My shoes are packed

As our students pack up the artifacts of their school year and head out to celebrate a year of growth and accomplishments, this last "last day" that I will shepherd my students and staff into summer, marks, for me, the official end of my career.  I watch it all wistfully and am overwhelmed with a flood of emotions that presently eludes words (although I'm sure "the way to say what I would like to say will occur to me after I'm gone!").  

You have honored me and gifted me in so many remarkable ways, but the it's the grace and blessings I have received from my everyday work and encounters that have gradually transformed me and left an indelible mark on my soul.  I am so humbly grateful for the privilege to have walked beside you on this incredible journey.  

THANK YOU for final school days filled with love and recognition and so many happy moments:

• For a princess day complete with tiara that began with breakfast made by my colleagues and was  followed by dozens of surprise PA messages from students 

• For a beautiful platter signed by the eighth graders recalling my daily adage to "Work hard, be good to each other, and make it a great day!"

• For a seventh grade book of specially chosen inspirational quotes concluding with a dictionary definition for "Mrs. Beckmann"

• For a framed collage of sixth grade adventures with my "big head"

• For high-heel vases ceremoniously filled with fifth grade origami tulips--and a matching handbag filled with their love notes

• For a voluminous basket of gardening items hand-selected by the fourth graders and accompanied by a magnificent flat of red geraniums

• For an earthy wooden prayer bowl filled with heartfelt third grade wishes and prayers

• For a handmade quilt proudly signed by all the second graders

• For a sturdy apron marked with the names and handprints of every first grader

• For a watercolor painting of our beloved church and a celebratory dinner from the kindergarteners

• For a pre-kinder serenade of my routine maxims set to music

And THANK YOU for honoring me with a milestone celebration and treasured keepsakes that I will hold in my heart forever:   

• For the creative vision and commitment of the mighty planning team of Lisa Sweeney, Maggie Zincke and Kristi Felber and their months of labor in bringing this special event to life 

• For cloth tablecloths and real glassware; for stunning floral centerpieces and orange balloons

• For an alumni musician and alumni bartenders 

• For so many guests and so much love extended to both my husband and me

• For deeply moving words of honor and recognition from John Dunn, Father Enrique, Kathryn DeLapp, and Laura McGartland 

• For my own framed Bobcat jersey and a stunning gold cross marked with 16 diamonds

• For generous gifts to our beloved school in my honor

• For enough cards and mementos to make these magical moments tangible and to carry me lovingly into an unknown future

The seductive breezes of summer call us all to new life.  You will find refreshment in your brief respite and will return to a school that will always be home.  And I will take my shoes -- and a heart filled with memories and love -- into a different tomorrow.  

Our stories will continue as God has ordained, and all will be well.  

Amen.

Mille grazie

In the spirit of "students first and always," I announced my upcoming retirement to your children after Mass this morning. Following is the text of that message, altered only slightly to include you!

I know that Thanksgiving has become the gateway to a generic season of celebrations known as “the holiday season,” but I’d like us to pause and think about how important it is as a stand-alone feast day.  And not only as a day, but as an opportunity to reflect on the idea that an everyday attitude of gratitude makes for a healthy and satisfying way of life.  Even research studies have shown that gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness and greater health. 

And so, we put a reminder on our marquee sign out front to encourage the whole neighborhood to take the time to be grateful.  Have you noticed it?  It says “DO THE MATH: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.”

Well, I wanted set a good example, so I decided to do some math of my own to put a number to some of my blessings. I thought it would be fun to focus the lens of my gratitude this year very specifically on the blessings and privilege of leading this great school, so I needed to come up with some numbers to quantify that.  It didn’t take long to recognize that it’s the people God has entrusted to my care - the students and teachers and staff that I’ve worked for and with over the years - that are the greatest blessing of my work.  So I tried to figure out just how many students and staff have walked this journey with me over the 16 years of my principalship.  Here’s how I did it:

To figure out the number of students enrolled at St. Robert over the years of my leadership, I started with the enrollment of the school in my first year as principal. Then I added the new 4K students that came each year after that, plus 15 transfer students a year (which was our average through the 2019-2020 school year).  For last year and this year, when we had an unusually large number of transfer students, I used the actual number.  My math yielded a grand total of 993 students.  

