A Culture of Success

Dear Parents,

No one failed! At the 1^st quarter mark of the first semester, not one student of the 289 students failed a single class. Considering that most students take 7 classes, in approximately 2023 graded periods of instruction, no one failed! We are a week away from seeing if this trend continued through the rest of the semester.

In the book, Becoming a Great High School, by Tim Westerberg, an entire chapter is devoted to building a school culture around a “ We-Expect- Success-Attitude”. Some of the criteria of that culture / attitude include the following themes:

1. What we are doing is important here.
2. 2. You can do it!
3. 3. I’m not going to give up on you – even if you give up on yourself.

This is a school culture we are building towards. We introduced CRAM, the program where kids stay after school on Mondays to finish late work, because we students to stay caught up – we want a culture of success. We hired additional support staff to go after more students who were slipping through the academic cracks because we did not want to give up on them.

At the foundation of our effort is the promise Christ gives us. I will not give up on you, even when you give up on yourself. That promise is at the heart of motivating us all to move forward into 2012.

Have a great week!

In Christ,

W. Dykstra