Kenny Lake School Reed Carlson, Principal

Be Daring! Be Different! Be You!

Principal's Speech

Award Ceremony

Blue Ribbon School Award

Tuesday October 4, 2005

It is indeed a thrill to accept this award on behalf of our talented, caring, dedicated and highly professional staff, our vibrant and fun student body and our loving, and involved parents.  I would also like to thank Dr. Elliott and the CRSD Board of Education for their support and guidance as well.  On a personal note, I do specifically want to express to Dr. Elliott appreciation for the many encouraging words that he has said both privately and publicly about Kenny Lake School and our staff, our students and our community.  Charles Swindoll once said “To encourage someone is to give them a transfusion of courage”.  We have always felt your trust and respect…and that has been a huge source of encouragement to us.

I would like to say a few things about this award before the Choir sings.  It is very fun for us as a staff to know that we are receiving this distinction.   Our staff is very much like a family.  Down through the years we have laughed uncontrollably together, been mad at each other and have cried bitterly together as well as rejoiced in each other’s accomplishments and good fortune.  We know each other so well…and love and care for and respect each other a great deal.

I say this because it is a critical element in an effective school, for the relationships amongst this staff models to every student something very important.  Kenny Lake School Students, I hope you watch your teachers here closely…for this is indeed an unbelievable group of people.   If you don’t know this by now, you are either incredibly into yourself, or just arrived last week.  The concern and dedication this staff of teachers and service providers have towards you, coupled with their teaching expertise and the fact that they truly enjoy what they do provides you a golden opportunity to become as smart as you possibly can become.

But becoming as smart as we possibly can become, as we talk about often around here, is not valuable at all…in fact it is dangerous, unless with it becomes growth in character.  I would like the Kenny Lake Staff to stand up for a second.  Students, look hard at these men and women who work hard for you each day.   Each teacher, paraprofessional, custodian or cook standing here realizes something very important…it is way more important to these people standing before you today than test scores and A’s on your assignments and report cards, that you remember to sincerely say “please and thank you”, to remember to be thankful, kind and generous, to learn to be happy for others when they get an award and you didn’t, to be honest, to be respectful, to stay away from drugs and alcohol and the dead-end street of selfishness that that immediately results in, to be hard-working and courageous, not lazy and cowardly…. the list goes on and on.  These things, (and staff, you may sit down), which we call the second reason why Kenny Lake School exists, are impossible to measure with standard-based assessments…but growth in the area of character on the part of our students is what most thrills us most around here.   

What I am about to say, I truly mean.  While we are all working on this character growth matter…I know I desperately need to…just ask Jan and the kids, I believe that no finer student body exists anywhere with regard to the number of kids who fight to do what is right and honorable and good and noble and true.  And it is because of this fact, that today we can receive this award with such joy…because I accept it on behalf of such a character rich student body. If you were not character rich, this award would be hollow to all of our staff here.  Thank you students, for your behavior and your growing character, which truly makes this day so special for us.

I want to say one more thing about this Blue Ribbon Award.  If you take a look at the Web Site, it says that we are in that category of Blue Ribbon Schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged students.  First of all, I will try hard and somewhat unsuccessfully to mention that our language arts scores and math scores are higher than the language arts and math scores of the two non-disadvantaged Blue Ribbon Schools in Alaska.  It is true that Kenny Lake School has a large number of kids who eat free and reduced lunch.  But the truth is that because the vast majority of our parents realize the high correlation between parental involvement in their child’s education…and the child’s success in school, we have an incredibly high percentage of advantaged kids…because of tremendous parental support and involvement.  Parents, will you please stand up?  Students, give your mom and dad and guardians the loudest round of applause you can muster….and tonight when you go home…or while you are eating cake, give them a big hug of appreciation for being so involved in your schooling here at Kenny Lake.

On behalf of our Kenny Lake/Chitina School Community, parents, students and staff, I proudly accept this Blue Ribbon School and thank you Mrs. Donna Foxley, for bringing this distinct honor to our little community K-12 school.

Reed Carlson, Principal

KENNY LAKE SCHOOL

Copper River School District

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