What an awesome first week of school. That sounds a little bizarre since we are starting our third week of school, but this past week was my first official week at Cedar Valley Middle School. Let me start by saying, I am so blessed to be here at CeVMS. I cannot think of another community I would rather work with and for. I would like to officially thank everyone who has supported me over the years and here recently. Thank you to everyone who has stopped in to congratulate me and wish me their best. I appreciate all the kind words. If it was not for you I would not be here today. It is nice to be back among so many familiar faces. I am looking forward to reestablishing relationships with those of whom I already know and beginning lasting relationships with those of you who I will soon meet.
I want everyone to know that I have an open door policy. Please feel free to come discuss anything and everything with me at anytime. I believe in quality instruction, relationships, positive attitudes, and interdependency. Thomas Guskey an educational leader talks about the importance of starting school off right. In the attached article by Guskey he emphasizes the importance of celebrating success during the first two weeks. I want to take the time to reflect on some of Cedar Valley’s successes this past year. Cedar Valley is a TEA rated “Exemplary” school. We are currently ranked the 40th best middle school in Texas (out of 1889 schools) by School Digger. You can find their results on the following website: http://www.schooldigger.com. We earned 5 TEA Gold Star performances:
1. Commended performance in Reading/English Language Arts
2. Commended in Mathematics
3. Commended in Social Studies
4. Commended in Science
5. Attendance Rate.
Greatschools.org awarded us a rating of 10 out of 10 and they take into account several academic and facility factors. I know there are other successes worth mentioning and I look forward to hearing about them in the days and weeks to come. One last thing you should celebrate is how well each of the staff and community members stepped up and got the job done during the transition without a school Principal. I am proud to be a member of such a wonderful community, team, and family.
I am excited about continuing that level of success here at Cedar Valley and look forward to working with each of you to make our school a model for others to emulate. My initiatives this year are to be the type of leader that will strive to meet the needs of every student, to insure that our teachers are providing the best tier 1 instruction, to encourage our students to be active lifelong learners, and to not only be visible but be a part of community.
To reach these goals I intend to provide the leadership that will facilitate a school environment that focuses on meeting the needs of every student. The educational program must be academically challenging, engage every student by linking the curriculum to prior knowledge and experiences, and also be stimulating enough to promote further exploration. I am confident that if we strive to build forward (continuously improve) and move in the same direction we can make Cedar Valley an even better learning environment than it already is.
Article by Thomas Guskey on Celebrating Success early.
https://kyp20nxgla.wikispaces.com/file/view/School+Admnistrator+Article+Guskey+SA+11+Starting+Year.pdfMatthew Groff Principal of Cedar Valley MS
An Exemplary School 512-428-2307
An Exemplary School 512-428-2307
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