Welcome to the Office of the Superintendent! Being superintendent permits a person to view the entire school district and to work with all the people involved with the education of students in Dundee. For many people, Dundee is the home of Cabelas. For me, it the home of a fantastic school district whose claim to fame is the quality of educational opportunities available to students.

Those opportunities are only possible when a community works together to aggressively seek excellence. The Dundee community supports the educational process with outstanding facilities and strong support for the programs that take place in and with those facilities. The community employs people who care about students and their learning. As superintendent, I take pride in this district but that pride is really in the people who make Dundee Community Schools possible.

I appreciate parents who care deeply and are involved in the education of their children. Even when a parent calls to voice a concern or complaint, it is grounded in a concern for quality for all students. The calls address a great many issues but in almost every case the person calling expresses appreciation for some other aspect of the school setting. We have bus drivers who know the riders by name and greet them every day with smile and drop them off with another smile. Our bus safety rating is outstanding, another indicator of quality. Our custodians are concerned about safety as well as the cleanliness of the learning environment. Each one takes pride in the work that they do and recognize that it contributes to the quality of the place we call school. Our paraprofessionals often work one on one with students or in small groups. They are concerned about treating all students with dignity as well as academic progress. Our secretarial staff understands that their role goes far beyond keeping an office organized. Their work provides a foundation for the work done by others; how would supplies arrive on time without them? However, if you really want to see what they mean to students, come to school on Valentine’s Day. A student’s life would not be complete without the influence of teachers. If you can read this message, it is because someone taught you to read. If you can read music or appreciate art, it was again taught to you. But teachers do so much more than teach, they make sure that what has been taught has also been learned. To do that, they often have to go beyond the lessons taught in the classroom. Teaching and learning requires planning, testing, assessing, re-teaching and more planning. I often comment to staff that with all the stuff being taken home it must feel like they are going to work. Finally, a school cannot grow as without high quality leadership. I am proud of the quality of leadership being carried forward by our administrators. They are a team of leaders who care deeply about the process of teaching and learning.

In that setting, consider with me how our staff uses our facilities. Please take the virtual tour to see what I am writing about. We have two swimming pools. Due to our staff, they are well maintained. They are well used by our community. Our swim teams do well because our coaches who are often also teachers in the district have dual assignments. We have an outstanding high school gym but we also have a great middle school gym as well as a well maintained older gym in the elementary school. They are used on regular basis and it is very common to find volunteer coaches working with students of all ages. That is the foundation of strong athletic programs. Our district is blessed with a lot of technology available to assist the teaching and learning process. It is available and maintained because of committed employees. Look at rooms and you can see the commitment of the community and the dedication of employees: art rooms, music rooms, classroom, computer labs, wood shop, greenhouse, etc. Our schools are successful because of the entire structure working together. In some ways we are like a family and like a family there are squabbles but through all of our efforts the family grows stronger.

As superintendent, my leadership is enhanced by the quality of people who work in the district. None of those people would get paid without the business office; our bills would not get paid without them either.   Each staff members has a role and none of us could work together long without policy direction being set by the school board. When you think of the Dundee Community Schools, I hope that you can see and appreciate the collage of efforts that come together under the banner of excellence.