Twenty-Two Days--New Campus

So began my 20 year adventure as an elementary school principal.  Oh the stories that could be told......

The 90/91 school year, we moved back to the newly remodeled Gilbert El.   It is probably the most beautiful elementary school in the US.  There are 19 individual cottages that were there originally.  They had been gutted and redone.  All of the other buildings had been torn down and new classrooms, multi-purpose room and office were built around the cottages.  They were able to save many of the old trees.  In between the classrooms is grass and places for students and teachers to be outside.   Some teachers had gardens, etc.

I remember the first day of school, the sprinklers hadn't turned off and the two kindergarten classrooms were flooded.   We had to move them to empty classrooms which we had at that time, but wouldn't later.  The District had to come in and put some "holes" in the fences around the perimeter to keep flooding from happening again.

I was able to start some traditions that I had learned from my days at Houston.   I will post more about them tomorrow.

Gilbert El was just starting to grow so I had to hire new teachers.  I will also write more about this incredible growth in a later post. 

I remember one day sitting in my office and all of a sudden thinking about the incredible responsibility I had as a principal.  It wasn't just my 30 kiddos in my classroom that I was responsible for but almost 700.   Wow!!   I always did my absolute best for my students and that day I remember thinking that I had way more to do now.  And I hope that I always did the very best I could for every student I have ever had the privilege to work with through the years!