Serving all of our students

There are roughly 5500 students who attend GHAPS. That means that there are 5500 individuals with unique personalities, backgrounds, and aspirations who attend GHAPS. As a public school it is our duty to do our best to create a positive learning environment for all of these students to reach their goals. In order to do this, I believe that all policy decisions made by a member of the Board should come from a place of empathy. I may be father of three GHAPS students, but when I am sitting in that seat I am making decisions that may affect thousands of students and hundreds of staff. This is a weight of responsibility that is not lost on me and I make an active effort to be inclusive in my decision making.

Everyone of our students come to GHAPS with their own unique circumstances. The days of the “industrial model” of education are well behind us. This model treated every student as an identical cog and all that was needed was to apply the same action to each of them. I have seen and experienced how GHAPS teachers and staff work to meet our students where they are and identify their personal needs for success. These professional educators are able to identify areas that require additional support and apply the the needed strategies for these supports. Even though many may only see their student’s individual teacher, there is a whole team on their side. Many times this team includes members of our renowned Special Education department. As a Board member, I see it as a priority to support our students by ensuring that we have the needed quality staff to meet each of their needs.

All students deserve a positive learning environment. In fact, it is stated in the mission of GHAPS that “…It is our obligation to provide each student in our community a positive environment for learning so they will experience success…” Meeting this obligation can look different for every student. For some, it may be the variety of academic, artistic, or student clubs. For others, it may be having cooperative ASD supports in place. Others may need the help from those like our homeless student liaison or help with food instability. Some may need to us to ensure that our staff are adequately prepared to deal with student conflict as it arises. For some, it’s the freedom of academic exploration. There are a myriad of concepts that go into creating a positive environment that allows learning to flourish. This is a crucial understanding for any Board member working to serve all of our students.