Dreams Offer Too Little Collateral

Walt Disney once said, "I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral." I don't know about you but I certainly feel like dreams and collateral might as well be antonyms. Collateral implies having some kind of guarantee, its almost like preparing with the thought of failure in mind. Dreams by their very nature are limitless and shouldn't be stiffled, derailed or cut off by the promise of some sure outcome. Think of how limiting the need for a guarantee can be - I'll bet those same financiers feel like big dum dums now. And thank goodness Walt the Dreamer put himself way out there, and took a chance with Disneyland, think of all the wonderful things that might not be around if he had given up or cut it short on his dreams.

All of this reminds me of our work with children this year. I have encouraged you and them to dream big, seek out the help and support you need and put forth the necessary effort to work at making it happen. There are no guarantees, no promises that everything will always work out just the way we planned or just the way we imagined. In fact the only guarantee I can make you is that with no risk there is no reward.

Last year's learning crew understood that performance drives success and boy did they perform! 94% of our students earned a Level 3 or above on the FCAT Reading and Math, 91% scored at a Level 3.5 or above on FCAT Writing, 70% scored at a Level 3 or above on FCAT Science, 82% made learning gains in Reading, 77% made learning gains in Math, 84% of our lowest performing students made gains in Math and most proudly a whopping 97% of our lowest performing students made a year's worth of growth in Reading. As a group they took great risks and produced our finest results to date. And as a result of this outstanding performance we are all reaping the rewards. In your paycheck today is your share of our A+ School Recognition Funds. Enjoy!

Dreaming is risky business folks, the bigger the dream, the bigger the risk, the bigger the result, the bigger the pay off!

Believing is just the beginning...