Dear Parents, Community Members, Staff, and Students:
On Wednesday, October 2nd the Sanborn Regional School Board voted unanimously to negotiate a three year contract for a new Superintendent of Schools. I am happy to announce that I have accepted their offer and I will be staying on as the Superintendent of the Sanborn Regional School District. I want to thank all of you for helping me to feel welcome during my first three months in the district. I would like to thank the School Board, staff, parents, and administrators for guiding and supporting me. It has been a smooth transition and I continue to listen so I can learn the unique challenges and strengths of our organization.
I have spent the better part of the the past three months meeting with many stakeholders in the district. This process has yielded some great results that I will share in more detail in the future. I have learned that we have an incredibly caring (and hardworking) staff, a supportive community, and an amazing administrative team. I am looking forward to our work together.
We are facing some challenges. During this budget season we will be working collaboratively to make decisions about staffing for declining enrollments, a middle school facility that needs to be addressed, and developing a vision of student success that will act as a compass for future decision making. I am sure that we can overcome all of the challenges we face by following three critical steps:
- Listen to each others concerns and perspectives
- Set reasonable goals (we cannot achieve everything we would like to in one year)
- Work together with a focus on the continuous improvement of student learning
Throughout the last three months, I have been so impressed by the professionalism, caring tone, and hard work of everyone in our organization. I look forward to meeting with staff in upcoming small group meetings and full staff meetings. I am optimistic about a productive budget season and I will be reaching out to the community for support in passing our budget while addressing the needs of our staff and students.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Thomas J. Ambrose
Superintendent of Schools
Sanborn Regional School District