Scott McLeanBy SCOTT McLEAN/Associate Superintendent for Operations

You may not know me but I bet you know of my youngest daughter, Hannah. For the past two years she has helped open Convocation by welcoming all 2,000-plus district employees to the event. Those of you that do know me probably wonder if she is really my daughter. I understand the reason for your doubt.

Hannah is the youngest of our three girls by a pretty big margin. When our family moved to Abilene in 2010 it was actually more for personal than professional reasons that we made the move. Hannah’s older sisters were students at ACU, and if we had stayed where we were, Hannah would have rarely seen them. I did not want Hannah to be a stranger to her own sisters.

When we moved here I assumed Hannah would receive a good education in Abilene ISD. I figured her school experience would be more or less the same as it would be wherever we lived. Looking back I realize that I was wrong. What has become evident to me is that Abilene ISD offers students unique opportunities to discover their strengths and explore their interests that are not available just anywhere. These unique student opportunities exist mainly because so many within Abilene ISD have been willing to do more than what is expected.

I did not expect a teacher to call during summer to ask permission to take Hannah, along with some other children, to the City Library just to make sure students kept reading during their time away from school. I did not expect a teacher to travel five hours on a Saturday just to watch former students compete in a 10-minute academic competition. I did not expect teachers to be such a consistent presence and source of encouragement in order to see just how far their students could stretch beyond their comfort zone. I did not expect a teacher to make a subject so compelling that a student would one day want to teach that very subject.

Perhaps it’s the district’s proximity to ACU, Hardin-Simmons and McMurry that the notion of going the extra mile permeates Abilene ISD’s culture. Maybe it’s just West Texas. Whatever it is, it is evident by the way Abilene ISD staff members instruct, coach and encourage students that they believe in doing more than what is expected.

Whether it is Hannah or some other student you have taught, coached, transported, fed or even cleaned up after, you will likely never know the impact you have made and continue to make on students each day. Given this is the last newsletter I get to write before Hannah graduates later this school year, I want to say thank you for making her experience in Abilene ISD something very special.