{Dr. Hatrick Congratulating Graduate at Heritage HS Graduation} Superintendent's Message

We've got a really exciting year ahead of us.

We were so caught up in economics this past year that, if you weren't careful, you might have missed that our students and faculties accomplished more remarkable feats than ever before. From the classroom to the stage to the playing field, students and staff were about success.

I don't think that will stop. This year's students will outperform last year's students. It's in our DNA. It's in our culture in Loudoun County Public Schools to want to do better each year.

There's no retreating from our commitment. Far from a holding pattern or a down year, I think we are going to have a great year. It's because the people who are part of the schools – students, faculty, staff, parents and community – are committed to improvement.

We are living through very difficult economic times. It's hard not to have economics be the only driver in the way we think about education. But I believe education has always been about the future. The future I see is not the present economic circumstances. I see a future where today's students will have to deal with a much more complex world, a world driven by change.

We may be in an economic recession, but we definitely are not in an intellectual recession. Other parts of the world that have been underdeveloped in the past are now developing. It's those developing countries and the people who live in them who will be the competition and the global partners for our students.

In education, our life has always been about tomorrow. I want to be careful that we don't get so caught up in the current economic condition that we take away opportunities from our students.

People have been talking about doing more with less for years. I think I first heard that phrase in the early '80's. We're really doing that now. We are doing more with less. That means we have to work smarter.

It also means we'll need the support of the entire community.

Whether you have students in school or not, the economic prosperity of our county, our state and our nation – the future of individuals who want to retire – depends on those who are working. Those are the children who are in school today. We can't have an economic recovery in this country by destroying our public education system. The enhancement of public education has to go hand-in-hand with economic recovery.

We're long past the day when people asked, “Does Loudoun County provide a better education than other counties in Virginia?” That's important, but it's not nearly as important as it was 30 or 40 years ago. The question now is, “Is Loudoun County providing a world-class education?” By that I mean an education that prepares children to live in a broader world. Their world is going to expand beyond anything we now know.

We don't need to retreat from anything we are doing in schools. We need to be building on what we do in schools. We acknowledge that this year, programmatically, will be a holding year to a certain extent. There are no new initiatives in the curriculum, no new programs. The good news is that we didn't lose any programs in setting a budget for this year.

We will continue to work smarter and find economies wherever they can be found, but our mission hasn't changed. The need to give our students the very best opportunities possible for their future, not our past, is as relevant now as it was 10 years ago. We've seen that our community has the ability to pull together as we did when we were a smaller community--many outstretched hands helping people who are suffering through difficult times.

We'll do our part to be an outstretched hand to the community.

We froze everybody's compensation, so not a single employee in Loudoun County Public Schools will receive a pay raise.

We're asking our employees to do more because we expect 2,000 to 2,500 new students this year. We'll accommodate these students despite having a budget that's $13 million less than last year, and we'll be opening a new school.

We'll maintain a standard of excellence despite having 6 percent less to spend per student.

Whatever times we live in, adjusting to change is the most significant issue we face. We in LCPS are committed to challenging all of our students to achieve their best and to supporting them as they do. Students, parents, or staff cannot do this alone. We must work as a team to be sure that today's students are truly ready for their lives in this new century—to do less would be to fail our young people. Those who came before provided for our education, and we must now be responsible for the education of Loudoun's current students.

Edgar B. Hatrick, Ed.D.
Superintendent 
August 2009