Dignity, Diversity & Dreams: Ferndale Schools Hosts Welcome Breakfast for Staff (video)
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Aug. 28, 2014)
Nearly 300 people make the Ferndale School District work, and this year they were welcomed back with a special breakfast courtesy of the Ferndale School Board, businesses and community members, and the new administration. 
Optimism filled the Theater of Ferndale High School as employees met the new district Superintendent, Blake Prewitt. Nearly all of the district’s top administrators are new this year, as is the vision and mission.
A new tagline, Dignity, Diversity and Dreams, sets the tone for the new school year, and there is a new logo. Prewitt spoke to the staff, explaining what the vision could mean.
“In education we’re really good at having 8,000 things we have to pay attention to, and we know the state is great at moving the bar each and every day… As things throughout the year and throughout your career get muddled, and all these 
different things get thrown at you… What is really important? We tried to answer this in what is Ferndale about? What is this year about? And we took down three words – dignity, diversity and dreams. What does that mean for us as Ferndale Schools,” Prewitt said.
“Dignity is about modeling. You know from growing up that the adults that you had in your life you either learned the right way to act or the wrong way to act. We know being in education we want students to learn from us the right way to act. We want them to model our good behavior. It’s the 
way we treat each other. It’s the way we believe in each other…
“Diversity can mean many many things. We keep hearing how it’s the strength of our school district. It’s the strength of our community. Yet do we really know what that means? …It’s much more than socioeconomic, race, its many many different things. It’s the diversity of our education. The days of working a job for 30 years in the same place is gone. The average adult has seven different careers. The average college student changes majors 5-6 times. It’s a very different
world than when many of us graduated high school. So education has to be different. It has to be diverse. Students have to learn a lot more. They have to critically think. They have to problem-solve. They have to be able to live in the 21st Century.
“What about dreams? I use the term achievement before… I started thinking, what does it mean for us? When every student walks across the stage with a diploma, when every student moves forward each year, I’d like them to have a dream. What do they want to be? What do they dream they can be? And how do we help them get there?”
Teachers enjoyed breakfast donated by parents and local businesses, including Western Market, Peteet’s Cheesecake, Apple Fritter, Mae’s, Toast, Hilton Road Cafe, and New York Bagel. They talked about the coming year, and some of the teachers shared a bit about themselves for our video interviews. Check out some of the teachers, and the words of wisdom from Superintendent Prewitt in the video below….