Superintendent Mick Miller encourages everyone to celebrate American Education Week

Superintendent Mick Miller encourages everyone to celebrate American Education Week
November 14-20 is American Education Week and I am grateful for the opportunity to take a moment to talk about Walla Walla Public Schools.

First off, our schools are not perfect. We are the consummate "people business" and with literally thousands of human interactions on a daily basis in our schools, we are bound to make mistakes. However, also encapsulated within those thousands upon thousands of human interactions are expressions of caring and hope as well as teaching and learning.

I am extremely proud of the staff of the Walla Walla Public Schools, our students and our community. Our teachers, and all the staff who support them, are better trained and prepared than at any time in our District's long and storied history. We are charged with teaching all of our children, not just those for which learning comes easily or those from families who are in a better position to support their child's education. This is a charge that we take extremely seriously.

Despite what is often portrayed, our students are great. Overwhelmingly, they do what we ask, they get along with each other and they are learning. Yes, without question, we have days when kids do get in trouble & remember when you were young? Yet that is the exception, not the rule. Being a child in 2010 can be challenging, but our kids are resilient, they learn and they are terrific. I am very optimistic about our future.

I am extremely thankful to our community for their support of our schools. First and most importantly, thank you to our parents for caring about, supporting and loving their own children. Secondly, thank you to the community for your financial support of our District.

The state of Washington provides basic education funding that does not meet our obligation to our students. Federal funds, and to a greater degree local dollars, make up the difference. Our local dollars support most of the capital buildings and improvements in the District. Without local financial support, our District would look remarkably different; we need and thank you!