Hello and welcome to the 2015-2016 school year.  I am excited to have the opportunity to serve as principal while Mr. Allison is on a leave of absence, serving as president of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. 

I am happy to report that the first week of school went very smoothly.  It was not perfect; every first week is bound to have a few hiccups.  Having said that, there is no other place that I would rather have been than at Hopewell High School on August 26 when students returned. 

This blog is an attempt to rectify a failure from last year.  My goal was for Mr. Allison and me to write and publish at minimum, one blog every two weeks.  We published a total of six and none after the end of the first nine weeks.  Life happened, things got busy and all of the sudden in May I had an idea and then realized that it had been quite a long time since I had written anything.  Good thing I didn’t make my goal public; however, that is exactly what I am doing here, in an effort to keep my feet to the fire and to have no excuses.  My goal is to, along with new assistant principal Mr. Michael Milanovich, write and publish a blog every two weeks.  Feel free to email us with a reminder if you see that we are falling behind. 

Lastly, I wanted to share my overarching goal for the year.  I want the 2015-2016 school year to be AWESOME for all of Hopewell High School’s students, teachers and support staff, parents, and the greater Hopewell community.  During the first week of school, I told the students and staff that if they remembered three words and applied them to their daily life, they would have an awesome year.  Those words are:

1.       Purpose

2.       Passion

3.       Pride

Purpose is why one does something.  Students should not complete homework simply because it counts for points, but rather because it will lead to greater learning through practice. 

Passion is how one does something.  Anything worth doing is worth doing with one’s full and maximum effort.  A student can slop together any old presentation or they can passionately create something that goes above and beyond the assigned task and reveals a personal connection to the student.

Pride is the feeling one gets from a job well done.  Hopewell is a great place to teach and learn.  The fact that I get to be principal for a year fills me with a tremendous amount of pride.  I want our students to be proud of where they are from and proud of themselves this year. 

Stay tuned for the next edition (less than two weeks from now). 

-Mr. Rowe

#HHSBeAwesomeIn15-16