From the Desk of the Superintendent

Superintendent David E. Cash, Ed.D.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I recently completed my first month of work as the superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District and had the opportunity to work with our Leadership Team in preparation for the 2011-12 school year. Some of the ideas that I shared with our Leadership Team included the following;

My vision is based on “Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day.” Our work is about children. Our focus must be on the classroom. What are we doing today that supports teachers and students?

Every Child

No student should be anonymous in who they are and what they need

Every Chance

There are obvious constraints related to resource allocation (human and material), specifically:

• Academic
  • Differentiated instruction
  • Best instruction needs to happen first. We emphasize the ideas inherent in Mastery Learning that presumes all children can learn if they are provided with the appropriate learning conditions
  • The hardest working person in every classroom must be the learner
• Social/Emotional
  • Practice restorative discipline
  • We must do everything within our means to stop bullying in our schools

Every Day

My expectation is that all members of our staff get up each day determined to make a difference. These are not just jobs as there is no more important activity in any community than the education of children.

• There is no time off in the education of our children because they watch everything we do and they learn more about us by watching what we do rather than what we say
• We must be intentional in how we act in order to continue to support our students

Today was a great first day of school and I am looking forward to working with all of our teaching and support staff and observing the great learning taking place in every classroom in our district.