Partnership Educators,
With the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics only weeks away, attention was focused on Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern University was hosting a track meet that would serve as the AAU Women’s Championship and the trials for the upcoming Olympics. Dozens of teams converged from all over the country. The Illinois athletic teams were favored to sweep it all. The meet was made up of ten separate contests. There was another unknown team from Dallas who entered in eight of those ten contests with little fanfare or notice.
The first event was the discus. The Dallas discus thrower surprised herself and everyone else by taking fourth place and picking up a point. Next came the shotput. The Dallas shot putter shocked the spectators with a heave of 39 feet and won the event. That is when other competitors began scratching their heads in wonder of this no-named Dallas team. Next came the baseball throw. The Dallas athlete was favored to win this event and she did with a hurl of 272 feet. The Dallas team was on its way when the 100-yard dash arrived. Unfortunately, the Dallas member running in that event failed to qualify for the finals and so it appeared that the Dallas team's fortune had finally turned.
Now that the track and field world seemed to be righting itself and the mightier teams were thinking they would get back on track to winning the event, the javelin throwers stepped up. The Dallas participant launched that mighty spear 139 feet, almost 6 feet better than the world record. It seems that Dallas had only begun. The team won the next event as well, the 80-meter hurdles. In fact in the qualifying round for that event was another world record, set by the Dallas runner. Next was the high jump which became another win for Dallas and yet another world record. After that event was the broad jump and you guessed it, another Dallas victory. By days’ end, the crowd was absolutely stunned. The highly favored Illinois team with 22 of the finest female athletes in the nation had come in second. The Dallas team came out on top.
The underdog Texas team had placed in seven of the eight events that it entered and amassed a total of thirty points and set four World Records and won the meet in only two and a half hours. Two weeks later that Dallas team would make a similarly dramatic showing in the Los Angeles Olympics. It is important to note that Dallas, the team in which performed major upset after upset, triumphed because of a young 20-year-old athlete named Mildred Didrikson (Babe Didrikson). To be truthful, Babe Didrikson was the only athlete on that Dallas team. Like Babe Didrikson, we are a small but powerful Partnership.
Henry Ford is often quoted as saying, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Frequently when people are told that it can’t be done they believe it and that predictive statement is fulfilled. This year we did not believe the statements about education telling us to stop trying and we got it done. It was those among us that decided to ask the question “Why not?” and try to figure out how to make something impossible happen, which is when real productive solutions were found.
Many of the conveniences that we enjoy today are results of people continuing to ask the question “Why not?” and how can we figure this out. I am encouraged every day by the entrepreneurial spirit that lives within our partnership. We have a large group of problem solvers who are always looking for solutions to some of the biggest impossibilities. It doesn’t matter which department you are in and what your daily work is we are people who use our caring service above self attitudes and get things done. What are the big questions needing solutions and how do we go about systematically solving them. Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
This year has been a series of difficult events that were given to us to solve. Thank you partnership educators for your work and diligence to continue. We made a HUGE difference in the lives of our students and in the resiliency of our community.
It is with a saddened heart that I announce the passing of one of our former lead custodian-maintenance-groundskeepers that worked for the district for over 30 years, Tony Mills. Our condolences go out to Andy Mills, Teacher at Igo School, and we wish peace for all of Tony's family and friends.
2021-2022 School Year Updates:
Congratulations to Jennifer Parra for becoming the new Director of Human Resources for the Redding School District.
Welcome to Jeff Boyle as the new Assistant Principal at Turtle Bay School.
With many decisions still to be made by the legislatures and other agencies for the coming school year, I ask that you stay informed by checking back on the Redding School District website, Facebook page, as well as your district email. These will be ways we update the public about requirements and changes with email being the primary mode for communicating to you. Also, remember that I will be sending a letter to your residence in late July outlining activities and important information. Please be looking for that as well as a letter from your principal about other site-specific information. We will be having full in-person schooling with College Prep Academy home school as options for our families.
It has been a pleasure to serve with you this year and every school year and I look forward to another great year in 2021-2022. School begins on August 18, 2021.
Enjoy your summer,
Rob