More Coffee, Please

One of the nice things about moving to Wilcox is the closer relationship we’ll be able to have with MRHS. I know for many of the students at MC², Monadnock is scary; it wasn’t a place where they found success. Still, for me it’s home, and I like the clarification for everyone that we are a program of MRHS, and that our kids—and teachers—are Huskies.

Granted, there’s also the worry about losing the MC² identity, but I think it’s unfounded. I’ve seen over the last year an ethic of excellence start at the school—there’s this growing recognition that everything that is done should be and is held to a higher standard than “good enough.” There’s a growing recognition, a feeling among the students, that it’s simply normal to do really good work.

I think it’s much more likely to see that culture stand out at MRHS—and shine brightly there—than it is to see it subsumed. Granted, there’s a host of things we need to make sure our kids our ready for—there’s going to need to be a long conversation about code switching—but I think it’s going to work very well.

Nearly as interesting—perhaps more so—is the chance to use that last period in the day to teach a class at MRHS. There are a number of missing science teachers and even more missing English teachers¹ and if there’s a chance to both give something back and build a bridge between the schools—well, that would be just plain cool.

So it’s been a number of years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer was regularly on the air, and I think it’s perhaps the primary reason the last half of the 2000s has been so much worse than the first. The idea of a school built on the mouth of hell was just such a useful metaphor for helping kids through adolescence that I can’t help but mourn its loss. I have a number of students who really needed the example the show set to get through tough times.²

Of course, I usually felt too silly to actually admit that, until I caught this clip on NHPR. I figure if BtVS can get a reporter though the Iraq conflict, it can get a kid through high school.

Via Academhack here’s a ridiculously long list of useful—and free—software for teachers.

Monadnock Taxpayers Association has filed a brief challenging the state of emergency justifying the emergency meeting to look at the teacher’s contracts.

I’m trying to resolve a dilemma. On the Keene Sentinel Talkback forum there were a number of individuals who were defending the Monadnock Taxpayers Association and pushing the argument that they were just after a fiscally responsible school district. The argument is that there was too much waste, or corruption, or mismanagement of funds and it is those things which the Monadnock Taxpayers Association is opposing and not the schools themselves.

But if that’s the case, then why would they oppose this contract and the process to put it into place before the next school year? All it does is prevent the hemorrhaging of personnel from the school, and the new contract grants everything they’ve asked for. If they’re really after a fiscally responsible school district, then why would they not support a contract which provides for everything they want—the elimination of early retirement, teachers paying an increased share of insurance, and only a modest ($600 per teacher) increase over the previous contract?

And yet, they are opposing the new contract. If they’re opposing it, I want someone to tell me why. I want to hear why they feel like a reasonable contract which grants what they asked for is something they should oppose?

Can someone explain that to me?

But I said this is a dilemma, and in a classical dilemma, there are two propositions. One is they’re an an organization for fiscal responsibility—but the evidence doesn’t bear it out.

So the other side is the Monadnock Taxpayers Association is really just after money—at any cost.

Or that they want to destroy public education.

Or they just don’t care at all.

I don’t know which one it is. I’m willing to hear other points of view. But someone really needs to resolve that dilemma to me first.

1 Congrats Ms. Alexander on the promotion, by the way. A very good thing! ↺

2 Which is the reason that “hey Giles” is an acceptable way to get my attention, along with “Oh Captain my Captain” “Chief!” “Professor” and “Dark Lord of the Sith”. ↺

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Education, Monadnock Community Connections School, Monadnock Regional School District, Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association, School Funding

Gregarious

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