Superintendent Laura VanDuyn, Ed.D.

Dear Cedar Springs Public School Families:

Happy New Year 2016!  We are so happy to have our schools teeming, once again, with our students, staff and families.  It is my hope you enjoyed a restful vacation from school and that you are ready to take on all the excitement this new year brings.

As we know, there will be challenges and celebrations throughout 2016.  Our positive perspective on what is ahead will lead us to continued growth and development at CSPS.  Please join me in embracing each challenge we may face in 2016 as we know it’s how we learn, grow and thrive. We’ll have many celebrations as we work together and witness the greatness our kids and staff will achieve in 2016.  I know we have some seniors already considering a celebration as the magic “2016” is the year they have been waiting for a long time!  Hold off on that seniors…you still have a lot of work to do!

As we kick off 2016 I want to thank a committed group of people who keep this district so strong…our PTO.  I have witnessed the incredible number of hours this group of parents dedicates to all our schools.  I have learned about the countless things they do to raise funds and support our needs and wants. Just to name a few:  they pay for and build playgrounds;  they provide meals and support to our staff during conferences; they ensure Santa Claus and cookies are a part of the fun at Cedar Trails; they organize and run our book fairs and supply our teachers with many books for their classrooms; they host ice cream socials to build community; they supply books for and help run our libraries; they cheer on all our kids as they walk the track for our annual PTO fundraiser.  Our CSPS PTO seeks to serve and they do so with a smile and great cheer knowing that they are building community at Cedar Springs.  Thank you, PTO, and Happy New Year to all of you from all of us at CSPS!

We have many exciting things happening as we enter 2016.  One of which is strategic planning.  If you are interested in providing feedback for that process, please let me know as we would love to have your input.  There are parent and community group meetings to be held in February in order to provide the Board of Education with input to help them establish the vision (where we want to go), mission (why we are doing what we are doing) and core values (how we are going to go about it) of our school distict.  Our CSPS Board of Education values all constituent group feedback and looks forward to setting the vision of the district for future progress for all.

It’s great to be back!  Together, let’s make 2016 the best year ever!

Warmly,

Laura VanDuyn, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools