Of course one?s thoughts should be on thanks during this week of Thanksgiving, but one wouldn?t expect it to be the prevailing theme of a school board meeting, for heaven?s sake.The Hills-Beaver Creek School Board is hosting an open house in December to show off the new locker rooms at the high school. But board members opted to call the event, "An open house and thank you," because, according to Superintendent Dave Deragisch, "I?m very grateful for what the public has done for the students."Then there was the note of thanks from the non-certified staff thanking the School Board for the three-year contract settlement and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to work together to make better lives for the district?s young people.The board was told 27 percent of the high school students are on the A honor roll and 31 percent are on the B honor roll. "We want to note that this represents a super job by our students and staff," Deragisch said.And don?t forget the elementary school. Elementary Principal Doug Holtaus helped coordinate festivities during American Education Week, which included a 7:30 a.m. pastry party for parents on Wednesday, inviting 130 grandparents and special people to join elementary kids for lunch on Tuesday, giving staff members a thank you gift of poinsettias and recognizing the substitute educators.There was the thank you from Holtaus for the poinsettia he received and the thank you to the Rock County Sheriff?s Department for its cooperation during the elementary school lock down.There were the words of appreciation to the high school student council for planning a blood drive. "They?ve done a great job organizing this event."After the meeting I commented to a board member that an atmosphere of appreciation seems to permeate the school. She said, "Yeah, Dave really does a good job doesn?t he? And we really do have super people on our staff. They all do such a good job."What would be the eventual outcome of more organizations (schools, homes, churches, places of business) adopting the "gratitude attitude?"H-BC already sees one outcome. Deragisch told the board nearly seven of 10 students in the H-BC high school have missed one or fewer days of school since classes began. "We?ve done a good job with attendance this year and the credit goes not only to the students but to the parents as well."I drove home from the meeting feeling, well ... thankful.
