Superintendent

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May 2, 2025

GLPS Families,

The calendar has rolled over to May, which means we are now officially into our last month of school for the 2024-2025 school year! We have a lot of fun and a lot of learning to fit into the next few weeks, and we are looking forward to finishing the year strong.

Before I get into my message for this week, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that May 1st is Principal’s Day, and next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. In addition, today is designated as School Lunch Heroes Day, honoring our food service team, and May 7 is School Nurses Day.  All of our nearly 700 employees play a role in creating a safe and affirming learning environment for our kids, but I think it is important to highlight these special days and weeks as they arise. Please make sure to take a moment to thank the staff that work with your kids every day!

For my message this week, I am going to again lean into our strategic plan. One of our goals for this year, underneath the communications and community engagement focus area, is that Beginning by the end of the 2024-2025 school year, in at least a bi-monthly email, district administration will share tips and strategies for fostering positive staff-community interactions in both face-to-face and digital environments. So, we will start doing that regularly moving forward.

Creating positive interactions is a broad topic, so we will take it in bite-sized pieces over a number of messages. Today, I am reflecting on the opportunity I had to join the Beagle Middle School leadership team in visiting Check and Connect (CNC) classrooms to talk about recent issues that the school has had with vandalism in some of the bathrooms this week. Our team spoke to the students about having pride in their school, and creating a safe environment in which students can learn. This also gave us a chance to remind students that language matters, and that when harsh, derogatory, racist, or insulting language is used, it creates an unsafe environment for everyone, including those at whom it is directed, those who simply experience it, and even those who use it. This is true in written language, spoken language, and online interactions. We all have a responsibility to ensure that the language we use adds to the safety of our spaces, instead of detracting from them. 

I used this example because it was fresh in my mind, but I would like to use it as a reminder that all of our words matter. How we interact with each other, whether in person or virtually, can create a positive, safe learning environment or a negative, unsafe one. We continue to work with our students – through PBIS, classroom lessons, and in-the-moment interventions – to remind them of this important idea, and the more it is reinforced between home and school, the closer we will get to ensuring that all students can learn in a safe and supportive environment. The examples we set are crucial to modeling this for our kids, and we all can make a difference in helping them understand how much their words matter.

As always, we appreciate the partnership between our district and families, and we appreciate the opportunity to work with your children every day. Have a wonderful weekend, and as always, I am #proudtobeacomet!

Dr. Bill Barnes
Superintendent of Schools