The day was all about one word: grit. It made the speeches: “It is grit this year.” It made the songs: “Grit, grit, gritty-grit. Get your heart full of it.”
And finally made it on my list of questions. Thankfully, CCDS Principal Megan Neely was there to explain the meaning of grit and why the school chose it as their annual motivational word.
“It really shows kids that things don’t, it doesn’t need to come easily,” Neely said. “But some of the best things in life you have to work hard at. You have to fail, you’ve to pick yourself back up and try it again and not always listen to the other people around you to make things happen.”
Grit’s significance held especially true today as the whole school gathered to celebrate the new campus – a project speakers said took years of planning and hard work to create.
The actual construction of the new school took one year. It was completed this month and includes many new buildings with the most prominent being a new gymnasium built completely from the ground up.
The project was paid for with Prop 1D funds. CCDS was awarded about $8 million. Prop 1D funds were awarded to 29 public charter schools in the state. CCDS was the only school to receive funds in Butte County. Other Northern California counties that received funds included: Alameda, Contra-Costa, Nevada, Sacramento, San Francisco and Sonoma.