Brave Enough to See the Light
In continual personal reflection since joining the Saginaw ISD team in July, it is with profound honor that I am blessed to work within our learning community each day. I have quickly realized that we are not only a team of ingenious innovators, but we comprise a team capable of rapidly adapting and re-imagining how programs and schools can operate in harsh climates during imperfect times. As an ISD, we have risen to meet the challenges presented to us this year with compassion, kindness, customer service, and a dogged determination to remain thoughtful servant leaders. Collectively, we are authoring partners of a new educational service story within a bold, modern, and evolving landscape of education. Yet, we remain steadfastly student-focused and stalwartly child-centric while promoting the knowledge that children are the hearts and souls of our communities. I am mindful of the students and families we serve with provided resources, services, and enriching opportunities during these anxiety-filled days. Our chief purpose, no matter the strife we may experience in the local, state, national, or global stages, persists to ensure that meeting students’ needs is our paramount responsibility. My hope for this new year is that our entire ISD team, students, friends, families, community leaders, businesses, and partners courageously heed the challenge of Amanda Gorman, our nation’s first youth poet laureate, when she recited her poem titled “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inaugural address, and said,
“When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Yours in Education,
Jeffrey Collier, Superintendent
