Westerville City Schools Board of Education President Dr. Nancy Nestor-Baker addressed classified staff during the Professional Development Day held on September 12.
Westerville City Schools Board President Dr. Nancy Nestor-Baker, a champion of public education, spoke to classified employees on Friday, September 12, a Professional Development Day in the district. She said Westerville Schools has seen a lot of changes in the past few decades, including a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged children and radical growth in the English as a Second Language population. She said she is proud of the way the district has responded with compassion and adapted to the changing needs of its student body.
Dr. Nestor-Baker reflected on the events of September 11, saying it was a day of remembering loss and sacrifice and service. She said it was also a day for contemplating what we hold dear as Americans, including public education. “American education is different from that in any other country,” she said. “We take all children, from every neighborhood, from every type of family, with every type of need and ability, because we believe that an educated populace is key to maintaining our strength as a country, is key to advancing the principles of democracy, is key to creating new ideas for business and industry and the arts, is key to keeping the engine of America humming…Our educational system – including Westerville City Schools – is part of the very foundation of who we have been, who we are, and who we are going to become.”
She praised the staff for choosing to be part of that great educational system, the one that has been called the most successful social experiment of all time. “You became part of something far bigger than yourself, far bigger than any one of us. You became part of a system created to serve the present and build the future.”
Dr. Nestor-Baker told the classified workers that for many people, they are the face of the schools. “The way you interact with people you come in contact with in your job shapes the perception of you and of our schools indelibly.”