Feasting

The local grocery (HyVee) has offered a free turkey if one purchases a whole Hormel Ham. Hubby came home with the ham and I studded it with cloves and baked it in brown sugar and sweet pickle brine. The ham was delicious -- but two people, one who should NOT eat ham because of the salt content, cannot eat a whole ham. For a week now I've make ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches every day for lunch but I'm done with it. I'm "hammed" out.

So last night Hubby made a Sam's run and came home with two loaves of Wonder white bread, a huge package of sliced cheeses and one of Sam's gi-normous pumpkin pies. He sliced up the ham, made containers of mustard and mayo, and then thinly sliced the pumpkin pie. This morning he loaded me up and off I went with a feast for the kids.

By 8:00 a.m. my room was packed with kids stuffing ham sandwiches into their mouths. And smiling. Second block my community teachers, on break, all filed in and made themselves plates of food.

Third block the ham was nearly depleted. I had thought we'd never eat all that much ham, but by third block we were adding in applesauce and mandarin oranges to supplement the sandwich supply.

Smiles all around. Everyone was delighted. And the ham was completely gone by 1 p.m.

I forgot to add . . . .

To the little pieces of pleasure I just wrote about, I wanted to add that I was wickedly pleased to be proven right one more time about the Kansas City School District.

I have to admit -- and it's really horrible of me -- that I felt so vindicated in my constant iteration that the Kansas City School District simply is UNfixable. John Covington has resigned after only spending two years here in KC. The media has been in a whirl. Charges have been levied. Blame has been cast. But it's at the wrong source and to the wrong people.

I don't care why the man resigned -- new job or not -- he DID resign and once again the KCMOSD cannot keep a superintendent.

All the hew and cry goes on about what actually happened -- and civic leaders claim the city still needs to find a superintendent that can think outside the box -- BUT no one in the city looks around at the local districts that actually are succeeding with inner-city kids (think KCK) and how they managed to do it.

What has KCK and Blue Springs and surrounding districts done that was smart? They've hired internal candidates that have dedicated years to the district they now manage. They understand the districts they lead because they have worked within them. They know the problems. They know the staff. They know the parents and they know they kids. They know what is possible to get done. They know the state requirements. They don't have to go to other cities to find competent executive staff -- they know which people have already dedicated their lives to the district -- and they reward that dedication.

What have we got in KC? A school board president with no job who has illegal contacts with district contractors. School board members who have taken the district for millions in federal court cases. Old KCMO teachers who have been part of the failing system for years. Pawns and dupes of the money men of KC. And finally a superintendent with no ties and no built in support or love for the area.

And we wonder why the KCMSD fails?

We've been doing this since 1970. 25 superintendents in 40 years. It's not going to change folks. Not until the prime players change. And they don't -- and we don't do away with 'em.

But you watch -- KCMO will hire an outsider yet again.

Some things just don't change -- and the KCMSD is one of them. And don't tell me that they can until we do away with the corruption we have allowed to take root here.

Throw the bastards out -- if you honestly do think the kids deserve a chance. I'm not at all sure that we do think that in Kansas City. These are just minority kids, after all. Educate 'em and you actually might be forced to hire them in your businesses. Or they might move into your neighborhood in Johnson County -- and live next door to you.

It's time for the state to take over. It's beyond time.

One More Day

The air came back on for the Wednesday session in the building without windows. That was helpful. Plus there was Internet access. Even better the Wednesday workshop session was challenging and interesting. The participants were engaged and productive.

Today, even with air, the participants were snooty, air-headed, and disengaged. The youngsters thought they knew it all . . . and the old timers were too tired to resist.

I hated the day. I hated the work. I hated the process.

One day to go! I hope I can make it.

Defeat or Success?

For me it's the time of year when I have to decide if the glass is half full or half empty. Do I make lemonade in tall frosty glasses or ugly faces at the sour taste of the unsweetened raw fruit?

I haven't posted for some time because I was waiting. . . My school district delayed notifying "laid-off" staff for a full month -- from April 15th until May 15th. They had up until last night to tell me I would not have a job next year. I think I would have been surprised to learn I had been released -- but I wouldn't have been shocked out of my socks. I am, I am now fairly assured, gainfully employed for next school year at which time I will have worked for the district five full years and be granted tenure.

But with that news, I have to decide how to position myself into a whole new and unanticipated change in my status within my school. I'm still a SPED collaborative teacher but all my lovely classes, so thoughtfully and diligently developed, planned, and structured to meet district standards have been summarily canceled. I am thrown back solely into collaborative mode, depending on the whims of the general education teacher -- and I am vastly disappointed.

I really worked to develop what the district called my "triangle" classes. "Life skill" students take basic remedial educational classes -- how to tell time, count money, wash clothes. Gen ed students take "benchmark" classes. My SPED students who could learn the benchmarks but just not as quickly and wade through so much material were called the triangle kids. I loved teaching them. I have a real knack for it. My test scores have ranked with the gen ed kids this year.

My local school was also on board with my classes -- in fact, they developed them for me. Another high school in the district liked them so much they adopted our approach. Then the ugly head of bureaucracy got involved -- with anger that "she" had not been consulted and did not have control of what we were doing on the local level. The district director got more and more worked up throughout this year, until she finally had a show down with the school principals and all the triangle classes were canceled at a meeting that was rescheduled twice to make sure than none of the affected parties would be in attendance.

Now I have no idea what I'm going to be doing next year. I'm hoping that as my school department chair assures me in gentle, dulcet tones, we do have some wiggle room and things will work out. I think, the reality is, that due to all the current budge cuts and with the new "curriculum" procedure the district has mandated for next year along the federal scrutiny we are under, I'm probably going to be facing a very, very difficult year. And my kids are going to have it even tougher.

Meanwhile I've got the end of the school year to get through -- two more weeks. "Will I have you for English next year, Miss?" the students ask me as they watch the schedules being made. Last week I assured them they would. This week I've got to tell them, "No." This will be hard on us all.

On a very sad note, Hubby was informed early this morning that Sister, the lovely woman in D.C. who had hosted us at her spectacular Chesapeake Bay house, died late last night. She was funny and smart and generous to us. She was Hubby's closest tie to his family and we shall miss her greatly.