“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” – Tom Hanks, A League of Their Own

The journey to being elite isn’t easy. Raising your level of performance from good to great is much more difficult than improving from average to good. Sure, as educators we can be happy with our current level of student instruction. We are good, people are moving to our community, and our students are graduating prepare for college. It would be east to keep doing what we are doing . . . it is what our constituents want us to do.

It is hard to push ourselves to the next level. It is challenging to face the real demands of preparing students for success in a future that is unclear. We face unending obstacles and new social challenges. Our students population is getting more diverse and politicians create more and more obstacles to truly doing good work. What makes us great . . . what sets us apart . . . is how we embrace the challenges. We stay true to our values and strive to truly pursue excellence.