Greetings, Dragon Nation! 

Once again, it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you as we get into the holiday breaks. I would like to spend my time today writing about character; however, it is not personal character that I wish to discuss. I would prefer to write about the character of our school.  

What exactly is the character of a school? In a nutshell, it is who we are and what we strive to be as a learning community. As you are all aware, this is an advanced school for the intellectually curious. You all worked very hard to get here and, in many cases, competed with dozens if not hundreds of your peers to earn your spot. Each year we have between 1100 and 1200 students who complete the entire application process to try to earn one of about 200 spots. You should be very proud of yourselves for making it to this top level of public education!

Because of your high abilities and potential, we can offer opportunities here that could simply not exist in many of your home schools: advanced academic classes taught by some of the best teachers in the country, opportunities to compete on teams, both academic and athletic, mentorships, an abundance of trust and freedom, as well as the likelihood of participating on an international trip are the norm for us.  You are some of the best and brightest in the region and deserve all the opportunities that we can provide.

And yet, we find ourselves in a season of issues that are new to us. We have experienced consistent vandalism to our bathrooms costing thousands of dollars that has to be pulled from other areas, extensive issues of academic integrity, online bullying, racial, ethnic, and gender insensitivity, and even drug use on campus. While it would be easy to pass this off as normal high school behavior, it isn’t and shouldn’t be normal at a school like ours. We as a community should not want or tolerate this.

I have worked in six different schools in my 30-year career ranging from large comprehensive schools to small alternative ones where challenging behavior was the norm. When I got the opportunity to be a part of Maggie Walker, the thought of being part of such a storied institution was thrilling! While we certainly don’t share some of the issues that are prevalent in other institutions, I am beginning to wonder if we really aren’t that different from the other high schools in the area.

So the way that I see it, we are at a crossroads. Do we want to be a learning community where we respect each other, respect our facilities, and above all live up to the ideals that we claim define us… or are we satisfied simply being a school that has some cool classes but is not that special beyond that? That is the choice with which we are faced. If we want to be proud of our community, we must all work together to get back on track. What will you do?

Thanks again to Jabberwock for giving me another forum to stay connected with you. Until next time, stay safe, stay strong, and go Dragons!