Superintendent’s Community Update, June 25, 2021
Dear Hastings Families, Faculty and Staff,
On Wednesday, the Governor announced the rescission of the State of Emergency, which has been in place since the start of the pandemic in March. It is exhilarating to end the school year and enter summer recess without the restrictions we have come to accept. This exhausting year is now over and we can look forward to better days ahead without the same fears and uncertainties that shrouded us for months. There isn’t enough gratitude to bestow upon District administrators, faculty, staff, the Board of Education, families, and children for all that was undertaken to arrive at this point. I am truly grateful and deeply appreciative of your contributions to making this school year end better than it began. Today is our last day of school. We made it!
I’ll leave you with a poem by Morgan Harper Nichols that symbolizes our journey through this difficult year.
you may not be able
to bury your hardest times
forgetting that they happened,
or change them down the line,
because those times were hard,
they’ll endure the moments when
you realize you are strong enough
to stand on top of them.
so wear your strongest posture now
and see your hardest times
as more than just the times you fell
but a range of mountains
you learned to climb.
Farewell and have a wonderful summer vacation.
Sincerely,
Valerie Henning-Piedmonte, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
