TEXT OF COMMENTS MADE BY
PETER A. STINSON
DURING PUBLIC SESSION OF THE
PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD
21 NOVEMBER 2002, 11:55PM
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the School Board, fellow citizens of this fair City, and interested individuals.
My apologies for not being here at the start of the meeting; I was working with a group of emergency medical technicians who recently suffered a critical incident and needed psychological debriefing. After this evening, perhaps you do, to.
My name is Peter Stinson. I am a seven-year resident of Portsmouth. My two sons � Andrew and Richard � are students at West Haven Elementary School. Thus my sweatshirt.
We stand at a crossroads here in Portsmouth.
Our schools are foundational; our children the future of this City.
You have a decision to make which you have pushed off, a decision to look forward with positive and inclusive leadership, putting our children and our city first... or to look backward with divisiveness and pettiness and perhaps putting your own selfish interests first.
I have a dream that you � as the elected school leadership � will show my children, by example, how to work together not in spite of our differences, but because of our differences.
I have a dream that all of us will use power and position not for personal gain but for the betterment of all persons and looking forward to the future.
I have a dream that education will draw businesses to Portsmouth; that we may become a beacon, not a laughing stock, in Hampton Roads.
I have a dream that some day integrity and compassion and leadership will be an integral part of all of our lives, both inside this room and outside it.
I have a dream that in our schools and in our neighborhoods and in our city, differences will be celebrated, not used as divisiveness or a wedge.
Today, you had a decision to make. Did you choose to help bring these dreams one step closer... or to help drag us further away from where we all � all of us � want to be?
I tell you tonight, Mr. Skipper Duck is the logical choice to be named Superintendent of Portsmouth City Schools. He is a man who values difference � all those things which bring diversity � and thus strength to the human experience.
Mr. Duck has been the consummate educator, administrator, leaders, and public servant. He will continue to be so, putting the needs of our children and our city first � above his needs, your needs, and my needs. Children and City first.
He has the passion and vision to lead us to that place of excellence we all so desperately seek and want.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Board � as a concerned parent, as a resident of the City of Portsmouth, as a registered voter � I ask that you put aside your differences and seek the unity called forth by all our dreams.
Thank you.
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