From the Desk of Mr. Jeff Kuhns

I am a guy who loves using little quotes. I use them to motivate staff, to motivate myself and to keep myself focused on what I believe and who I am. You can ask the people that I work with. I almost always have a short bit of wisdom to guide a conversation or to focus thoughts.

‘We want volunteers not hostages.’ – Mike Tomlin

‘Strong back; soft front’ – Brene Brown

‘Make time to be scared of more interesting things’ – Marlin Mann

‘Sometimes the fear won’t go away, so you’ll have to do it afraid.’ – Tracey Malone

Those are just some examples. I also at times attribute a saying to my grandfather whether he really said it or not. Not many of those are not appropriate for this audience but one of my favorites has always been, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.’

Some of my quips must be powerful because several times in the last couple of weeks I have had people say to me, ‘You said to me once...’ Each time it makes me panic a little bit because I do not always remember saying what they repeat to me. Thankfully, I always believe what they are repeating back to me because it comes from a place of genuineness.

Recently, the education side of our administrative team spent several months talking about my vision for the West Perry School District. It has since become my favorite quote. We talked about what we value and what the people of this district value and we also talked about what we wanted for the students of this District. The final product of our time together was a Just Cause statement. A Just Cause statement is more than a mission statement. A Just Cause can never be achieved but it constantly guides who we are and what we want this organization to be.

This is our Just Cause:

Our interactions ignite potential and fuel future success.

We believe that this statement focuses on the importance of relationships with all stakeholders of the district and also the importance of our product – West Perry graduates. There are also powerful words in that statement. We ignite we do not just give students information and expect them to start a fire. We try to instill that passion for a subject that makes them want to explore topics. We fuel future success we do not hand out arbitrary success. We give students the skills and tools that they need to be successful in their lives no matter what that looks like.

As we break for the holidays, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May all your interactions be powerful for you and your families and friends.