A Message Superintendent Bruce Watkins

It is with great excitement that we start the new year with its mission focused on the importance of continuous, lifelong learning. The potential that lies within the largest, most diverse public school setting in Central Minnesota is clearly evidenced by student academic growth, professional cohorts of teachers as learners and personnel dedicated to supporting and creating an environment for learning.

I join other administrators in the belief expressed by W.B. Yeats that "Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." Throughout the coming year, my focus will be on individual student growth - academically, physically, socially and emotionally. We will set specific goals, measure those goals and report our progress to our parents and community. We ultimately aim to judge the growth of our students, not by their performance on a single test, but by the quality of their lives. I will do everything I can to support District 742 employees as they work, not to "fill the pail," but to light student fires so that they learn to "make connections," and become the creative, collaborative citizens we want them to be.

My intentions will also focus on our youngest learners so that all children will cross the Kindergarten threshold with a level of literacy and social development that leads to school success. I am expecting the engagement of our parents and our community members to work with us in "igniting the fires" that will create communities where citizens truly enjoy life and work.