I must confess, my Sacramento leg of the fall tour held a lot of personal wins for me. First, got to visit with some really good friends from my high school days. Enjoyed having dinner with my friend Tracy who told me some high secrets I never knew. Awesome evening. Also spent time with a pretty special lady in my life who moved to Sac in the last weeks. It was fun to catch up. But hanging out with my buddy Mike and his wife was a real treat. A great athlete in his own right, he is recovering from a pretty serious injury so I was proud to see up close the fighter that he is. Great week for being tight with my personal team.
But it was a work trip, and I spent a pretty positive morning on 8/7 with the Placer Union High School District. I spoke to about 400 of their staff members in a really cool venue in Auburn CA. The old high school theater was historic and beautiful and a great place for PUHSD to start the school year. It was a really positive experience made better by the fact that the admin team turned the event over to a new board of students that was recently formed. Other than me, the students did all the speaking and engaged the staff in cheers, games, etc.. The result was a sense of family that was strongly evident in the room. I really look forward to a great year in PUHSD...
On Wednesday, I spent the first day of school at Antelope High School in the Roseville School District. I've been in education a long time and seen a lot of first days, but nothing quite like I saw in Antelope on Aug 9th. The staff put on a birthday party for the entire school as the students came in early to a celebration of AHS' 10th year in existence. The energy and level of cooperation from the students proved that expectations are high and students and staff buy right in. I did two student assemblies and a staff workshop, but I couldn't help but think that they should be teaching me about school culture. Congrats to all at Antelope on a mind blowing first day, and a special SHOUT OUT to their Activities Director Kristin Patten who was an amazing leader for everyone during that day of fun.
Can't wait to hit Sac Town again.