to read about "the bad," you can get your fill from any other newspaper.
In Monroe, we need to do better, as a community.
For those who skipped Monday night's Monroe School Board meeting, some great things happened that demonstrate how fortunate we are in Monroe to have people passionate and supportive about preparing our students for the future.
First off, the Monroe School District recognized Barb Robertson, long-time English teacher at the high school, as its September recipient of the Lamp of Learning award for outstanding contributions to the district, its students, and families. Barb has been an exceptional teacher for many years at our high school, and has been a great asset to our students as they prepare for a world more demanding of high-level literacy and communication skills than ever before.
Next, our new teachers were introduced to the school board, and some social time was enjoyed as we learned more about these men and women who have big shoes to fill, based on the retiring teachers we said goodbye to last June. These new staff members have joined us at a time of great anticipation and opportunity, as we continue to move our district forward to meet the challenges of training students for a world subject to and defined by change.
We also saw the generosity of our community in action, with more than $10,000 donated to our district to support technology and skill development in our schools. A new computer-controlled mill for our tech ed and engineering students will soon be installed in our high school, and a mobile technology lab is also on the way to give more students access to technology integrated within their courses.
Finally, a team of teachers and administrators shared their experiences from this summer's Model Schools Conference, where top-performing schools from all over the nation presented new ways of getting results far beyond the norm. It was exciting to see our staff as "learners," rather than "teachers," and to hear them share their vision of how they hope to apply what they learned to their own classrooms and schools.
Unfortunately, if you picked up the Tuesday morning edition (Sept. 25, 2012) of the Monroe Times, you would have had to struggle past the large bold headline "Board Denies Youth Option Request" to learn that anything else even happened at the meeting.
How the Monroe Times can sit quietly through all of the good that goes on in our district, only to blare loudly about the negative, is beyond me. What's next? A big headline after our next Cheese Days that reads "Festival Generates Record Volume of Garbage"?
As a community newspaper, the Monroe Times needs to hold itself to a higher standard for reporting on "the good" that goes on here. If you want to read about "the bad," you can get your fill from any other newspaper.
In Monroe, we need to do better, as a community.
