From: Michael Nelson
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2014 1:42 PM
To: All_Staff
Subject: Sunday Evening News
Sunday Evening News
11.23.14
For the past four days, I have been in Spokane at the state school directors’ conference with
our board members and student representatives. The final speaker of the conference was
Angela Maiers, the author of Classroom Habitudes and The Passion-Driven Classroom: A
Framework for Teaching and Learning. The title of her conversation with us was How Big is
your Brave?
Her speech focused on the words brave and courage. Below are just a few quotes from this
conversation:
 Choose to be brave.
 Brave needs a reason to show up.
 You have to be brave with your life so others can be brave with theirs.
 There is nothing comfortable about courage.
 Comfort or courage….you can’t have both.
During this learning session, I felt my mind focusing on how her words connect to the vision for
the bond that our Board of Directors released. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you
during a speech, but every phrase, quote, video and PowerPoint slide, made me think of this
bond vision.
There are 295 school districts in our state. On average, only 10-20 of the 295 school districts
run a bond during the course of a calendar year. Of the 10-20 districts that do choose to place
a bond on the ballot, less than 50% are able to achieve the supermajority of 60%. Last month,
the only district in our region to place on bond on the ballot was Highline. They received 59%
favorable vote, yet their measure failed.
Our Board of Directors could have remained in comfort this year, but they have a vision of what
could be for our district. They have put in endless hours of time and energy, completing a great
deal of research to put forward a courageous vision for the future of Enumclaw High School and
Black Diamond Elementary. Maiers shared, “The world we have right now is not the world that
we can have.” You can substitute the word “district” for “world” and you and see how my mind
kept thinking about the decision to pursue a bond.
It is the courageous responsibility for boards and leaders in organizations/businesses to
establish a brave vision. The speaker encouraged the audience to leverage the collective genius
of many. The Board is currently seeking feedback on their vision. If you have not had a chance
to fill out the survey, please do so. You simply need to click the headline on the home page of
our website. www.enumclaw.wednet.edu The speaker concluded her remarks with a reflective
question, “What would brave and courage look like for you?” For me, I added the phrase “in
regard to the board’s vision of the bond” to the end of the question.
Until next week, Happy Learning!
Mike
...And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!
Anne Frank, The Diary (12 June 1942 - 1 August 1944)