Frankenmuth

5 Does excellence look like this? Of course, it doesn't. Excellence is not achieved by mere promotion. Excellence is achieved when the people in an organization work together with a common purpose to continually improve the products and services they provide to the people they care about most. For FSD, this means we're serious about sustaining and strengthening our Culture of Excellence, where superb education is delivered with high standards and expectations to every child in our schools. We have tremendous staff members, students, parents, and community members who are active in moving us toward our stated objectives. And the most important one of all is making sure all of our students are confident in who they are, their skills, and their path to future success after graduation. The work involved in sustaining and strengthening FSD's Culture of Excellence makes this happen – and two critical components are planning and preparing. Another critical component is partnering. FSD is blessed by many supporters and partners, ranging from academics to athletics to the arts. We're grateful for all of them, YOU included! At our recent "March is Reading Month" celebration at List Elementary, I was reminded about another valued partner in sustaining and strengthening our Culture of Excellence – our Saginaw Intermediate School District (SISD). The reading celebration at List was quite a morning! It started off with a number of invited guest readers reading to students in their classrooms. Even five of our school board members joined in the fun. At the "Reading Celebration Assembly" later, Dr. Jeff Collier, Superintendent of our SISD, and I performed a skit to unveil the announcement of the SISD's $10,000 Book Grant to List's First Grade Teacher Danielle Shaeffer. Mrs. Shaeffer and List Principal, Jason Vislosky, put a lot of preparation into the grant application and their work paid off when SISD Executive Director of Instructional Services, Vic Bugni, announced the awarding of the grant. What makes this grant and partnership significant is that it has allowed Mrs. Shaeffer to not only select books which added to the diversity of interests and reading levels in her own classroom – the school library at List received copies of the same books as well. I'm grateful that our SISD believes in the talents and professionalism of our staff and enhances FSD's Culture of Excellence in many ways. We couldn't ask for a better partner. Sustaining and Strengthening FSD's Culture of Excellence By Grant Hegenaur

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