Thank you Knight Crier team for providing all candidates with another opportunity to reach out to our student community, and thank you, students, for taking a few minutes to learn about us!
As the father of two current students at Walton Farm Elementary and a 20-year veteran high school classroom teacher in a neighboring district, I recognize modern student needs, as well as how School Board decisions impact actual student experiences and outcomes. I also believe that the cost-effectiveness of each decision matters and that the perspectives of all our neighbors must be heard. Above all, we must meet these challenges with the respect, civility, and understanding towards each other that this community deserves.
My running mates – Elisha Gee, Juliane Ramic, Kunbi Rudnick, Cathy Wesley – and I have taken up this demanding but essential work together with our fellow directors, and I am so grateful for the contributions we each bring to this effort.
Over the past five years, we’ve taken authentic, deliberate steps to reach out to our community members, students like you, families, and staff to find out what our district and community needs truly are, and followed up with meaningful actions. I’m proud of the work we’ve done together to improve safety, listen to the needs you expressed from each of our schools, modernize our practices in part by offering full-day kindergarten, introduce innovative educational programs like dual-enrollment courses and VR Spatial Computing courses for high school students, and introduce new programs to prepare those of you ready to enter a modern job market through the North Montco Technical Career Center.
But I’m running for re-election because there is so much more to be done, and we as a community now find ourselves at a once-in-a-generation moment. As we address the glaring needs many of you have seen in and around our flagship building, North Penn High School, we need to make choices about how the campus will serve us for decades to come. I want to make sure we illustrate how to meet these questions with the respect, civility, and understanding towards each other that this community deserves. We’re going to need your input and your help!
In closing, I want to speak directly to our students at North Penn High about an idea you may have heard being kicked around during our campaign – the importance of rankings.
As a teacher of high school juniors, I know these days can bring a little added stress as you begin to think about how your grades this year may impact your choices after your time as a North Penn student comes to a close. Every year many of my own students who hope to move on to college begin to worry about whether or not they’ll be accepted to one that’s, in their words, “ranked high enough.” I know the pressure those rankings create can get in your head, so let me tell you what I tell my own students:
Acceptance to those highly-ranked schools can be something to be proud of but don’t forget that those rankings from websites and other publishers are never calculated for the specific hopes and needs that you bring to your next chapter in life. Picking a school several spots ahead on their lists is no guarantee of a better match for you, and every year there are still students who will transfer away from each of the top-ranked institutions to find a better fit elsewhere. The best ranking reference will be the one you create by knowing yourself and what you may need help with along the path you choose. That’s what your college choice needs to be about – your path. Use what information you can from published lists, but remind yourself constantly that the appearance of success, an association with significance, or the illustration of status is very rarely the same as actual success, significance, or status. People who change the game, challenge tradition, make history, or even just land the job they’ve always wanted don’t do so by chasing the appearance of greatness. They come upon it by finding their own path of self-discovery.
Students, no matter what your goals are after graduation, no matter what that path of self-discovery may look like, we’ll always be here to help you find and prepare for yours.
Best wishes for a great year!
Tim MacBain