Community

We kicked off this year talking about our community. We established that our community holds students who are free to learn, grow and fly from here to their next stop in life. We also established that others live within cages that limit them from sometimes getting to the flowers that surround us. Despite these differences, together we make up a community. But why? What really is a community? 

A community is generally defined as a group of people sharing a similar interest. That may not always be what we think of. Our sense of community can sometimes be restrained by geography. In our case, the boundaries of Greene County define our attendance area and it's easy to define the students within it as our community. But what interests do we share that make us unique? When I came to work here 12 years ago, one of the first things I was told was something that I have never forgotten. "There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Greene County way." I still think of that sometimes when I meet people that once attended the school and recount things that still go on in our school today. There really is a Greene County way. And while we may not always agree or align behind what we think is right, there is a community thread that keeps people here. Our schools are an important part of that thread because we educate and sometimes even spend more awake hours with young adults than their families can. In addition to a class curriculum, we also teach the Greene County Way. And that means we are also responsible for improving it along the way. 

So as you set your goals for the year, I invite you to think about how small improvements that you make impact the thread that binds this community. Our shared interest is always evolving and it is our responsibility to make sure it is evolving in a positive way. Every community deserves that.