By Kirk Lewis

I was in an airport recently sitting beside a mother holding her two-year-old daughter as they were waiting for the same plane. I had just opened my diet Dr. Pepper and a package of M & Ms, the perfect Baptist tranquilizers for someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy flying. The little girl watched with big brown eyes as I opened the package of candy and popped a few delicious pieces in my mouth. She looked at me. I smiled. The little girl gave her mother a questioning stare, pointing to my M & Ms as if to say, “Why did he get candy when I didn’t?”  

The mother glanced and noticed the candy the girl was craving. She looked at me apologetically. As a parent who has been there and done that, I raised my eyebrows, silently asking her if it was okay with her if I shared. She nodded and I took the little girl’s hand and gave her two of my precious peanut M & M candies. She smiled with delight and savored each piece, as melted chocolate ran out the sides of her mouth. You would have thought I had given her a hand full of gold. The mother asked the little girl the age-old question that we were all asked when we were kids. She turned to her daughter and said, “What do you say?” The little girl mumbled something with her mouth full that I interpreted as “thank you” and turned shyly away. 

My mom taught me the same lesson as a child. When you get a gift, you need to say thank you. With that in mind and with the start of the school year just around the corner, I wanted to say “thank you,” to our incredibly giving community. 

The start of school is an exciting time. Teachers and principals are rested and refreshed, ready to tackle a new school year with all its promise and potential. I am excited about this coming year. It is the second year of implementation of our Expectation Graduation initiative. From pre-kindergarten to 12^th grade, our teachers and principals are increasing the depth of what we teach and adapting the instruction to meet the challenges of the world in which our students will live and work in the 21^st century. The high expectations they hold will challenge our students to achieve more. These successes will be reflected on test scores in the future. I want to thank these principals and teachers for giving up a portion of their summer for critical training and planning. The Pasadena ISD work family is a true professional learning community.  

I also want to thank this community for its continued and gracious support of Pasadena ISD and its students. Enrollment is expected to climb to 51,000 students in 2007-08. This community supported a bond issue four years ago that allows us to continue to build new schools and renovate others to create that positive learning environment that we know will make a difference for our students. The new Pearl Hall Elementary campus will open this fall and a new Richey Elementary School will open in January, serving the neighborhoods surrounding those schools. Two new schools, the Carter Lomax and Earnesteen Milstead middle schools, will add to the expanding middle school concept serving our fifth and sixth grade students. These are your schools and we invite you to visit them when they open. Thank you for your educational and financial support for these outstanding facilities. 

I would be remiss if I failed to thank the parents for giving to us the most precious gift you have to offer. When you send your children to us, we know you have expectations for their safety and for their education. Please know, those are our highest priorities each year. We have spent a great deal of time planning and preparing for the coming school year. The programs we offer are varied and targeted to meet the needs of every child. The principals and teachers are among the most caring and skilled educators in Texas. Our promise to you is to do all we can to challenge and inspire your son or daughter, to hold high expectations for their individual success, to find ways to actively engage them in their own learning, to build positive relationships among the staff and students, and to serve as role models. We believe that the greatest gift we can give your child is not simply to teach them what to learn, but to teach them how to learn. 

Like the child with a handful of M & Ms, we feel like you have given us a gift more precious than gold because you give us the opportunity to work with your children. Thank you, parents, for your trust and support.