Greetings from Jack Haines from the HBR Board of Education. With Fall fully on the wing, our minds might be brought to think about the inevitability of change. The leaves are changing to their resplendent fall colors, the weather is (kind of) changing to the crisp mornings and evenings of autumn, and the district has undergone various changes during the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
People don’t always love change, but in the context of the Board and our district’s administration, many recent changes can be considered essential, gratifying, and motivating. In other words, the changes reflect our commitment to growth and improvement in the district and its students and staff. This month’s blog highlights just some of the many positive peaks of change and improvement in our district’s landscape since July 2024.
The most visible and wide-ranging change can be witnessed in our over 4-million-dollar investment in safety, security, improved learning environments, grounds, and graphics on the windows and doors. From way-finding signage to parking improvements to sound-deadening to reduced moisture/mold, our buildings have been updated to improve HBR’s teaching and learning efforts. The new window graphics have a utilitarian function in preventing prying eyes from seeing into the schools, but they also foster school spirit and signal to visitors that we are the Royals.
Another great change involves moving the fifth-grade students and staff to the middle school building. By all accounts, the students are thriving, no major complaints or problems have presented themselves, and perhaps most importantly, fifth graders are learning about their future lives as middle schoolers. An added benefit includes new collaborative opportunities between the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade teachers.
From the high school students’ perspective, our Phone Free Schools initiative represents a large change. We may still be experiencing some growing pains and resistance on this front, but administrators and faculty have reported many positive changes in learning, behavior, and social interactions among peers. We may not yet have reached pure bliss with the Yonder bags, but the change has yielded positive results.
Sometimes change represents a threat to our cherished traditions and past. Other times, changes are made to honor tradition. Recently, the Board made the innovative move of naming the high school soccer field the Larry “Doc” Peppers soccer field. This change originated from requests by members of our community and district staff, and reflects the honor and pride that students across generations have felt for a great teacher, a record-setting coach, and a true Royal.
The last major change pertains to the expansion of our district’s fine arts program. In line with the district’s commitment to educating the whole child, increased opportunities for music, art, and drama are being offered for students. The HBR community is positively buzzing with the news that drama is making a comeback at HBR. The creative practices that define the arts provide students with much needed outlets to dream, to question, and to depict human conditions that more expository scholastic endeavors can’t quite achieve. Our schools need both. We need to educate and train good citizens and employees, but we also need outlets to reflect upon and express the human experience and the beauty of being alive.
