Week 5: The Unsung Heroes: Remembering 9/11 and Celebrating the Everyday Valor of Teachers

Happy Friday!

Thank you for all you have endured this week to accomplish the mission of our school district! We are already a month into this school year and our pace and rhythm are starting to set in. Across our school district, teachers, staff, and administrators are putting in tireless hours and immense effort to create a nurturing and effective learning environment for our students. Our community recognizes and deeply appreciates this dedication, understanding that it takes a collective effort to shape the future leaders of tomorrow.

Everyday Valor

At tonight’s football game against Riverview, we will take a moment to honor those who serve with a large American flag displayed from our city’s new fire engine. This is to commemorate 9/11 and honor those people. But let us feel just as proud of the service we are providing on a daily basis.

As we mark another year since the devastating events of September 11, 2001, our hearts are heavy with the memory of the lives lost and the families forever changed. The images of firefighters, police officers, and ordinary citizens rushing into danger to save others are indelibly etched into our collective consciousness. These heroes, who emerged from the ashes of tragedy, exemplify the very best of the human spirit—courage, selflessness, and an unyielding commitment to put others first.

But heroism is not confined to moments of national crisis. It is also found in the quiet, everyday actions of individuals who dedicate their lives to serving others. As the Superintendent of Mena Public Schools, I am privileged to witness a different kind of heroism that, while less dramatic, is no less impactful—the heroism of teachers who rescue young minds from the clutches of ignorance and despair.

Just as the first responders on 9/11 navigated through smoke and fire to bring people to safety, teachers navigate through the complexities of human emotion and intellectual barriers to guide their students toward enlightenment and emotional well-being. They don't wear capes or badges, and they don't make headlines, but every day they enter their classrooms with a resolve as strong as steel. Their mission? To ignite the spark of curiosity, to tear down the walls of doubt, and to build bridges to a future filled with promise and potential.

One of those heroes was honored today - Annita Hendrix. Annita teaches History for us at the high school and has been at Mena Public Schools for 36 out of a career total of 37 years! In today’s pep rally at the high school, Annita was recognized as this year’s winner of the Arvest Bank’s We Love Teachers Award. This was a surprise for her and we are very honored to have such a worthy educator in our community. Here is a short bio used in her recognition ceremony.

District Targets

We are still working on gathering baseline data for our academic targets for the year but our attendance and discipline targets are being tracked. There will be another website like the one we had last year that will be our staff and community dashboard. It is important that we all are aware of our progress as we advance through this school year. Here are a couple of graphs that are ready now.

Closing

Thanks to those who took the time to participate in last week’s Thought Exchange. Here are the results. The public exchange has not been created and released yet. That information was good but now that we are a bit further into the year, what other observations do you have that will help us with our planning?

The Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is offering equipment and materials grants for Advanced Placement (AP) courses.  A grant may be requested for an AP course being taught at a high school that has not recently received a grant for the course. The application is here. Also, more grants have been added to this page I shared last week.

Another opportunity that we have is The Writing Revolution. To connect the science of reading to writing, DESE is excited to partner for a third year with a team from The Writing Revolution to offer Advancing Thinking Through Writing. This synchronous course will be offered for the 2023-2024 school year and is open for all content teachers in grades K-12 to participate introducing participants to the Hochman method, an explicit set of sequenced strategies for teaching expository writing that can be integrated into any content. There will be multiple cohorts of training beginning this September. If you are interested in participating in this opportunity, please let us know and we will add you to the list!

Districts interested in participating should assemble a team of educators and at least one administrator or specialist. Specialists could include but are not limited to instructional facilitators, gifted and talented specialists, content area leaders, and special education advisors. An administrator could include but is not limited to a principal, assistant principal, curriculum coordinator, or program administrator.  

There is not much else to report except that our students continue to be active and successful in many ways.

Hey! There were only three teachers out today! That is awesome!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

Have a great weekend!!