Page 6 - The Edge - Summer 2020

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
BY BRIAN MEE
Everybody Deserves Credit for

Coping with COVID-19
Brian Mee

School business officials and everyone else at all levels of at Disneyland. Fluent in Japanese, he was on the start-up

K-12 public education, take a bow – you earned it. team for Tokyo Disneyland, Disney’s first international
theme park. Lipp is certain to entertain and enlighten.
Everybody should be proud of themselves for taking on and
coping with something that just a few months ago wasn’t We don’t know exactly what the Summer Conference will
even in their vocabulary – coronavirus or COVID-19. You look like, but I know it will be exciting and a must-attend for
have taken on this unprecedented challenge and risen to AASBO members and their families. We are working very
the occasion. Indeed, you have gone above and beyond closely with the Starr Pass staff to assure participants and
everybody’s expectations in all areas of school operations. vendors will gather in a safe environment.

I’m not just talking about AASBO members. Governing If that’s not enough, there will be entertainment, educational
Boards, superintendents, principals and teachers are dealing breakout sessions and opportunities to meet and mingle with
with things they never dreamed of. a broad array of vendors.

As I collect my thoughts for this column, we don’t know how So let’s all get through this coronavirus challenge together.
open Arizona will be when you read this. We’ll probably be
dealing with a whole new set of unknowns – what that’s "I can’t get over how positively
going to look like and how we handle things. I can’t get over
how positively everyone has responded to the coronavirus everyone has responded to the
pandemic that has caused our schools to be closed, at least coronavirus pandemic that has
through the end of the spring semester. Our goal is to get
things back to normal as soon and as safely as we can. caused our schools to be closed,
at least through the end of the
Looking ahead, without the benefit of a crystal ball, we

continue to plan for our annual Summer Conference and spring semester. Our goal is to get
Expo. But because of today’s uncertainties, the conference things back to normal as soon and
originally set for July 15-18 at the J W Marriott Starr Pass
Resort & Spa has been rescheduled for Sunday August as safely as we can."
30 through Wednesday September 2 at the same Tucson

resort. I’m pleased to confirm that two outstanding keynote
speakers have adjusted their schedules and will be able to
appear. They are retired Maine Corps Colonel Arthur Athens
and Disney alumnus Doug Lipp.

Colonel Athens recently left the federal government, having
served for the past decade as the Director of the U.S. Naval
Academy’s Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for
Ethical Leadership. His leadership skills are an inspiration
to all, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

Lipp, CEO and President of G. Douglas Lipp & Associates,
a consulting firm, began his career in the Disney University

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