President’s Corner

Blades Elementary School in St. Louis, Missouri . . . home of the barracudas.  That was where I spent my elementary school years.  There were only two men in the whole school; my sixth grade teacher and our principal, Mr. Warner.  Peuler and Warner; their names sound familiar, but their dispositions are not.  We feared Mr. Warner.  If you were called to his office, it was BAD!  It’s funny; from time to time Mr. Peuler will say, “Can I talk to you in my office?”, and those words still bring back scary memories.   Scary memories that never actually happened to me, but that spread throughout the school and onto the playground where we would hang out on the monkey bars and gossip about what had happened in “his office” on any particular day.

My family came to VSE in August of 2003, and it might have taken a month for me to realize that Vandora Springs reminded me of my elementary school.  From the ladies in the front office who seem to know everyone by name, and who I believe really do have eyes on the back of their heads, to Music McManus (as my son calls her and whose twin was my elementary music teacher), the similarities run deep.

I get asked all of the time, “What can we expect from Vandora Springs”, and my answer is always the same.  You can expect to feel welcome and, strangely enough, like you are walking back into time when you are on campus.  Yes, “Lady Vandora” celebrates her 50th Birthday this year, but it’s not really the building that makes the school, is it?  It’s the teachers who give their heart and soul every day that make a school what it is.  It’s the principals who show kindness instead of causing fear; it’s the PE teacher who encourages those students who might not be so good at jumping rope with a kind word; it’s the custodian who gets the call to clean up a mess made by a sick child and responds in her sweet voice with an “I’ll be right there.”  That’s what makes a great school. 

So I say, “WELCOME BACK” to those of you who are returning to Vandora Springs and “WELCOME” to those of you who are new to our school.  To all of us I say “CONGRATULATIONS!”  We are the lucky few who have, by chance, found ourselves at the finest elementary school in all of Wake County! 

Wishing you the best in the coming year,

Carrie Bischof