SUPER MONDAY

A motivational and informational morning message from Superintendent Willis

Week 1 ~ August 11th, 2025

Super Monday Message

Welcome back Piute County School District! All indications are that it’s going to be a great school year. In my welcome letter, which you might have received with the registration packet, I mentioned a study of the journals of some Catholic nuns. I mentioned that researchers found that those who expressed more positive emotions in their journals lived longer. When we live life looking for the positive, we tend to find it, and we are rewarded with longer life. That study also found that nuns with higher levels of literacy were at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The Catholic nun study is just the tip of the positivity iceberg. To really reap the rewards of a positive attitude we have to understand its association with success. We are frequently trapped in thinking that happiness only comes after success. The research is clear, people do not develop a positive attitude because they achieved success, they achieve success because they developed a positive attitude. 

In 2010, Shawn Achor published the book The Happiness Advantage, where he shares the training on happiness he presented to Fortune 500 companies around the world. He explains that being happy regardless of circumstances gives you a competitive edge in work and life. In our daily struggles, from getting the laundry done to working for a promotion to hoping for that bumper crop, we convince ourselves that happiness just has to wait a little longer. However, the opportunity to be happy is available to us all the time. Taking the opportunity to be happy sooner actually increases our chances of success.

Mr. Achor gives seven principles for leading a successful and fulfilling life. I’ll highlight just two of them with this short message. The book refers to these two principles as “The Tetris Effect” and “The Zorro Circle”. The Tetris Effect comes from the phenomenon of people that have played a lot of Tetris start noticing the geometric shape of everything they interact with. The more you focus on something, the more you see of it. If we deliberately focus on positive things, we will begin noticing more positivity in everything.

The Zorro Circle is a reference to the movie, The Mask of Zorro. In the movie Antonio Banderas (Zorro) is placed in a small circle by his mentor and told not to worry about anything outside the circle. When he masters focusing on only what is inside the circle, the circle is expanded. If we have big goals, big dreams, big hopes for improvement, we still have to start with a small circle. We tackle one manageable goal at a time. Each expansion of the circle brings an increase in confidence and momentum.

As we start this school year, remember that happiness and success are available to everyone. We are so excited to work with your students. We hope to make the process of learning enjoyable and we believe that doing so will also make their learning more successful. We are so grateful for our partnerships with you in building a great tomorrow for our students. Let’s have the happiest school year!

Super High Fives

Just a couple of the awesome recent accomplishments that need a big thank you. 

• A super high five to Aleia Nay for some dedicated summer work on our community art murals at Stan’s in Circleville and the car wash in Marysvale. They are big projects that have been a lot of fun. A super high five to all the students and parents that have participated in the project, particularly James Barney recently.
• A super high five to the coaches and advisors that coordinated a host of summer activities for teams and clubs. We had several camps and conferences that were a great success. We were excited to send our first group to the national HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) competition and they represented us well.
• Super high five to Bedrock Construction (David Lee), BHI, and the numerous subcontractors working on projects all over the district this summer. PHS students will lay the sod on the new softball field Friday and the first batch of concrete for the new elementary schools will be poured this week.

Other Super Information

• Fall Sports Calendar 2025
  • Link to subscribe to PHS Sports Calendar
• Welcome Back Youtube Video
• 2025-2026 School District Calendar
• USBE Parent Portal

Super Weekly Schedule