CEO Update
Following is a letter of welcome from new Edison Chief Executive Officer Terry Stecz. Terry was recently chosen to attend the 2007 Broad Superintendents Academy, an elite national school management program.
January 23, 2007
Dear Edison Family,
The New Year traditionally rekindles hope. It also affirms my belief that 2007 will illuminate new possibilities for the children we educate. All of us engaged in this honorable task share the grand vision for what Edison Schools can become and what, together, we can achieve in making a positive and life-changing difference to every child in our care.
As Edison Schools’ recently appointed Chief Executive Officer, I recognize and accept this solemn responsibility and articulate my response as a threefold commitment to you and to all our stakeholders.
First, since 2004, we have been re-examining and challenging every aspect of the support and services we provide America's most vulnerable students. We have explored every strategy and every organizational effectiveness initiative. We have examined everything from the length of the school day and class size to technology and its uses. All these factors contribute to the improvement and success of our core mission.
But the single most critical factor that determines excellence in education is also the most universal: Schools must have great educators, who are highly motivated and well-prepared.
Commitment No.1: I will do whatever is necessary to position our company and its resources for identifying, recruiting, and developing our greatest asset-our teachers and principals!
Second, Edison Schools has already forged a powerful and dynamic capability to create new, transformational approaches to learning. Life is not a dress rehearsal for our kids. We have precious few chances to make a difference in their lives. That’s why we are diligently working on a suite of new products and services that will leverage the knowledge we’ve acquired to address a wide spectrum of on-going learning challenges.
We’ve spent the past year working with education experts and thought leaders, listening to scores of our constituents, and learning from competitive organizations to inform our understanding of what is truly “best practice” and what has the greatest impact on learning. I will keep you abreast of our development efforts.
Commitment No.2: Because we know our partners and their needs better than anyone in the industry, we will deliver educational products based on in-depth research and proven solutions for the highest benefit and welfare of each child.
Finally, we work in a complex and ever-evolving industry. Yet, to succeed, great companies must be built on ethical values and time-honored ways of doing business. Edison Schools’ eight core values provide the foundation for the most dynamic, high-impact culture of achievement in our highest-performing schools.
The culture we will grow at Edison Schools is built to last. It is a culture that, while promoting and enhancing change, places a higher emphasis on a more fundamental value—trust.
As leader of Edison Schools, I promise you:
* We will place trust at the center of everything we do.
* Every initiative we undertake will be built on trust.
* Trust will be our unbreakable bond.
Mutual trust enables us to succeed with one another, with our partners, our students and all our stakeholders.
Commitment No.3: We will only achieve the best outcomes for our students when we work in total trust with our partners and with organizations and individuals who support comprehensive school reform. Doing so, we will act more dependably, listen more actively, and respond more completely to the needs of all our constituents.
Edison Schools is pioneering new and better ways to reach more students every day. We are logging real, measurable improvements in educational outcomes. There is still much work to do and I don’t have all the answers. Together with our leadership team, I am confident we can achieve our goals—most assuredly, for our company; but even more significantly for our students.
We are playing a vital role in the greatest moral challenge America faces today. Edison Schools stands in a leadership position to meet this challenge head-on. As we embark upon our many new ventures, we reaffirm Edison’s commitment to its core mission of successfully educating children in our public charter schools and district partnerships.
I invite you to join me in a renewed bond of trust as we strive to make a “world-class education” a reality for every child in America.
Sincerely,
Terry Stecz
President and Chief Executive Officer