By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

The Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting kicked off an hour early Thursday to make room for a workshop to redefine the district’s mission statement for the first time in 12 years.

The workshop was open to the public, but the room was sparsely populated. Still, trustees forged ahead, deciding what language the district’s new mission statement should include.

“It seems to me that beyond education, what we really want to do is to prepare kids for a secure future of successfully being able to take care of their needs, to provide for others’ needs and to also give back to the community,” board President Rosie Switzer said.

“If I think of the three things that are important, it’s really the education, because that’s what we provide, what environment or what culture we want to have, and what kind of people we want to be,” Trustee Steve Messina said.

“To provide a high-quality education in a safe, secure and nurturing environment is just what I’ve been about all along,” Trustee Dana Dean said.

“Another thing that keeps coming up in my mind is this notion that not everybody goes to college, and we have addressed that in the past with the ‘preparing for college and/or career.’”

Trustee Gary Wing mentioned examples from other school districts. “I love ‘being productive citizens in an ever-changing global society, or contributing to a global society,’ but I love the ‘being productive’ part,” he said. “Something where we can say they will be productive in society.”

“I come back to three words,” Messina said. “One of them is ‘education.’ One of them is really ‘safe,’ or ‘safety,’ and the other is ‘caring’ in terms of how we deliver it.”

The district’s previous mission statement read: “By building bridges throughout our historical, culturally rich and supportive community, our mission is to prepare all students for a successful future in a safe learning environment with diverse opportunities, enriched curriculum and high expectations.”

After a few versions were thrown out for discussion, trustees decided Thursday on “to provide a quality education and a caring community in a safe environment.”

“This is going to guide our work on April 28 when we do our strategic planning session,” Superintendent Janice Adams said.

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