Welcome Message from MASSP President

Robert DoBell – Principal Three Forks MS/HS

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

     I wanted to take some time to welcome you all to another great school year and one that I am looking forward to helping you all in leading our professional organization. I am often reminded of the quote by Goethe in leading our schools. Our jobs as leaders are multi-faceted and our days are never the same. I love being an administrator and working with teachers, students, parents, and community members. As educational leaders our lives revolve around our organizations and our educational philosophies are imparted upon our schools. Please take time to explore the health of your school culture and work to make it positive at every step. Education in the 21^st century requires us to develop great visions for our schools and those plans need to be reinforced through consistent follow up to ensure that our schools stay on the cutting edge of educational pedagogy. Please remember that your actions as the educational leader of your school reflect the values and beliefs embedded within your school culture. Every day as the leaders of our organizations we need to be as positive as possible and greet everyday anew. Work with your teachers and students to strive to have the best school in the state. We all need to challenge one another and work to provide our students with the best education possible.

     Three items that cover all aspects of our school environment are what I refer to as the 3 R’s in Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. The focus on the development of these items within a school organization gives appropriate attention to all portions of the environment and places an emphasis on change in the organization.  The rigor of your curriculum will be increasing with the adoption of the Montana Common Core Standards. Utilize all the professional development resources that our organization and OPI provide to get your schools ready for the next wave of accountability. Please make it a point to embrace 21^st century technology and its uses within the classroom/school environment. A plethora of web 2.0 tools are out there and bring the relevance to the curriculum for students. The most important of the 3 R’s is the development of professional relationships with all stakeholders. We work with human beings on a daily basis and do not produce or manufacture “widgets,” as such we need to remember that, and always work to develop solid relationships with faculty/staff, students, parents, and community members. It will be these developed relationships that are rooted in your philosophical foundation that we will rely upon to get us through the tough times.

     Our Montana Association of Secondary School Principals is a wonderful organization that provides meaningful, relevant, professional development to all members. Please make it a point to attend regional and state meetings. There has never been a regional or state meeting where I did not come away with a “nugget” of solid research-based professional development that I could directly apply to the development of my organization. Please use our MASSP portion of the website. Get to know and network with other members in the organization. The development of the relationships that we acquire will with stand the sands of time.  Please remember this year that you are not alone within your organization and that we as fellow members of MASSP/NASSP all experience similar things in our respective schools. Please take a moment to call upon a fellow member or myself if you would like to get feedback on an idea or program that you want to start in your school.

     I am looking forward to working with all of you in the upcoming school year in providing a 21^st century education for all students in Montana. If I can ever be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to give me a call or our President-Elect (Les Meyer-Fairfield); or our 2^nd Vice-President (Paul Furthmeyer - Anaconda High School) we are all here to help you! I would also encourage you to get to know our new Executive Director Dr. Kirk Miller. Kirk, Julie, and Jan are always in the SAM office and will be able to help you as well. We have a strong organization in MASSP, and I hope that we will all work together to keep MASSP on the cutting edge of the 21^st century. Have a wonderful year, and I wish you all the best. I am going to leave you with a quote from Peter Drucker:

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.
Peter Drucker