Overflow

This was to be my recap of the Everest hearing.  I got pretty far with this, but I started this on Dec 9, 2008 right before school.  That's never a good idea when you have a lot to say.  Oh well...it's long gone now.

The room was filled with our students, faculty, and parents.  The overflow room was the same.  Yes, there were many people who opposed, but I think we represented about 2/3 of the crowd.  I was in the overflow room, so I didn't get to see anything.  I kind of liked being in that room as it was like listening to the radio.  Of course, a few of us wished we had our grading with us since we were in the "other" room and none of the big guns could see us.

The argument against us is such: the district does not want us because we will take money from their schools and potentially reduce their programs.  There are some interesting facts here.  While our school spends more than 80% on classroom instruction, the district schools spend only 50%.  While the district gets over $9000 per pupil, they pass only $6800 along to us when we get our students.  Surely they can do as we do...revisit the budget every year to determine how to best allocate funds under new circumstances.  And maybe it's time that they put more than 50% into the classroom.  I do understand.  If we have more students, they might not be able to have home ec or photography.  However, it is against charter law to deny a petition based on the budget.  I'll come back to this.

That really was the main talking point against us.  Sure, some opposing parents got up (and one student...from about 8000 kids)

Day 3 of Detox

Started the day with traffic court (after the salt water flush of course). I got my first ticket for going right on red when I wasn't supposed too. Boo! Apparently there were three signs and cops sitting right there. I was distracted because I was going to run the route later and wanted to see if there were sidewalks the whole way. So, I got a ticket, decided to go to court...pled guilty and got the ticket reduced by about $65. Not too bad. I still have to go to traffic school. There are so many to choose from including: Traffic School With Interactive Games, Happy Traffic School, Comedy Traffic School.com, Fun 4U-Fast 2 (I guess that's a traffic school), California Jammin Traffic School, Lettuce Amuse U Comedy Schools Inc, Comedy For Less Traffic School, Pizza 4U - Great Comedians (again...this is a traffic school?). Anyway, I'll try to knock that out this week. I think I'll choose the one that's only $15.

Day 3 of the detox is going okay. It's a gray day here...and that always puts my brain in a fog. So, I have a headache and backache. I'm not sure what's associated with the cleanse. I think the backache is from a night of not so great sleep. There's just a lot in my brain. I've been pounding the lemonade though...it's growing on me.

School is fun right now. We are in intersession. For the kids that means that they are taking their electives (musical theater, SAT prep, Art, Guitar, Photography, etc.). For the teachers intersession means that we're doing lots of professional development. Four weeks of it! So far we just have two days of grading our finals and we'll start the good stuff tomorrow. The cool part is that it's all planned and run by the faculty. I wasn't involved in the planning this year, as I kind of felt like there was a lot on my plate, but I'm sure I will be involved in the future. As I sit in my office, I can hear All That Jazz and Rapper's Delight playing and can see kids dancing and clapping...the makings of a good musical I'm sure. So, it's a bit noisier than usual around here, but it's cool to see the kids having a good time.

That's the scoop for now.

Crazy News

Trash in Naples...they are just out of room!

Do you think she was a Bridezilla?

Signs of the Apocalypse I'm sure.

Feel The Noise

I've got the Bose Sound Dock rockin'! It's pretty great. I'd have a party if I didn't live in suburbia/familyville.

Day 2 of The Cleanse went very smoothly. I backed off just a bit on the cayenne and the drink was much more appealing. When people brought their lunched into the faculty room, it didn't even bother me. I just didn't crave the food and went for a walk instead. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Facebook is crazy. I should put a timer on that website. Right now, I'm just trying to keep up with all the contact I've been getting...lots of blasts from the past and my students are too pumped that I finally did it.

And I heard from a certain former boyfriend. The de-tox is doing crazy things to my life I guess.

New Year!

Yikes! When I don't have pictures to post, I don't get around to blogging as much. I should have taken a picture of the New Year's Day snowstorm in Mass. It was beautiful. Being back in New England for two weeks was great! As great as California is, I'm not sure it beats NE in my book. I was in five states over the course of my time there...

News:
I've joined Facebook. I can't say I know why I did it. My former students have been trying to get my on there for years. Now that I'm on...I'm not sure how I feel about it. I can't figure out how to do most things on it. I guess I'm old.

I've started a cleanse as a New Year's thing to do. Today was day 1 of laxative teac, salt water flushing, and a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup, water, and cayenne. It was a bit rough...headachey during the day. Probably because the taste of the cayenne is not that appetizing so I have to force myself to drink and I'm behind in my ounces. Anyway, I'm pretty psyched about the prospect of detox-ing right now.

I'm on the other side of the country from the boy I'd like to spend more time with. Bummer. Not sure what's going to happen there. I'd like to say I'm optimistic, but I'm not sure I can.

Saw Juno and really liked it.

Enjoy 2008!

List Of The Day

Was pointed to this blog by another blog I read. Meta-blogging is the best...blogging about blogs. Anyway, the post today is pretty awesome!

The Gossip

So I just got back from the engagement party of Bec and Adam, my west coast family. They are one of many friends who are diving into major life events in 2008. Consider this as close as I get to Perez:

-Ali is preggers!
-Terps is engaged!
-Nazli is engaged!

You may not know these people, but if you did, you'd be happy happy for them!

Happy Birthday Jebus!

I wish as many people followed the values of JC as celebrated Christmas, but as the Stones said...you can't always get what you want.

Hope you got some of what you wanted this holiday season!

Really?

I think that if you have so much food that you can't hold your wine, you may need to rethink things.

Faculty Fun Time!

Today for our 10 minutes of faculty fun, we had the first annual medley relay. This brought back memories of the Inter-departmental Olympics at FHS (2005). Today we had teams of five competing in a relay of sharpening pencils (with those hand-sharpeners), collating and stapling paper, grading a multiple choice test, running around the school with a coffee cup, and board writing. My team came in 4th of 5 or 6, but it was a riot. It really helped to end the first day of finals with something mindless.