Then I calculated teachers and staff by starting with our current staff and adding on everyone else who had been part of our team at some point since the fall of 2006.  That yielded 105 faculty and staff members.  Combining the number of students with the number of teachers and staff brought my grand total to 1,098 people.

A thousand people.  A thousand who’ve taught me and challenged me and loved me and inspired me.  A thousand gifts God has given me to care for, but who’ve ultimately made me who I am today...because while I was busy transforming the school, you were transforming me.

So here I stand like the Velveteen Rabbit.  A little worn out, but so much better.  Profoundly gifted.  Deeply grateful.

This will be my last year as the principal of St. Robert School.  I’ll be retiring at the end of the school year and I wanted a chance to tell my students personally even before I sent this message to you, their parents (who I opted to leave out of my math purely to keep the message simple).  We’ll continue on and do our work and walk this last great mile together... But today, I’m inspired by my math to share an expression from my Italian grandma who often said, “I thank you a thousand times.”  Mille grazie.  A thousand thanks to Almighty God and to you for a thousand ways you’ve gifted me.

Do your own math.  And enjoy a happy Thanksgiving and the abundant blessings of a happy, holy life.

 

Pointing the Way

Several weeks into our office renovation project, an ancient wooden pointer revealed itself from a long-hidden place at the back of a closet shelf.  At first glance, it seemed a quant reminder of a bygone era to be tossed in the trash.  But then...could it be a providentially-revealed artifact that could point the way forward in trying times?

In the many long decades that the pointer was a classroom staple, teachers were the receptacles of the knowledge to be passed to a new generation.  The pointer was the central tool that focused whole-class attention on the information to be learned; that signaled call-and-response recitation of memorized facts from a body of knowledge that changed only glacially through the decades.  

But what of today?  Knowledge changes at lightning speed.  Our children can access information at the touch of a keystroke.  We are preparing them for a world in which they will need portable, flexible skills and the dispositions to think and solve problems we can’t even yet imagine. Likely, one day, they will even be called upon to create new knowledge.  Our educational currency has evolved over the past twenty years from facility with a finite body of facts to the ability to think critically.  And we can only bring this capacity to life in a new generation by nurturing it and modeling it, which is exactly what we did at our School Advisory Commission (SAC) meeting on the issue of masking Wednesday night.

Some weeks earlier, I was asked how I feel about masking. I replied that my feelings should be irrelevant. I am called as a leader to be well-informed, to triangulate data, to filter, to think; and, ultimately, to base decisions on facts and needs relevant to our mission.

The ever-evolving facts about our ever-evolving pandemic are dizzying. I have listened to competing truths, fears and rights, and to mountains of uncertainties.  But school starts in a week and we need to move forward. Our Healthy School Plan was developed in thoughtful response to insights, concerns and passions that have been shared and heard.  The decision framework that informed the 2021 iteration of our Plan was: 

• Grounded in mission

• Committed to a holistic view of child wellness

• Aimed at a proper balance between the competing realities of mission effectiveness and disease mitigation 

• Informed by experts in medicine, mental health, and parenting, and

• Born of critical thought

For the first time in my fifteen years of leadership, our SAC was unable to reach consensus on a key issue. Our parent community-at-large holds vastly opposing views on the value of masking their children; and, after hours of discussion, our SAC reflected this same division. Nonetheless, it was not really difficult to see the way forward through the murky darkness of chaos because shared values also resonated loudly.  We want our children in school.  We care.  Deeply.  In the end, every member of the Commission, every guest commenter, and every expert panel member contributed some bit of wisdom that became part of the whole.  And the whole is, indeed, so much greater than the sum of its parts.

It is, in truth, a heavy burden to bear responsibility for the safety of other people’s children while trying to engender the confident trust of a diverse community. Though we will not all agree on a single way to educate and care for our children during this pandemic, we hold diversity as a core value; "welcoming, accepting, and respecting the unique gifts of every person."  I hope you will see the wisdom and good that will come from respecting diversity of thought and loving each other through challenging times.  Our shared humanity is worth the effort. Let’s point the way. 

New beginnings

Almost as long as children have been attending school on an agrarian calendar, common rituals have been associated with the return to school each fall: clearing out and cleaning up; fresh haircuts and shifting schedules; new pencils and new shoes; new friends and new beginnings.  This year is no different - and so different when we add to the list the new ways we must prepare to start afresh.  

