The End of a Very Emotional Week

Today was my last actual physical day in DUSD.  My contract expires June 30 and I will continue to be the Superintendent until then.  I am taking the remaining days off as we have a family event in Alabama next week.

This week I have met with each of the District Office employees to thank them and to tell them how much I have appreciated working with such great people.   There were many hugs and some tears and it was so hard.   I love these people and that is why I have stayed until the very end despite the extreme difficulties that a few people have imposed.   Because of these wonderful people, I have made sure that I have finished and finished strong.

I can't remember when I have had any extended time  off.  I think it was when I was still a teacher.  Yes, I have had vacations, but it is hard to explain that there really is never down time.  Many weeks over the 26 years I have been an administrator, I had my 40 hours in by Wednesday morning.  So many night activities are part of this job.   I never had a regular lunch hour and most days worked through lunch, especially as a principal.  As an administrator, you are always on call.  As a Superintendent, that responsibility is even more all encompassing.

The fact that I don't have to get up and go to work ever again, sounds good right now.  But it is almost too good to believe.  And I know that in a few weeks, I will probably feel very differently.   But I am going to take these next few weeks to rest.

This past week, I have had four phone calls from different people about possible jobs.  And they called me, which is great.  Despite some of the difficulties here, I have made a lot of contacts and have established a very good reputation.  As a matter of fact, the very "fact" that I have stayed and held my head up high has actually enhanced my credentials.  And I have heard that is because of the lack of credibility of the people who make the attacks.  So that is a good thing.

After some rest, I know I will be anxious to see what the next phase of my life might bring.  I know that whatever it is, it will be just as great as the past 44 years.  

What an incredible and amazing career I have had!   I have been so touched by the comments made by so many people down here !!   I will always value these past five years so much!!!

Day Twelve--Hands Across the Border

In about 1996, I went to a conference where we were told about this great exchange program called Hands Across the Border.  It was a foundation that had the approval of the Governors of Arizona and Mexico, the Arizona Department of Education, etc. 

Growing up in Douglas and loving the Mexican culture, I was really excited about this.  I went to another meeting about it and knew that it was something that I would like to bring to Gilbert El.  Dottie Dawn, had moved to Gilbert El from another school, and I approached her and she was willing to be the coordinator.   We had several other teachers and IA's who got very involved, especially Gloria Emanuel, Maria Salas Murphy, Dolores Yanez, Cris Silva and David Minton also helped tremendously.

I mentioned previously about having to go before the Board to ask to go on the Bisbee trip because no one had ever asked to take elementary kids on an overnight field trip.  Well the same thing happened with HATB.   We had to go before the Board and ask permission to take elementary kids overnight and out of the country!   Because it was an established program, the Board approved it. 

Thus began a 10 year incredible adventure with our sister school in Nacozari, Sonora.    Each year we would take about 30 fourth, fifth and sixth graders to Nacozari for three days and two nights.  Then the students from Nacozari would come to Gilbert for the same amount of time.  Each student had a buddy and stayed at the buddy's home.  And what a wonderful experience it was for our kids to get to do!!  I went every year but one and it was just as great an experience for the adults.

Unfortunately after 9/11, it became very difficult for the Mexican students to come to visit us.  The requirements were expensive and time consuming so we had to stop doing it. But what a wonderful program it was and I have such great memories (and some funny stories) of our time with our friends in Nacozari!! 

Thirteen Days Tigerfest/burros

Every year our PTSO had a carnival called the Tigerfest.   One year I volunteered to make some green chili meat and beans for one of the grade levels that had a booth.  I learned to cook great green chili meat and beans from Mary, the wonderful lady who raised us here in Douglas.    It turned out to be a very popular fundraiser so I got "drafted" into doing this every year.  

It became quite a production.  Our wonderful PTSO would buy about 100 pounds of chuck roasts, cook, shred, and freeze them.  Then on the Friday before the Tigerfest, they would deliver it all to my house and I would make the green chili.  For a couple of years I tried to cook all of the meat, but it was too much.  So the ladies helped me out.  Even then, it took me most of the day to make the green chili meat.     On Friday night, I would start cooking the beans and cook them all night.  One year when I was a teacher, my class gave me this great pot that I use to this day.  I was able to cook about 10  pounds of beans.  Of course, I checked on them during the night.  I got up early Saturday, mashed them and added the ingredients that Mary taught me to add.

This became a great tradition and the burritos usually sold out.  We even had families who no longer attended Gilbert El come back and buy them.  

I love to cook and this was always fun.   There were times when we would have some type of contest and the class that won would get a bean burro lunch from me.   

I am sure that there is some health code that I didn't follow, but if that is the worst thing I have done, I am not worried.  

I did give me "secret" recipe to Dottie Dawn after I left Gilbert El and she continues to do this for the yearly festival!

Day Fourteen--Crossing Guard

During the course of my career, I was always willing to do anything to help out in an emergency, except blood!   I had no problem helping out in the cafeteria, answering phones, or whatever might need to be done--just don't ask me to be the nurse.

