Superintendent's Message

The opening of a new school year is always an exciting time. We welcome new students into our schools/classrooms and reconnect with students from last year. This year we are more excited than usual as we begin a year that should consistently be normal for everyone. Our teachers have come back refreshed from the summer, even though they continue to work and plan during their off time. We have had many of our teachers attend the Professional Learning Community (PLC) Institute in June. They were extremely excited to come back and begin to build a Culture of Collaboration in all of our schools. The work of each employee involved in the mission of educating our students can be overwhelming at times, especially in the past few years. A Culture of Collaboration is important because we are always going to be better working together than we are working alone, in isolation. When we collaborate we get to share our strengths with others as well as reap the benefits of the collective strengths and experience of our peers. In the case of the PLC process our staff are concentrating on four essential questions as related to student learning:

1. What do we want/expect students to know and learn?
2. How do we know if they learn it?
3. How will we respond when they do not learn it?
4. How will we respond when they do learn/already know it?

These questions make up an ongoing cycle in which our teachers can work together with an intentional focus on learning. 

As we begin this move toward a collaborative culture our teachers have been extremely open and accepting to this process. Our teachers are committed to going above and beyond for our students. As the 2022-2023 school year has begun I have seen every school start back as if we had never been out of school for a day. That is due to the professional skill of each and every one of our employees, no matter what their role is for Marshall County Schools. Each and every employee contributes to the purpose, the mission of our organization to provide the best learning experiences possible for our students. Marshall County is blessed with great people, great students, and a great future!