here we are back good to have time with another great superintendent attack too we have cow the kiper with us from zealand public schools welcome cal thank you two it's a great place to be that you are kind of a newbie to tulip time aren't you w are you know i've heard a tulip time is such a great reputation but i've never experienced it and yesterday i was down for the first parade and oh my goodness i had no idea it was that big where you had the luncheon to and i was at the luncheon it was in fact the zealand madrigals had the opportunity to sing the anthem and then i mean that was a great way to start in the message was a good message now and not only the american national anthem but also the national of the national anthem of the netherlands right yes i packed i didn't know that that was going to happen and i was more impressed i had to get up and go around the back just to congratulate him and meet those students who have only been here three four months and i don't know all those programs and i sat back and my going to surprise that's there that they had just to do what they were doing so i had to meet the students you know it's an awesome gift that we have here to have this party for the whole community and the average body shows up and just has a great time dresses up we don't have to put on skull outfits or anything we can just be netherlands incorporated and it's a lot of fun so you are just getting your feet wet in the zealand public school district but you've been in education for a while right cal education a long time i was an athletic director and high school system principal and then became a superintendent in ludington i was there for eight years and knew so much about zealand effect as zealand had much to do with the development of programs in ludington because we were following along with the one to one technology plan that really is even began in many ways so we knew zealand well i had a daughter that went to hope college so we were here many years in a row and i'm a calvin college graduate so i understand that rivalry and it's kind of a partnership in a competitiveness all at the same time so i understand all that that just because of all that we've been pretty welcoming here and it feels good yeah ok we had two sons that went i hope and i went to calvin and yeah that's great it's a lot of fun with that rivalry and yeah and so you've been three to four months but what kind of things have you found to be rewarding but you know that the best part of this has been i've been partnering with gary who is the superintendent prior to me here in that interim position and so he and i have been working pretty hand in hand for the first couple of months and then gradually gary's pulling away it's really nice actually to start as a superintendent mid year it's always a tough day when if you don't know the district perfectly well and you could go at the end of august everything supposed to start but we could see everything begin mid year and you see it in action as it works you can meet everybody as it's working well and then c principals and the director has been very good i've been making a real point to be in the buildings to get to meet the staff and the teachers all the way through as much as i can and even students attending the event so my goal has been to get to know as many people as i can while this is running and then we can just continue on this path of improvement so if we were to ask you what are the future plans for zealand public schools are there things that are in the back of your mind that you're that you'd want to talk about right we're picking up on some of the projects were in line in the probably the most important to us is to maintain our growth in the curriculum offerings and there was a great growth in a p offerings all spectrums of that education process the one to one technology is so important to us that we find a way to sustain that for many many years and then to accommodate our growth because we're a growing district and our buildings are nearing to be full and they were just built recently so we're looking for how are we going to add on how do we work into the safety and security of this new world and what we're dealing with so that all of our entry ways are and so we're looking at all of that kind of thing all the same time yet it's not an easy job being a superintendent you can't take anything for granted any more can you know and you never know what's going to change you know all this  the education is heading into it's college prep but it's also career and tech readiness so how do we get every single student from where they are right now and i always think about when my son or daughter is going to be eighteen years old and they need to be ready for what's in the world that's our job and if we look at it as oh it's my son or daughter all of us that are in this together in this partnership than then we'll get there well that's awesome and you know this group of superintendents what a precious group of people and what responsibility  you have for the future of our community and we so are so grateful for you that you get up every day and work to help children learn and grow and protect them at the same time and that's an awesome gift to the future of this community i appreciate that and you know as a group of superintendents in the area we really do get along very well and i could tell that the minute i moved here they were welcoming said ok well here's what we're doing here's what we work on together when there's issues that come up we work on those regional wide all of west michigan you know we all live here together it's one big community in cindy pena school districts and they're big school districts but we really are a team that's amazing and that i found has been the comment of people when they come to this region is how do you do that cooperation thing you know with so many people are used to silo businesses and silo education organizations and instead here we really work hard to work together to solve the problems because the problems are bigger than particular district right we have to get over the fact that were individually competitive which we are to some extent because of the school of choice but much more important than that is that cooperation in the partnership in the clay and we really do that well that is awesome and that is a huge gift to the community to have people with the maturity to live above the competition and really care about the kids so people yeah well welcome to the community and welcome to your first film i hope yeah man you got the right weather and everything's blooming and so it's a banner year so i'm glad you can be a part of it catherine thank you good to meet you yeah take care