Saints Speak - 9/7/2017 Cooperation and Collaboration

Our virtue this week is Cooperation.  We have spent time talking to the children about cooperating with their classmates, with their teachers, with their siblings and within our Church.  Cooperation is “working with others and with God’s grace and the Holy Spirit to live as a community on mission.”

Throughout my time here at ASCA I have really worked hard to establish a culture of cooperation.  I encourage the students to cooperate with each other and their teachers, I encourage the teachers to cooperate with each other and with parents, and I encourage all of our families to cooperate with the school and each other.  Cooperation is a wonderful way of collaboration.  I certainly feel energized and motivated by collaborative cooperation.  When cooperation happens, excitement for an idea grows and more creative ideas are generated.

I wanted to take a few minutes to thank all of you for your cooperation and your collaboration.  The changes at the beginning of the year were somewhat confusing and some of you felt unclear.  But you persevered and we have all come together to find a seamless drop off and pick up (at least from my vantage point).  But when people had questions or concerns, we talked them through.  I personally have felt this has been an incredibly wonderful start to the school year.  There is an energy of cooperation and collaboration among many of our stakeholders.  SHPP held their first meeting last week and boasted a record number of 34 participants. We were THRILLED with the turnout.  We handed off the Dinner Dance Auction (DDA) to 5^th grade, and immediately had people step forward to take over the committees.    From here on out, the 5^th grade will be responsible for the oversight of the DDA each year.  Mrs. Kendra Kirchgessner has graciously offered to chair the event, and we are so grateful and excited to see where she takes us for this year’s event. 

As a reminder, the first DDA meeting is this Tuesday, September 12^th at 7:00 pm in McSherry Hall.  ALL are welcome, but we especially hope to see many 4^th and 5^th grade parents there to help us begin the planning process.  Many parents have reached out to me wanting to be a part of our fundraising committee (which also meets the 12^th at 6:30 pm)  I am truly thrilled with the level of cooperation and collaboration we are experiencing this year.  It sure is an exciting time at ASCA!