One day, we were short crossing guards.  Gilbert El is right off of Elliot and Gilbert Road which is a very busy and congested area.  Elliot Road is four lanes and is always busy.     I volunteered to be the crossing guard.  I got my vest on, got my sign ready, and went out the crosswalk--I was official!!  Because of the four lanes, there were always two crossing guards--one on each side of the street.  I had the school side and the wonderful other regular crossing guard went to the other side of the street.  I waited for her guidance as to what to do because she was experienced with all of the traffic.   So she and I each went into the crosswalk with our signs held up and stopped the traffic and there was a lot of it!  The students knew to wait until the crossing guards signaled for them to cross the street.  About 40 students started to cross the street. I was standing in the middle of the east bound lanes with my crossing sign held high when ALL of the students stopped and surrounded me to get a hug!   I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and not hug them but I couldn't hug that many kids, keep my sign up, and not be there for 10 minutes!  What a dilemma!  And you should have seen the looks on the faces of the people in the cars that were stopped!  Anyway, I encouraged the students to move on and that they would get a hug tomorrow.    We finally got them all across the street and I went back to my post to wait for the next group.   Second time out another large group of students came across and the same thing happened!!!

Needless to say, that was my last time for being a crossing guard on a busy street in Gilbert.   I have always tried to figure out if I had to put "fired" on an application, exactly what I would say was the reason--stopping traffic for hugging??????   Anyway, it was so funny and so touching all at the same time!

An Emotional Day!

Today was my last Monday to get up and go to work.   Although I am excited about that, it was still a very difficult day for me.   I have worked so hard and so long that it doesn't seem possible that all of this is coming to an end.  While I look forward to future possibilities, it is still emotionally draining.

There are so many people who I care so much about.  I am meeting with each one of the District Office employees individually to thank them.  I think I met with about nine today.  Carol, my wonderful secretary, came in after the third or fourth person was there and asked what I was doing them because they all came out with tears in their eyes.  Well the tears were mutual.  I absolutely love so many of the people I work with and saying good-bye and thank you has been very important to me.  These people are incredible and I have been so blessed to work with them.  For me to have this time to individually thank them means so much.  We have developed a mutual respect and I value them so much.   

Tomorrow I continue to meet with more employees.  The hugs and conversations have meant the world to me.  

What an incredible journey this has been.  I am so glad that the positives outweigh the negatives and I feel sorry for the people who can only find fault and do not see the good. 

Fifteen Days--Ed Hawk

I have mentioned the emphasis on testing in our schools.    Over the years, schools have had to deal with both federal and state mandates and rules.   Prior to giving schools grades, the state labeled schools as Excelling, Highly Performing, Performing........   Then the federal government had their own system of determining how schools did.   One  was called AYP, which stands for Adequate Yearly Progress.  There were many different factors that went into determining whether a school made AYP.  One of these ways was the percentage of students who took the AIMS test.

During the school year of 2008, Gilbert El was labeled "Highly Performing" by the state which was the second highest label.   We actually had enough points to be Excelling, but we didn't have enough students in the exceeds category so that was a "ding" for us.    The District had made the decision not to test all of the many special education students we had because it was so stressful for them.   As a result, Gilbert El did not make AYP that year.  

So here we are "highly performing" from the state and "failing" for the feds!   Talk about inconsistency!   And it was very demoralizing to our staff.     As a result, I was given a "coach" from the Arizona Department of Education to help me figure out how to not be failing anymore!!!   It was not fun and it was very difficult because we were doing well in many areas--not that there isn't room for improvement!

I always try to find the humor in situations.  I think that is how I have survived!!  My coach came to meet with me a few times and he didn't really know what to do because the only reason we were failing was because not enough students were tested!  I am not sure how people got to be coaches, but I wasn't real impressed with him. 

One day we were meeting and I was talking to him about all of the things that we were doing in our school improvement plan.  I talked about having an "ad hoc" committee formed (can't remember the reason now).   I continued to talk and a few minutes later he interrupted me and asked, "Who is Ed Hawk?"   I looked at him strangely because I had no idea who Ed Hawk was and certainly didn't remember mentioning Ed's name!  He said that I had said something about Ed Hawk.   Then it dawned on me......"ad hoc" had to have been "Ed Hawk."  I am not sure how on earth that question was asked under that context, but it was.  So from that moment on, my ADE coach was renamed----Ed Hawk!  I don't remember his actual name as he will always be ED HAWK to me!!

When it came time to test, we made sure that all of our sped students were tested.  (I still think this is wrong at many levels.)   As a result, we made AYP and were no longer failing.   And I never had to meet with ED again!!!!!

Day Sixteen--Henrietta!

One of my favorite stories from the Gilbert El days was our "unofficial mascot,"  Henrietta.   Henrietta was a chicken who arrived on our campus one day and stayed for almost eight years!  And she was quite a character!!!

She knew to stay away from the children.  She lived in the bushes and trees around campus.   After it appeared that Henrietta was going to be a permanent tiger, different teachers starting buying chicken feed for her.  They even supplied it during the summer months.

One time, some people found Henrietta a companion, Big Red.  That didn't last long because Big Red didn't like the children and would go after them.   Henrietta got away from them, but Big Red had a different temperament........ so he had to leave!!

There were times that Henrietta would be upset because there wasn't any food.  If the classroom door was open, she would go in and "cluck" to make sure that she was fed properly!!!   One of the teachers even had her come in during Parent/Teacher conferences to complain about not having food!  In addition, she left a little "calling card" to register her displeasure!

At one point, I wrote different things down that happened with Henrietta because I thought it would make a great children's book should I decide to attempt to write one some day.  However, I can't find it.   So if anyone reading this remembers any Henrietta stories, please share.

We don't know exactly what finally happened to her.  All of a sudden after many years, she was no longer there.   Some chicken feathers were found around the campus.   I have no idea how long a chicken lives, but Henrietta had quite a long tenure at Gilbert El!