Dear Tri-Valley Families and Friends,

There's a moment in this issue I keep coming back to. A first grader walks into Lauren Conner's classroom wearing new shoes, and before reading or math begins, she stops to ask how fast those shoes can go. It takes about 30 seconds. It may be the most important 30 seconds of that child's morning.

That's what you'll find in these pages: people who notice.

Sydni Downing, our first student success interventionist, gives a struggling student two minutes a day of undivided attention until trust takes root. Our librarians, Amie Mouser and Kelsey McDowell, offer books that work as both mirrors and windows, so every reader finds a place to belong. Andrew Black, Class of 1999, still remembers the teachers who put an arm around him on hard days and saw potential he hadn't yet found in himself. And sophomore Hannah Hepner, who is legally blind, is mastering livestock judging, which is really the art of seeing what someone else might miss.

You'll also meet young people learning to keep going. Kamila Trachsel finished second in a yearbook cover contest, practiced, and won the next year. Drum major Preston Cryer captured a whole philosophy in six words: "Forget the feelings. Remember the moment." Cedar Yaklich races the 100 meters from her wheelchair and describes herself as "the same different." And Coach Josh Roop opens the weight room at 6 a.m. because he knows the habits built there will outlast any bench press.

And you'll see what happens when a community shows up. Bus driver Neil Duffy ran toward rushing floodwater when a young rider disappeared into a culvert. Laura Welp turned the loss of her daughter, Emma, into a Christmas toy drive for St. Jude families that grows every year. I hope you'll join us when it returns to Tri-Valley Middle School, November 16 through 20.

None of these people would call themselves remarkable. Most would say they simply did what anyone should do. But read their stories and you'll see what I see: a district where the little things become big things, where people get back up, and where no one carries a heavy load alone.

Senior Brynn Martin, who hopes to teach middle school someday, put it best when she described what a teacher gives: "You're setting the stepping stones for these future people." That's the work of Tri-Valley.

Thank you for being part of it.

Dr. Ben Derges
Superintendent