Dear Vandalia Family,

On a volleyball court, nobody wins a point alone. Someone calls the ball. Someone passes it. Someone sets it up so a teammate can finish the play. One of our eighth graders describes that rhythm in these pages, and then she says something about our town I hope we all take to heart: "If you succeed, they'll always congratulate you."

That is the thread running through this issue. In Vandalia, we rise together.

You'll see it in a classroom where a single hello, offered back by a child who rarely speaks, is cause for celebration. You'll meet a young woman who once believed she simply wasn't good at math, until a teacher helped her find her kind of math; today she keeps our district's numbers in order. You'll meet a third grader who came back after time away and discovered his kindergarten teacher was surprised, and glad, to see him again. And you'll meet a sister who has watched her older sibling flourish in our TLC program and now imagines working in that very room someday.

Some of our students are reaching. A senior who has never found it easy to speak in front of others keeps volunteering anyway, because he wants to be the one the teacher calls on. A junior who once took apart pens to see how they worked now has her sights set on airplanes. A fourth grader with three recesses a day already sees a big future in front of him. A third grader who conquered a water slide that scared her came out the other side wanting to go again. And a senior lineman, grateful to the coaches who made him tougher, is ready to see more of the world and hopes to give back someday the way they gave to him.

Then there is the voice from the gym, the woman who keeps every Vandal varsity football score since 1950 so that none of it is lost. Our history endures because people like her choose to keep it.

None of these stories happened in isolation. Behind each one stands a teacher, a coach, a parent, or a neighbor, quietly setting up the next play. That is what it means to be Vandalia ONE.

So turn the page and meet your neighbors. And when you've finished, I hope you'll do what our students already know to do: congratulate somebody.

With gratitude and pride,

Dr. Jennifer Garrison
Superintendent