Creating a Sense of Community With the Maple Syrup Festival

Well, this weekend was the 50th Annual Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival. I have only been a part of it for 39 years. Of course, I was only six months old for my first one. I don’t know what others think about the festival weekend, but I really like it. I am sure that a lot of it is the nostalgia of it all. I have so many memories from when I was kid.

I remember my dad serving as the President and Vice President of the Shepherd Sugar Bush Corporation and all of the other years that he worked to support the festival. I remember my first job of community service for the syrup festival was pushing little pills in the holes that were drilled in trees to insert the hardware on which the buckets were hung. The purpose of the pills was for the health of the trees. The purpose of choosing me was because I had small fingers and could push the pill in the hole! I graduated to collecting sap and watching the evaporation process at the “sap house” when my dad was working. I also helped can the finished maple syrup and helped make the maple candy. Over the years, I have done most every job there is during the pancake and sausage meals.

All of this work by the community serves to benefit the community. There are material contributions, but for me, I just like the sense of community that the festival brings. Everyone (well many) comes together to pull off this weekend of activity as well as preparing the product for which the festival is held. This gives Shepherd a sense of identity. Many people know of Shepherd because of its maple syrup and the festival or because they know of the school. Speaking of school, the school basically gives its facilities to this community event. I don’t know when it started, but I know that school has been canceled the Friday of the big weekend for as long as I can remember so all of the set up can be done. The high school, middle school, and main elementary host activities throughout the weekend.

As the current Shepherd High School principal, I can appreciate the excitement of the students. I always got excited, too. To be truthful, I may get more excited now. I want to experience all that the festival has to offer and to do it all. I want my kids to do all of the same things that I did as a child. This year was no exception. I don’t think my kids fully understand the significance to me, but I want to help them understand the tradition of the festival and giving back to the community. I think this was one of my best years.

I try to do as much as the festival has to offer. This year I was able to do the following:

Ø Take my kids to the carnival rides (I remember when there were no carnival rides.)

Ø See the antique tractor display

Ø Watch some of the farm stock tractor pull

Ø Visit the Train Depot Museum

Ø Visit the Sugar Bush

Ø Visit the Little Red School House Museum

Ø Watch the Parade of Emergency Vehicles

Ø Work the pancake and sausage meals and then partake of the same

Ø Visit the indoor crafts

Ø Visit the outdoor crafts

Ø Ride the Navy flight simulator

Ø Watch the Chainsaw Carver Show

Ø Watch a little of the Saturday tractor pull

Ø Watch Cow Patty Bingo

Ø Watch the special 50th Anniversary fire works

Ø Watch the parade

Ø And – I had to buy some maple candy and maple syrup!

Of course, one of the highlights is just being able to spend time with family and see old friends in town. I hope that all who read this can appreciate the benefits of being part of a small town community!

Questions & Answers

This post is designated for individuals to ask questions that may come up regarding SHS issues or education issues. This post allows for viewer comments. If you have a question, please click the "comments" button and ask away. I don't guarantee to have all of the answers, but I will do my best. Please don't use the blog for specific, personal issues. A phone call or email is a better format for that.

Here is a good starter question.

Q: "If the priority for the new bond proposal was the main elementary, why are the sports complex and Winn elementary starting first?"

A: The main reason that the design and construction schedule has Winn and the sports complex first is actually because the main elementary and main campus improvements are the biggest. The design phase is so much more involved that it simply takes longer to prepare. The Winn project and the sports complex projects are relatively small. The design time is much less so these projects can be started before the design phase of the main campus is complete. If the project schedule put the Winn and Sports complex after the main campus, the overall completion of the entire bond project would be even longer. The architectural and construction management firms are trying to maximize efficiency to get the overall project done as quickly as possible.

Knowing Your Principal

This is my first attempt at blogging. This is a way for me to share information about being the principal at Shepherd High School.

It is great to be back working in my home town. I have lived in Shepherd all of my live. I literally have never lived outside the village limits. One of my claims to fame is that I lived at home until I was 27. Before you laugh, just consider how much money I was saving. I didn't really have a good reason to leave! I finally moved out when I was married. Even then, I lived in town.

I graduated from SHS in 1987, and I stayed at home while I was attending Alma College. I was able to get done in four years with a double major in history and political science and my teaching certificate. I graduated from Alma in April of 1991. That fall I was hired by Mt. Pleasant Public Schools to teach in the Isabella County Jail. I taught GED prep and some basic skills to help inmates earn a diploma. I also taught a couple of other adult education classes. I only did this for about a semester until I was offered a position as a grant administrator. This was a very big step for me because I had a chance to start doing some administrative work.

I knew that I needed to work in a regular K-12 position if I ever wanted to pursue administration in a K-12 building. After a total of four years in Mt. Pleasant, I applied for a position in Shepherd at Odyssey. I was hired and worked at Odyssey for a year (1995-1996). I then took a position in the high school. I finished my administrative master's degree in 1998 and then continued to work at SHS until July of 2002.

In July of 2002, I was hired by Farwell Area Schools as a high school assistant principal. This was a very good experience. I was glad that Farwell took a chance on me and gave me the opportunity to obtain administrative experience. After two years, I decided to try for another position. This time I applied for a position with Midland Public Schools. I was hired to begin the 2004-2005 school year. This provided me with more great experience. I was the Level I Assistant Principal at Northeast Middle School. I went from a small rural school to a large city school and from high school to middle school. I went from a school with limited resources to a school with expanded resources. I also went from a school with seven administrators to a school with many more than that. I really liked working in Midland, but I was still living in Shepherd. Midland, as nice as it was, was not "home." In 2006, I applied for the head high school principal position. My past experience really helped to make a case that I should be hired for this position. When it was all said I done, I was hired and began at SHS in December of 2006. I have been at SHS since then.

One thing that I didn't mention is that when I first moved from Mt. Pleasant to Shepherd, I met this new teacher. This new teacher and I got to know each other over the course of a few months (September to December) and by December 24th we were engaged. Kristi (Sneary) and I were married the following July - July 6th, 1996. As you can figure, we worked as colleagues until I left in 2002. When I returned in 2006, she had taken a position as the district media specialist.

We had a son, Alex, in 1998 and a daughter, Adri, in 2000. Now we all go to the same place every day. This is very cool. I am glad to be back in Shepherd where my wife works and my kids go to school.

This introduction is a little long, but it is an overview of how I came to be the principal at Shepherd High School.