By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman knows it is important to get back to school in buildings in August.
"We will open schools on August 13," Couchman said. "We will open schools as safely as possible, with as many safety precautions as can realistically be implemented and still open our buildings. We won't be able to mitigate all risk for our staff and students, but that mitigating the risk is our priority. We want to keep our staff and our students safe and we also know that we need to be in our buildings."
Couchman believes that the obstacles schools face can be overcome with a positive attitude and hope for the future.
"We've been provided this unique time in our school systems to really reimagine things," Couchman said. "That's really what hope is about, to imagine that tomorrow, it can be magical. We have great hope for this school year next year and expectations for high achievement."
The key to that is the concept of agency not only for administration, but for teachers and staff. It's about empowering everyone to work individually and together, no matter what the new school year throws at the district.
"We want to give our staff agency," Couchman said. "I want to give my administrators agency. Sometimes definitions change on that, but, for me, that sense of agency comes from writing your own script and being the hero in your own story. Giving that agency to our teachers and our staff and our administration is really, I think, the way that you build trust."
Couchman was one of three chairs of the Continuous Learning Task Force in March that helped put together the state's Continuous Learning Plan.