Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Be careful what you wish for...

There are 180 days legally required in a Florida school year.

We work our butts off through every minute of those days. We took the lowest performing elementary school in our district and largely turned it around in one year! Now you've heard me ramble on about school so I won't bore you. Just know... we've done magical things within these walls.

My principal's boss is known as our "Cluster Chief" (Apparently schools are split into tribes around here?!). Back in October, our Cluster Chief asked, "How can we continue to improve these students' education?" In a half-joking reply, we said, "Give us more time with the students!"

Along comes May...
At this time we had no idea any of this was going on.
The school boards in Clay County and Dade County have drafted a document asking to extend their school day by 1 hour. Our Cluster Chief gets wind of this and says, "Have I got a school to include! This is exactly what they were asking for!" So at the end of the document... the name of our school was tacked on. The only school in our county. Insert foot into mouth now.

On day 179 of school we found out...
This document was presented to Governor Charlie Crist. He struck the bill down...with the exception of ONE school...OUR SCHOOL! Our school day will be extended by an hour (provided funds are readily supplied and contracts are worked out).

That's right folks...we are the only ones. We're not entirely sure why we are the only ones... Maybe the funding wasn't there for all of the schools. The governor may have remembered our principal. While still in the classroom she encouraged her students' to use their voice, act for change, and write politicians. Charlie (and Jeb before him) visited her classroom while in office in response to the number of letters received from her students. She was also FL teacher of the year (while still in the classroom) and did a bit of circuiting with the governor.

Whatever the reasons, we have now become the guinea pigs for the state of Florida. An hour more... Oh the things we can do with an hour! Ultimately parents are behind it because it's an hour less daycare to worry about. It's the best for students as well.

Why is there still a little part of me that says, "One more hour...do you want the blood from my veins too?" How many times do you think I hear my name in an hour ~ Can I handle one more hour of that a day without cracking up? Can I handle one more hour of patiently asking my talkative little buggers to get back to work ~ Can my blood pressure handle it? Ok...I'm being *a little dramatic,* but it's tough to find this out on the second to last day of school. We're tired...deservingly so. And since when does government work so fast?!

Now it's time for us to rest, regroup, and replicate that same *energy* and *enthusiasm* that brought us to ask for "one more hour." Just wait...we'll SHINE LIKE THE TREASURED STARS we are.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly what is "circuiting"?

and did a bit of circuiting with the governor.

Emily said...

So I looked into it, and YES I made the word up... call it a nonsense word!

Circuiting: The act of going around from place to place to perform certain duties (i.e. speeches). Not unnecessarily going together, but both attending many of the same events.

Possibly networking is a better word?

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