Connections are Every Where!

by Amanda Durnen

Often times we think of the schools in Byron as their own entities.  We have the Primary School, Intermediate School, Middle School, and High School.  Although we are all located on our own campus, we do share a trait that can be felt district-wide: connectedness!

Through the month of September, connectedness was all around us.  From Homecoming Week activities, to Middle School students sharing Bullying presentations to our younger students, to our Intermediate School 5^th graders getting ready to start their Leadership opportunities at the Primary School, to one particular story that had a perfectly connected ending.

At the start of the school year, we had noticed that our recess ball cart was beginning to feel the wear and tear of being highly used.  This was a good sign!  Kids were enjoying the activities that our ball cart was housing.  Last week, we were almost sure it had seen its final day.  After several attempts by our maintenance staff to try and save it with the materials we had access to at our building, it wasn’t looking good.

We want our students to recognize and utilize the resources around them when they are available, so why wouldn’t we as a school do the same.  A photo was taken and sent to the High School Industrial Tech class to see if they were interested in a project.  “Absolutely”, was the response.  The next morning the cart was delivered to the High School. 

At 2:15 pm that same day, I noticed two students rolling a fully functional blue ball cart up the sidewalk.  They rolled it in and shared that they had bolted all of the pieces back together and reinforced the attachments.  It looked brand new.

What started as a lost cause, ended up a complete success because of the connectedness we share as a district.  The true spirit of helping each other was alive and well.  Four young men were able to repair our recess cart and renew our spirit!  What a GREAT community of students and staff we have here in Byron!