Some new ways to prepare for school this fall:

1. Build mask-wearing stamina by wearing a mask indoors for gradually increasing periods of time

2. Establish routines for washing hands frequently

3. Practice maintaining safe distances from people outside of your family

4. Make a plan for child care in the event that you are informed that your child must quarantine for a period of time

5. Bring some special supplies

1. Stadium seat (Here’s a reasonably-priced one: https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-2000020281-Stadium-Seat/dp/B003399128/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=stadium+seats&qid=1596811043&sr=8-5 )

2. A baseball cap or sun hat to leave at school for outdoor classes

3. 5 masks labeled with day of week (M-T-W-Th-F)

1. Cloth or disposable only

1. No valves

2. No neck gaiters

3. No bandanas

4. No fleece (based on effectiveness studies)

2. Large ziplock bag for daily storage

4. 8 oz. pump-style hand sanitizer

5. Box of facial tissues

6. Durable, washable water bottle

7. A beach towel or yoga mat (for PE yoga classes)

Another part of a new year is new members of the community.  We are excited to welcome 60 new students from 45 families into every grade in the school!  We are also delighted to welcome these new teachers to our professional staff:

Ali Grindle, Special Education Coordinator

Ali comes to us from St. Dominic School in Brookfield where she served her children’s school community in a part time special education role after both regular and special education roles in public and Catholic schools in Lincoln, Nebraska.  She brings contemporary practices - and her four children - to St. Robert, where she is looking forward to leading a full inclusion Catholic School program.  Ali replaces the recently retired Marilyn Meservey.

Kathy O’Dell, Reading Specialist

Kathy is returning to St. Robert for the third time!  She was a school parent and a temporary special education teacher before joining our permanent staff this year.  She brings extensive experience in both Reading and Special Education and also teaches pre-service teachers at Marquette University.  She replaces Sue Klawans who resigned for personal reasons.

Samantha (Sam) Windsor, 4K

Sam is an early career teacher with a bundle of creativity and energy.  She comes to us from one of our Milwaukee Urban schools and is anxious to continue her professional journey in a program aligned with best practice philosophies.  Her position was added to accommodate enrollment interest at the 4K level.

Maggie Sather, 5K

Maggie grew up in the North Shore, but comes to us via Austin Texas, where she most recently worked in a primary school teaching in a curriculum based on the esteemed Reggio Emilio philosophy.  Her professional journey also includes a stint teaching English to preschoolers in the Czech Republic!  Her position was also added to accommodate new enrollment interest.

Eileen Day, 5th grade

Eileen comes to us after a short sabbatical from her 20-year career in the Mequon-Thiensville School District.  She has extensive experience in Readers and Writers Workshops and served in numerous leadership roles including leading her school to Blue Ribbon status.  She brings strengths in project management and a particular passion in the area of social-emotional learning.  Eileen is replacing recently retired Barb Dietz.

Kelly Steinberg, PE long-term substitute

Kelly is a certified yoga instructor who will bring a yoga program to our PE classes during the first three months of school when our beloved Mr. Jefferson is on a leave of absence.  We’re looking forward to accommodating stretching and breathing workouts that will not involve the heavy breathing associated with strenuous exercise; and we think this will be a great time to focus on mindfulness and self-regulation. 

Caroline Potter, Special Education Aide

Caroline is passionate about inclusion and Catholic education.  She is just finishing her Master’s degree in Special Education and looking forward to gaining practical experience in a school program.  She will fill a vacated position.

May our blessed Mother Mary, patron saint of Catholic schools, protect us and guide us in our studies and help us live and work each day in the glory of God.

And how are the children?

On my very first day at St. Robert in 1999, I had the privilege of participating in a faculty retreat where I was introduced to the the traditional greeting of the Masai people of eastern Africa: And how are the children?  The response, All the children are well, means that peace and safety prevail and the priorities of protecting the young are well in place,

I was immediately inspired by the high societal value that the Masai place on their children's well-being, and this became a lens through which I have continued to view our culture through all these many years.

As the nation mourns the brutal murder of George Floyd and the violence against innocent citizens and police officers around the nation, discussions of racism and violence dominate the national conversation - and our children are watching and listening.  This is a pivotal moment in our shared humanity.  We have to get this right.  If we look at our response through the lens of our children's well-being, I believe we truly can rise from the detritus of this shameful time and become a people of honor in the sight of God.

