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Colleagues, and residents of Arlington, thank you. It is an honor to chair this Board, and to serve the children of such a great community.
And it is a special honor to have been nominated by Frank Wilson, our most experienced School Board member.
Arlington is energetic, innovative, and continually growing. And that's what our school system needs to be.
We Board Members work for you, parents and all the people of Arlington.
Keeping that in mind will be important tonight and in the coming months as we consider the views of our advisory groups and all community members.
As we continue to carry out our Strategic Plan, we have an opportunity to focus on several areas of importance.
For years, our parents have urged us to expand our foreign language programs to better connect kids to the world around them.
This year, we will take a big step toward ensuring that all of our children will learn a language additional to English.
Through our upcoming work session and this year's budget process, we'll develop and decide on plans for comprehensive elementary school language programs and their continuation through 6th grade and beyond.
In doing that, we'll need to deploy a great resource: the children and families of Arlington who already speak a language other than English.
Colleagues, our students are increasingly interested in learning about the natural environment, and in protecting it.
This coming year, we can improve the way our kids learn about the epic challenge of global climate change, and the huge efforts needed to fundamentally change the way America produces and uses energy.
As we do this, we will work to connect kids with the natural world, including by better valuing the time kids spend outdoors, and enhancing our outdoor education efforts.
We will take action to lower the environmental footprint of Arlington Public Schools. School buildings and operations, and getting children to and from school are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Arlington.
We can better measure those emissions and find new ways to reduce them -- including by decreasing non-renewable energy use, increasing recycling, and promoting walking, biking, and transit for kids and APS employees.
As we help our students achieve academically and end achievement gaps, we'll also need to keep in mind that we want kids to be having fun.
My youngest daughter reminded me of this when I shared with her what I was planning to say tonight.
Exploratory learning, arts and music, and recess are critical. We need to think beyond mandated tests – and not overdo the homework.
Healthy kids are happier and better positioned for success. I look forward to expanding our efforts with Arlington County under Walter Tejada's leadership to promote wellness through the FitArlington initiative.
Colleagues, over the coming year, we'll face challenges associated with the wonderful increase in elementary school enrollment that we're seeing throughout the County.
We'll need to provide high-quality facilities for all of these kids, and do it in a way that is faithful to our core policies – including by assigning kids to an elementary school close to where they live, inclusive of children within a safe walk zone of a school.
We will face challenges in maintaining fiscal discipline in a tougher budget environment. We've have made the renewal of Wakefield High School our top priority among our many pending capital projects. We'll need to fully invest in a renewed Wakefield as soon as we can responsibly do so.
And we'll continue to work to maximize the availability for community use of all APS facilities.
I also look forward to APS taking additional steps to better implement its new financial management system and to maximizing our financial controls in consultation with the County government and the Treasurer's office.
We'll need to continue to emphasize the most important asset we have for our children in our classrooms: Arlington's great teachers. It takes resources to do that.
Colleagues, we ourselves will need to work as a team this coming year, and I know we'll do that.
I look forward to Vice Chair Sally Baird's leadership, I will appreciate the continued contributions of Libby Garvey and Frank Wilson and I very much welcome Abby Raphael to the Board.
We're going to have a great year!