Redding School District

Partnership Educators, I am thankful and appreciative of everyone's efforts this past school year. I can't believe we are saying "Happy summer break" to many of you as you head out. It has been fantastic.

Partnership Educators, As a little girl growing up in Zimbabwe, Tererai was desperate to learn. She was secretly doing her brother's homework and over the years learned to read and write from her brother's books. She would beg her father to let her go to the school. However, her father refused.

Partnership Educators, An attorney serving his second term as a U.S. congressional representative from Illinois was diligently doing his duties for the people when he heard about war breaking out. He knew he had to do something, so he quickly joined the Army and was placed in command of the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was known as “Black Jack” by his men and was regarded as one of the ablest officers to enter the army from civilian life. His superiors once commented after one of the battles, “that Logan largely contributed to the success of the day.”

Partnership Educators, The young girl held her hand and cried in pain while the other players and coach looked on. Her hand was covered with a towel but everyone knew what had happened. Making her way back to the bench and taking a closer look, did not make it better. The mangled look of her index finger made it real. The finger was broken.

Partnership Educators, Two Sections today: Teacher Appreciation Week & a Special Mother’s Day Story Teacher Appreciation Week: Today is the Friday of Teacher Appreciation Week. I want to say thank you to all of our dedicated teachers who work hard every day to build powerful connections with our students. Some students do not always seem to show appreciation for your efforts, but someday those efforts will show fruit. Just knowing that fact should make you pause and consider the impact that you have on the community in which you live, the world that our students will create, and the future of our society. Every day I meet wonderful kids who I am proud to call a neighbor. Teachers are a huge part of that fact. Here are some cute stories from Reader's Digest that outline the impact of teaching.

Partnership Educators, Mrs. Porter stands before her seniors in the public speaking class at Picayune Memorial High School on the first day. The door flings open, in walks a hulking figure of a student, and he says, “What’s up?” Mrs. Porter stares at the student dumbfounded and he repeats his greeting once more, “What’s up?” The first thought from Mrs. Porter is, Why is this happening to me on my first day of class when I’m trying to set the tone. As she takes a deep breath, gathers her composure, she begins to watch her new student’s non-verbal language. In her mind, refocused, she tells herself “I’ve got this.

Partnership Educators, It was early in the morning, on an isolated rural road in Colorado. A furious storm raged, with heavy rain and wind. A 9-year-old boy was in the car with his mother, who was driving him to school. Treacherous road conditions sent the car into a skid. The vehicle spun out of control, went off the road, rolled several times, and came to rest upside down in a ditch filled with water.

Partnership Educators, When researchers go back through the patent records looking for something of interest, something of value, or overlooked technology they often come across something of a complete surprise. Malcolm McColluch is just such a researcher and he did find something of interest and more. He is an electrical engineer at Oxford University and he found this design, a simply brilliant plan for an environmentally friendly refrigerator.

Partnership Educators, I wish everyone a great time off this coming week or a great time at your job while others are off letting you really do your job this week. Just kidding. Thanks, everyone for your continued efforts to make a difference.

Partnership Educators, I saw a senior golfer on television a few years back that surprised me. He was winning! He was on the Champions Tour and he was making more money on the Champions Tour then he made his entire PGA Tour career. His name is Denis Watson. While on the PGA Tour the guys called him the other Watson. Back then Tom Watson was a superstar in the sport. The reason Denis didn’t make a bigger name for himself on the PGA Tour was that his career was cut short by injury and illness.

Partnership Educators, Ben’s nephew was sixty-five year’s old and living in London when he became interested in rare books. He was so interested that he invited a rare book dealer to his home. The gentleman brought with him many different types of books. Ben’s nephew glanced through the books looking at illustrations and a small passages when he stopped cold. What attracted his attention was what was written in the margins of a pamphlet within one of the books. It was a handwritten message of someone very special. It was the client's own Uncle Ben. “You would have enjoyed him,” the client told the book dealer. “My Uncle was a poet and a dreamer. My Uncle Benjamin Franklin.”

Partnership Educators, It was a cold rainy March night in Hershey, Pennsylvania when a sparse crowd shuffled in to watch the two professional basketball teams play their scheduled game that night. It was estimated that a bit more than 4000 fans came out to watch the game between the Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Nicks. In 1962, the Warriors were playing in Hershey in order to facilitate larger crowds at their games. There were no television cameras and no New York sportswriters covering this. The only known recording was a fourth-quarter radio broadcast. No one expected to happen what actually happened, and now it is just a part of professional basketball lore.

Partnership Educators, Chris was the child of the slums. At four years old, his mother noticed something was wrong. The doctors of whom she took him said he was an irreversible cripple. A hopeless imbecile they said. Those were the doctor’s words. What it turned out to be was a severe form of Cerebral Palsy.

Partnership Educators, Saturday, September 24, 2005, was college football day. Notre Dame was clashing with the University of Washington in Seattle. It was a nationally televised game and some of you may remember. Notre Dame took the opening kickoff. The player who caught the ball fumbled it. Notre Dame recovered but on their own one-yard line.

Partnership Educators, Cal was an animal lover. His house was virtually overrun with dogs, cats, and canaries. Then one autumn some of Cals friends in Mississippi got together and sent him the main course for a Thanksgiving dinner. They sent it alive so it could be fresh when prepared for Cal’s table. It wasn’t a turkey but a raccoon. Cal took one look at the innocent black masked face and it was love at first sight. The little girl raccoon had charmed her way out of the stew pot and into Cal’s heart.

Partnership Educators, It is with great pleasure that I have the ability to deliver stories each week. The stories of our lives are intertwined with the story of our district. Moments of elation and extreme happiness can quickly be followed by moments of sorrow.

