I have been doing a terrible job keeping this blog up to date. It's just sad. And I don't even have any pictures to share. Jeff got me a new camera for Christmas and I haven't figured out how to get the pictures off of it yet. I know it's easy, I just haven't sat down to do it. So, in a nut-shell, here's the last two months in review.
-The week before Christmas, I invited my homeroom over to our house for a Christmas party. I did discover that our house is not designed for running 8th graders. However, it was great experience and built a good relationship between me and the kids. The kids, never in a million years, would admit to my face what a big deal this was for them, but many parents have commented on it. I'm hoping this can be a yearly tradition for me.
-Right after Christmas break, I had my directing debut with the 8th grade play. For the most part both performances went off without a hitch. I did think we were in trouble when on opening night, 3rd line into it, one of the actors forgot his name. Instead of breezing over it as we had practiced, he uttered a loud "oh crap", rolled his eyes, and threw his hands into the air. Thankfully we recovered and no more major (noticeable) mistakes were made.
- In a flurry of meetings, our middle school staff fought to keep 8th grade at the middle school next year. Our superintendent wanted to move them to the high school to save money. Although it was a stressful time, it forced us to articulate what our mission was as a middle school, and why it's in the kids' best interest to be there and not at the high school.
-On January 19 a special school board meeting was called to discuss the mandate to create a combined principle/superintendent job for the 2010-2011 school year. We knew that our middle school principle could be the one with this job or he could be the one let go. In our (the MS staff) he was the best fit for the job. The board disagreed. We were informed that our principle would not be returning next year. This broke our hearts. There was a lot of anger and broken trust created in the way this decision was carried out.
-We were informed yesterday that our principle gave the board his letter of resignation for this current school year. There were so many tears in the room as he told us his reasons - both personal and professional. I have only had the privilege of working under him for 6 months, but I have the utmost respect for him as a man of God and as a middle school educator. He has a passion for what he does, for his staff, and for the kids. Out of the five administrators I've worked under, I liked working for him the best. He will be missed. It's a shame that the board couldn't see that. That's not the way to end a 26 year career at the school.
-My prayer for the coming weeks is that peace will be restored in our association. That we can become unified. That we will open our hearts and attempt to trust the board again. More hard decisions remain to be made. I pray that the board will not make decisions that negatively impact the education in the name of budgets. Most of all, I pray that we educate the kids in our classrooms and approach this situation in a Godly way as an example to them.
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