TimeTo Reflect

This morning, I had a press conference with student reporters from the "Tower". This is something I do regularly, but time slipped away this year and this was our first one. It's usually a pretty easy exchange of ideas between subjects I raise with them and questions they ask of me.

One of the first questions from students today was something like, "How has the year gone so far"? My response was that's it's been a good start, and I attribute that to a couple of major factors. First of all, we have had great leadership from the senior class. They set the tone at the beginning of the school year, and especially for Spirit Week. I have nothing but praise for the leadership of the class of '11.

Secondly, we've enjoyed a strong fall sports season. Believe me, the Homecoming assembly is much better when everyone feels the football team can win that evening. And that type of success has been enjoyed by other sports.

Our girls' cross country team and volleyball teams have enjoyed great seasons and we hope they can finish as strong as they started. Both boys' tennis and girls' golf enjoyed strong regular seasons finished very high in state competition. And tomorrow night the football team plays Detroit Cody in what we hope is the first of several playoff games. That type of success carries over to the entire student body and makes everyone "proud to be a Blue Devil".

One of the issues I raised with the students is that we are looking at renovating the bathrooms in the main building. Not a very glamorous topic, but one that would directly impact nearly everyone. We have a meeting later today with the architects and representatives of the Preservation Committee.

The major questions will be like this, What do we do about restoring, renovating, or replacing the marble walls and dividers? Can we afford it? On the one hand, it would maintain the look of the original construction, however, not many people can afford to use marble on walls any longer.

This is an old building and there is a lot of old piping behind those walls. It will be a major undertaking if changes are made, but compared to the rest of the building, the restrooms are in really bad shape. Nothing short of a major renovation will bring them back to life.

In summary, it has been a good start as we continue the work of day-to-day operations of a large high school. We try to celebrate our little successes while keeping an eye on the future.