I have shared some resources to help you start - and continue - these important conversations with your children.  We must acknowledge our shared responsibility to teach our children in developmentally sensitive ways that it's not okay to classify and characterize others in generic groups.  And, most fundamentally, we have a responsibility to explicitly teach them that whether our actions are performed by one against another or hidden in the actions of an angry mob, it's never, ever okay to be dismissive of another, to speak ugly words, or to harm or destroy; not thoughtlessly; not jokingly; not in the exercise of power or even the expression of pain.  It's never okay.  Period.

As a Catholic institution, we denounce violence in any form for any reason.  We honor the right to peaceful protests.  We believe in the dignity of all people.  We celebrate the glorious tapestry of human differences.  We acknowledge our responsibility to welcome and include all members of God's family at our table.  And we believe in the unlimited power of prayer.

But in the end, what will remain is the legacy of our actions.  Words are not enough.  What did we do?  What did you do?  This will be our legacy.

Guided by the gift of Right Judgement, I hold eternal hope that we can create a community where every person is received and loved as a child of God.  Then, peace will prevail.  And then, the children will be well.

For as you judge, so will you be judged,

and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.

Matthew 7:2

Welcome back, welcome home

Welcome to the 2019-20 school year!  The cool winds have truly brought a sense of fall, and with it, a renewed sense hope in all the wonderful things God has in store for us.  As we say farewell to summer, it is my hope that you, like your children, enjoyed the recreation that "makes us new again."

Thanks for sending your children to school with new supplies and the fresh haircuts and uniforms that signal in a concrete way that school is serious business.  But more importantly, thank you for sending them with the good attitudes and respectful demeanors that can only come from home.  Your children are ready to learn and we are off to a wonderful start!

The story of this particular year has begun with an unprecedented level of energy and optimism due in no small part to our expanded cast of characters!  In addition to the new teachers and staff that have already been introduced, please join me in extending the love of our community to all our new 4K families plus our new transfer students:

5K
Campion Camera
Evan Checota
George Gosman
Joseph Haddad
Ana Requejo

1st Grade
Alice Haddad
Benjamin Moriarity

4th Grade
Roger Gosman

5th Grade
Ozzie Colvin
Ian O'Brien
Catalina Perez

7th Grade
Tahlia Khan
Ryver Moore
Nate Patzer

As we come together to write the story of this year of limitless possibilities, may our oneness of purpose and vision be a powerful force for good that will inspire us to accomplish great - and truly good - things.  And so we turn another page and embark on this wonderful adventure called school.

Welcome back.  Welcome home.

Looking forward

As this school year comes to a close, we look forward with anticipation to a year of exciting growth just ahead.  The imminent change wrought by recent staff turnover, in particular, provides us with a unique opportunity to take a systemic view of skills and dispositions that will enhance our collective expertise and our professional culture. 

Additionally, a byproduct of the anticipated salary savings of multiple simultaneous new hires, together with an additional $25,000 commitment from the Home and School Association, will enable us to maintain middle school staffing at the current level rather than reducing by one as originally planned.

Our first new hire for the year is an old friend.  Please join me in welcoming former middle school ELA teacher Marisa Riepenhoff back after a five-year hiatus.  While she was away, Mrs. Riepenhoff completed her Masters in Educational Leadership, led system-wide shifts in curriculum and grading at Messmer schools, and most recently, served as the Vice President of Education at Sharp Literacy (a non-profit that partners with schools to implement research-based shifts in practice) - all while continuing her longtime work providing professional development to teachers through the National Writing Project.  Mrs. Riepenhoff is very excited to return to her professional roots in the classroom where she will serve as our new 5th grade literacy and social studies teacher.   She is a lifelong learner who has "continued to cultivate many of the best practices I first learned at St. Robert."

God has been good in sending us a larger-than-usual pool of qualified candidates for other open positions as well.  Interviewing for primary positions is well underway and we will soon be screening candidates in queue for our middle school positions.  We had a promising interview just today with a very excellent candidate for middle school math.  

It can be unsettling to let go of the known and embrace the unknown.  Our human weakness can sometimes lure us down a path of fear and negativity.  While it's always sad to say farewell to partners in mission, it's an important truth that change is growth-inducing on both an individual and institutional level.   

Let's step back and be grateful for the possibilities before us as we strategically build a power team to advance our mission into the next decade.