By Dr. Mary Kennerly
My children attended District 5 schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I am eternally grateful for the education they received here. It has contributed significantly to their successes in adult life.
I worked in District 5 schools for 33 years and have volunteered in District 5 for the past 11 years, since my retirement. All of those professional and volunteer years in District 5 have given me many opportunities to appreciate the great job that our educators and employees at all levels do to ensure that District 5 students grow productively and know they are loved.
When bus drivers, food service providers, clerical personnel, instructional assistants, maintenance and custodial workers, teachers, administrators, volunteers and school board members are dedicated to love and grow our students, the results are just what we have – award winning schools and educators, award winning students and their teams, and millions of dollars given in college scholarships every year to our graduates. I am thankful every day for my own childrens’ journeys through our schools and for being able to live in our community that is driven by people moving here because of our schools. My life and my family’s lives have been enriched in many ways because District 5 grows and loves our students.
I came to District 5 to teach, but I stayed to learn. Many hours of required professional development, many graduate courses, and thousands of hours with boots on the ground in our schools ensured that my learning continued. One of the most important things I learned from my textbooks, professional publications, my professors, my colleagues, my students and their parents is that feeling secure and valued at school leads to increased academic achievement. There is an abundance of research to support what I learned regarding growing and loving students as it relates to academic achievement. If you want proof, ask AI or google the topic. Better yet, ask anyone who works in District 5 or in any school district in the USA. Those who work in schools know that loving and growing our students contributes significantly to student achievement. More than that it contributes to a better quality of adult life for everyone.
I have volunteered for the past 11 years with the District 5 Foundation to extend growing and loving our students. We provide snack pack food (for children with insecure food sources on weekends) one weekend every month. We award thousands of dollars in grants every year to students who are involved in extensive academic research and to teachers who are providing innovative learning opportunities for their students. We love and grow hundreds of District 5 students each year with these programs. And we have an emergency fund for District 5 families with children in our schools if their home burns or is flooded out or they experience other traumatic losses.
If you’d like to be a part of loving and growing our students through the work of our Foundation, take a look at our website: district5foundation.org. You can also contact me at [email protected].
You can also send a thank you note to anyone who works in our school district to appreciate them for loving and growing our students. All employees are found on the District website.
Dr. Kennerly
