Director's View: Back in the Swing of Things

Dr. Vic Wilson, CLAS Executive Director

Hello everyone,

By the time you read this, summer will have effectively ended for school personnel and students as many of our schools begin professional learning in early August and students follow shortly thereafter. It is my hope that you were able to enjoy some quality time with friends, family and/or alone. I was able to do all three, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also needed the alone time. Just sayin’…

The 51 st CLAS Convention was a success with almost 1000 people in attendance in Birmingham, AL. Thanks to the hard work of the CLAS Staff and volunteers, we had a wonderful convention with great speakers from around the state, region, and nation. We also had great networking opportunities and collaborative time with friends and colleagues. Many of you also took time to visit the historic venues in Birmingham during the conference. As always, let us know if you have ideas that can strengthen our convention or other professional learning events.

Many of our members also attended other state and national conferences this summer, and I hope you were able to gain valuable insight during any conference you attended. I was able to attend the NAESP conference and enjoyed the event and the venue.

We have also had local professional learning, summer school, and other events at every system in the state. The amount of work being done by the educators across the state is staggering. Our members are working hard to have a positive impact on those under their care. Thank you all for that! Summer is not free time; summer is simply different work designed to impact the learning environment.

Every aspect of summer is designed to get you ready for the opening of school. This includes your down time. If you fail to schedule time to relax, you run the risk of having a negative impact on the school year. Please take care of yourself so you can take care of everyone else. Too often, leaders fail to care for themselves. To that end, we are adding professional learning opportunities for this very aspect. We want to give you tools to help with every aspect of the job, and that includes self-care.

The 2022-2023 school year will be a great year for students in Alabama because of the exceptional work being done by school leaders, teachers, board members, and support personnel around the state. Thank you all for your hard work!

Finally, remember to craft your narrative or someone will craft it for you.

Sincerely,

Vic Wilson, CLAS Executive Director