For Superintendent Robert Jansen, this aligns perfectly with his personal core value, “every human being is important.” He shares, “To have the opportunity to work alongside families to help every child reach their full potential is an incredible honor. And for us, it’s created an environment where we are working towards ensuring every child feels a sense of belonging, a sense of connection.” A CULTURE OF BELONGING AND TRUST Jansen emphasizes the importance of creating a school environment where every student has the opportunity to experience positive, trusting relationships. “Once you create that, true learning can take place,” he depicts, touting that Lincoln Consolidated Schools is fortunate to have wonderful staff, and a supportive community who go above and beyond to build these trusted connections with students. As a district made up of 5 townships, Lincoln Consolidated Schools truly is a center of the community.“We have a couple of small communities, but our families look to us to be the hub if you will,” Jansen portrays. “We are also a very diverse district, which makes us beautiful, but within that there’s so many different ways of thinking and we spend a lot of time just communicating with our community about us being that safe place, where kids can come and be connected with people. We talk a lot about kindness, compassion, and modeling that as adults in the community.” EARLY LEARNING INITIATIVES AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Recognizing the value of early childhood education, Lincoln Consolidated Schools offers a range of programs through their Model Early Childhood Center, including Great Start Readiness Preschool, and Head Start. “With the state moving to universal preschool, that is a priority of ours,” Jansen reports. “Developing the relationships with the school community early on is going to be a long term goal of ours. Parenting is not easy. And the sooner we connect and make those relationships, the better.” Director of Communications and Information Services, Vicki Coury, details the district’s proactive approach to community engagement. “We are the center of the community, so we continually are working not only with our families, but also with partners,” she emphasizes.“We have partners from Regional Health Alliance, through University of Michigan. We have partners with Eastern Michigan University (EMU) and student teaching.We work with our local realtors and we work with our state and local leaders to make sure that we are building our relationships.” 385 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 07 L INCOLN CONSOL IDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT
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