Retiring Supt. Moline: Student Images Frame the Vision of Royal Oak Schools

In the last Royal Oak Board of Education meeting of the school year, board members heard positive messages and goodbyes from top administrators. 

'Focus on Royal Oak' Video

Michael Conrad, video/media/television instructor at, asked the board for assistance in getting out the vote in Ford’s “Focus on Schools” video contest with a chance to win up to $10,000 for the high school.

Conrad organized a group of students to film a video commercial called “Focus on Royal Oak” featuring Ford’s 2012 Focus. The ad is among those being voted on through July 15 on the program’s website, fordfocusonschools.com.

Conrad told board members he was very proud of his students, who volunteered to work on the project after school.

“The students did everything. It was run, written, acted, and edited by them,” he said. “This is a chance for the high school to be recognized on a national level and raise some money too.”

The goal is for the commercial to end in the top 10 to win at least $1,000, but the Ravens need lots of votes. Conrad said he believes it’s doable, and asks the community to vote daily and share the link on social networking sites such as  Facebook and Twitter.

Budget Update

Retiring Executive Director of Business Services and Personnel  addressed the board for the last time. He said the budget it adopted will position the district “for a really good school year.”

Schwartz was optimistic about the 2011-12 school year, calling it “exciting” and saying he believes the several new school principals in the district will bring a “fresh and new perspective.”

While confident he is leaving the district stable, Schwartz noted challenges  remain, including declining enrollment, funding cutbacks and facility maintenance costs.

Superintendent’s Comments

said his thank you's and goodbye's at the previous school board meeting, so Thursday night he opted to share a photograph that he said underscored the question posed most to him in his six years in Royal Oak: "What is your vision for the Royal Oak school district?" The photograph he displayed was of Interact Club 

The picture that painted a thousand words showed students in their yellow T-shirts and hard hats who paid their own way to Joplin with the help of their parents. Moline said that was significant. “Students who seem to excel in our school system have strong parent support,” he said.

The photograph also included Royal Oak teachers who Moline considers “highly qualified” and who “give voluminous amounts of time to their students.”

“Students who have working relationships with teachers, quite frankly, friendly relationships, are the students who typically excel better in classes,” Moline said. “Students don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.”

Finally, Moline’s vision for Royal Oak students is to instill a sense of service to others within the curriculum. He said research supports that those who do work for the needs of others and have that focus, “live very happy and productive lives. Those are gifts that we would like to give our students before they leave high school.”

Moline concluded with “Thank you Royal Oak for the opportunity, for the friendship and for six great years.”