There aren’t many traditions with this blog. I have been doing it for over four years now. That’s not that long, in the scheme of things. But one thing I do each year is to post my annual First Day of School (FDOS) photo of my kids. Well, it used to be “kids” (plural). Now it’s just “kid”. When I started this job in 2002, my annual FDOS had three kids in it. Now I’m down to one. That’s Ethan on the left. He is the youngest of my three boys. He is going to be a senior in high school this year, so this is my last FDOS.
I like to use the FDOS to draw your attention to the many things that the City of Eden Prairie and the Eden Prairie School District do together to make Eden Prairie a great place to live, work and dream. We cooperate on traffic management to make sure that drivers, cyclists and walkers can get to school safely each year. We have police officers in the schools at Central Middle School and the High School for programming and safety purposes. The City’s Housing and Community Services employees work with the School’s early childhood education staff to insure that eligible families in town have access to pre-school programs. Our Parks & Recreation staff work with the athletics and activities staff at the High School to make sure that city and school facilities are ready to go for falls sports. I talk frequently with the Superintendent on a broad spectrum of issues impacting our respective organizations. And last, but certainly not least, the City Council and the School Board meet twice each year to talk about issues of mutual concern. The fall meeting is scheduled for September 18.
The handsome young man on the left ( the one in the green shirt) is my oldest son Toby. He graduated from college this past May. Today, September 4, he started his first professional job as a technical support engineer at a company in St. Paul called Secure Computing. He has become a fully functioning taxpaying contributing member of society. I’ve done my job. I could not be more proud of him.
Way to go Toby!
