A full work week has passed since the retreat concluded, and in that week I went from feeling so excited about the possibilities and so supported in my role by everyone involved, to feeling like I am caught up in the daily grind again, so to speak.  I hope by writing down some thoughts from the weekend, I can capture the feeling I had on Sunday afternoon and carry those feelings with me to work everyday.

As always, the retreat gave me a chance to step away from the day-to-day details that take up my time here at the VISION Office and really help me think about the big picture.  That picture includes the wide world of education to the individual learners we are serving.  A theme that came up for me over and over again was that even though we are our own little program in the North Fork Valley of Delta County, CO, an area with a population of maybe 5,000 people, what we are doing can influence the way public education is looked at and discussed nationwide.  That excites me.  The retreat reinforced for me that we are doing some amazing things with learners in our program.  We are truly offering choice to the students in Delta County and that is a great thing.  With this excitement and knowledge, came some questions for me as well.  What could turn the state or local school board against us?  What is happening out there that could close the program down even if we are doing a great service to the learners?  I came away from the discussions over the weekend with a realization that I need to be more aware of what is being discussed in the educational political landscape in Colorado so that we are more knowledgeable about what is happening out there that relates to what is happening here.    (continued on next page)

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