When my journey as the Wylie ISD superintendent started nine years ago, I wanted to learn more about our school district by asking a group of school and community leaders this question:
“What are the values an ideal Wylie ISD student should possess when they graduate.”
Each person listed their most important values on separate sticky notes. We collected the notes and separated them by each value.
When we tallied their responses, two values were listed five times more than all the others, caring and giving.
This told me that teaching our kids to care and give to others is VERY important. Each year, roughly 40 million Americans are impacted by hunger. That’s almost one in eight Americans that lack enough money or resources to secure enough to eat. Chances are, someone your child goes to school with may not have enough to eat. Caring for these babies is vitally important to their hopefulness and well-being.
For the next nine weeks our kids will learn about the importance of caring and giving. We hope this focus will help students care about and act on these values. Research tells us the best way to learn is by practice.
During the holiday season, Wylie ISD works hard to ensure that our local community food pantry, The Wylie Community Christian Care Center, is stocked with food and supplies needed to support our community.
Annually, Wylie ISD provides this food pantry with more food and supplies than anyone else. Last year, our kids gave 95,255 units of food and more than $15,000 in monetary donations.
Our goal this year is 100,000 units of food! It’s a lofty goal, but I know that together we can make it happen! Parents can help us by allowing your kids to participate. We also encourage you to discuss the importance of giving to and caring about your community. Being self-aware that a friend or classmate is hungry or struggling helps them to realize the importance of caring and giving to others.
Thank you in advance for taking care of our kids and our community the Wylie Way. Thank you for guiding our kids to understand that we are not just helping our community; we are helping the students that sit next to you. Caring, giving and loving our neighbor is the Wylie Way!