Partnership Educators, It all started in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The pie company in town had many drivers of their horse-drawn carriages to deliver their one product, pies. Every afternoon those drivers gathered behind the shop to have lunch when one of the drivers became extremely bored. While in this state of boredom and idea was born. He reached into the back of his wagon, pulled out one of the companies wares, and tossed it at another one of the drivers seated nearby.

Partnership Educators, Sorry for being so late on this. We had our engagement meeting this evening. Thanks so much to those passionate staff, parents, and board members who came. This story is a perfect example of why we engage in the conversation with others.

Partnership Educators, I always find the beginning of a new year to be refreshing and inspiring. It's a great exercise to revisit your goals and to focus on how you will achieve them. Redding has a bold vision where every student is eager to learn and achieve success with creative, productive, healthy, responsible citizenship. While that is a long-term, visionary aspiration, our daily focus is on how we will achieve it - and that is through the reliability of what we do every day and the success of our people.

Partnership Educators, Father Moore had a crisis on his hands. It was hours away from his Christmas service and already something was wrong. You see hungry church mice had nibbled the organ's bellows and so the organ made no sound. A repair was out of the question.

Partnership Educator, It was a cool April morning when the seventeen-year-old boy ran in the school bus and was horrified about what just occurred. With his head in his hands not knowing what to do or where to go, he began to look for an escape. His eyes were beginning to well up with tears and it wouldn’t be long until uncontrollable sobbing would occur. If only it could have been an April, 1st gag because, in his recollection, this is going to be a bad one. He could hear the footsteps of the teacher-advisor coming through the bus opening and he knew what action was imminent.

Partnership Educators, Doctor Harris stood in the doorway silent and starting. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness the shapes and dimensions of those shapes were revealed to him. There was something curious about this building in a village on the outskirts of London. Whatever that curious thought was it had little to do with the age of the structure.

Partnership Educators, It was just another fall cross-country meet in Vacaville’s Lagoon Valley Park. A meet with larger much more powerful teams from across the region. Many who had run in this meet said that the park should have been named “Pain Park,” at least from the runner’s perspective because of the very big hills one must run to finish the course.

Partnership Educators, You could see the frustration and even the anger in Ted’s face and his gait was he stalked down Madison Avenue that blustery fall morning. He had thought himself a book author or a poet. Nevertheless, the great publishers of New York had repeatedly demonstrated the error of his ways. A volume of verse would not sell these days and anyhow Ted’s particular volume was simply too different.

Partnership Educators, Howard Hill was acclaimed only once in his life. When he was a small boy, he sang at Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria. Shortly thereafter, his voice changed and that was the end of his singing career. Yet he still demonstrated a degree of artistic talent. After a while, he was supporting himself as a portrait painter. In fact, Howard promised himself that as soon as he could scrape enough money together, he would leave England and travel to the United States and seek his fortune.

Partnership Educators, June 1936, horse trainer Tom Smith toured the race tracks of Massachusetts looking for a bargain. His California employer, the owner of mostly young promising racehorses, wanted some mature animals to balance his stables. Therefore, here was Tom scrounging through hundreds of scruffy looking three-year-olds whose owners were eager to unload and struggling with all of his instincts to select the least objectionable from them.

Partnership Educators, This is Character Education month as was adopted by all the partnership boards during the meetings this last week. Not that we would only teach character in the month of October, but to honor the fact that we teach character each and every day at our schools and we are recognizing that fact this month.

Partnership Educators, "Pride is a funny thing," I thought as I sat in the warm building last Sunday. Glancing about the room looking at those that were gathered, I wondered how many others were also feeling some sense of pride in what they were bearing witness to that day. Zayne, the focus of the event, sat quietly at the head table taking in the unfolding grandeur and smiling almost if embarrassed. People spoke and told of the qualities of Zayne and praised him for his gentleness, kindness and giving spirit. He sat quietly taking in the celebratory affair.

Partnership Educators, Jimmy was being a nuisance. So much of one that Mr. Durband, the director of the school play, stopped the rehearsal cold. “What seems to be the problem?” Mr. Durband asked.

Partnership Educators, Scott sat gazing out the window within his ninth-grade resource class waiting for the period to begin when in strolled the teacher for the day. It seems that a substitute was going to be working with the kids that day. Scott prepared himself for another day of school like all the others that he had experienced since before he could remember.

Hello Partnership Educators, Walking the halls of our schools always excites me as I listen to the kids and adults talking about their current passions stirring in them from that day's activities. Sitting with first graders and playing an addition game with dice is a hoot. They are so amazed at the frequency of certain numbers appearing as they chart their results. Standing and having a discussion with kids about what honesty means and having them value it as one of their shared traits on the social contract gives all adults hope about our future leaders. Thanks for engaging our kids each and every day.

Hello Partnership Educators, It was a late afternoon when the young couple walked into the Bonny View office. The light conversation between them was playful but respectful to the office environment. They waited patiently while the staff helped others with their needs. The light caress of their hand holding felt a bit like newly weds.

Hello Partnership Educators, What a wonderful week we have had. I have really enjoyed going from site to site and talking with all of you as well as visiting your classrooms, cafeterias, and offices. The smiling faces and excitement is invigorating for me.

Hello Partnership Educators, A young, nineteen-year-old girl walks on a plane headed to Australia to start her company's first franchise in that country. Her manager saw something in her that she didn't really see in herself, leadership.

Hello Partnership Educators, What a wonderful start to the year. I have really enjoyed walking the schools and seeing the kids and listening to the great things going on within the classes. I truly have never seen a better start to the year than this one. Thanks for your hard work and dedication to exceptional programs. We are on our way!