The Decatur County School System held its annual convocation Monday morning as the official beginning of the 2016-17 school year. Teachers and staff returned to work on Monday and students have their first day on Friday.

The staff sang and danced before hearing a motivational speech from new superintendent Tim Cochran.

“This is the point where I’m going to try and motivate you and get you fired up for the new year,” Cochran said. “I don’t know what previous superintendents did, but if you hadn’t it figured out, he’s not here.”

After introducing himself and talking abut his background, he outlined his three rules of what he expects from every school system employee.

“I’ve got three rules and they’re pretty tough,” Cochran said. “They’re pretty high expectations. They sound simple, but believe it nor not if you can do these three on a regular basis you can be pretty successful.”

His first rule was to always do your job and not to worry about other peoples’.

“Its very important to give all you’ve got, for what you’re hired to do,” Cochran said. “If you’re a teacher, you have 180 days to move a kid as far as you can move them.”

The emphasis on moving kids and having an impact on their lives was a major theme in his speech. He reminded the staff that they have kids coming from tough backgrounds that look up to teachers and staff. That was why his second rule was to always be positive.

“We accepted the challenge to try and move these children and it’s our job to put our best face forward,” he said.

His third rule was to always put the kids first. He said that the kids are the only reason they all have jobs. Cochran implored the staff to look at their classroom, their lessons and themselves and make sure they are doing the best they can to impact the kids in a positive way.

“[I’m trying] to encourage you to drive for awesome,” Cochran said. “Create awesome and you can do it, but you can’t do it by sitting in a box. You can’t do it by doing the same old same old that everybody does. You’ve got to get outside that box. Get outside your comfort zone and create awesome.”

His message was that they cannot afford to waste a single day when they are trying to impact the kids. He encouraged the teachers to start being awesome on day one and make sure that they have a great first day planned for the students on Friday.