Friday Fragments from an Administrator's Perspective

My brain is swirling with administrator thoughts today.  Let me capture some of them:

--I'm hearing about the clog in the courts down in Texas where people crossing the border have been detained in systems that aren't designed for this.  There aren't enough court workers to process people quickly or at all--or to shelter them while waiting for trial.  Children have been taken from parents, but there aren't local shelters.  It breaks my heart on so many levels.

I've been thinking about it from the perspective of parents and children--to have children ripped from the arms of parents?  Are we really this country now?

This morning I'm thinking about it from the perspective of the workers on all sides.  I imagine that people who work from the law enforcement side must be somewhat used to this kind of chaos when families are forcibly separated.  But I think of court reporters and judges and all of the others who would ordinarily never see this level of sorrow.

--I feel lucky in my current administrator life.  I don't see chaos and woe on these levels.  But there are weeks where I see a bit.  This has been a week where students have been making decisions about whether or not to continue with school, and I've heard some sad tales over paperwork signing. 

--But this week hasn't been all sadness.  Yesterday we had our Meet and Greet, a quarterly event.  This time, we had barbecue brought in from a local restaurant that I really like.  When I say barbecue in this context, I mean pulled pork and pulled chicken.  We also bought cole slaw from the restaurant.  I bought salad ingredients at a restaurant supply store (Gordon Food Services, not Costco or BJs), so we also had a big pan of salad.  It was a lovely spread.

We invited continuing students to be part, although we should have invited them earlier.  We missed some EMS students, and I keep telling myself that every student won't always have every opportunity.  One of the continuing students said, "Wow!  Did you cook all of this for us?"  I said, "I'm not opposed getting a big slab of meat and smoking it for you guys, but this time, we ordered from a restaurant."

Again and again, new, potential, and continuing students said, "I really love the atmosphere here" or "it's so happy here."  Any time a person says that, I feel that we're successful.


--The days that I've logged the most steps on my Fitbit were yesterday and our Open House on May 19.

--Today, at my old school, they should be wrapping up an accreditation visit, which started on Wednesday.  I don't envy them.  The more of these visits that I experience, the more I know that so much depends on a lot that is out of our control as administrators.  The worst visit that I was ever part of came almost a decade ago.  It was February and part of the visiting team had a 1 day delay because of weather; they were stuck in an airport part way to us and arrived in a terrible mood.  The visit went downhill from there.

--Today should be a fairly easy day at my school.  This quarter, Fridays have been easy, and I don't expect today to be different.  Plus, a variety of people are out of the office today, which will make it even quieter.

Sunrise Snippets

Several weeks ago, I wrote a list of fragments and observations that went on to become an interesting poem.  Let me try this again:

--This is a love letter to the two parrots in a palm tree that screech at each other.

--This is also a love letter to a pair of abandoned shoes at the beach, tan suede, clean, barely used, made for a man's foot.

--The sun rises, as it always does.  The clouds are the middle managers.  They know that their job is to make the boss look good.

--This morning, the clouds have settled on apocalypse as a theme, in contrast to the man sitting on the steps, playing his harmonica.

--Does the sun see the people running to the sand to catch the sunrise?  Is it aware of how many people ignore the sunrise for whatever magic their phones offer?

--Before the sun came up, I spent the morning looking at graduation pictures of people I remember as little children at church.

--This is a loved letter to all of us on this planet which can seem so doomed.  But the sun comes up each morning, and there is coffee enough to fill all of our mugs, and the hands of the master potter can still make sense of it all.

Summer Vacations Then and Now

Our school district has its last week of school this week.  My friends who have children in Catholic schools have their last day today.  Our thoughts are turning to summer vacation.

Several of my Facebook friends have already been to the beach.  Their posts make me think of the rambling beach houses of my youth, long ago, in Myrtle Beach.  Those houses have probably been completely remodeled--or torn down for newer houses or condo buildings.

In my youth, we saved our summer trip to the beach for the last weeks of summer vacation--a wise move on the part of my parents.  By then, summer was boring, and a change of scenery was just what we needed.

I'm also seeing Facebook posts from friends who will spend their summer working at camp.  They've been getting counselors trained and grounds ready.  Part of me is jealous, although my current working life sometimes shares more elements with camp life than I let myself realize.  Today I will buy food and treats for our Meet and Greet Open House, and tomorrow I'll serve food at the event.

Now I have so many different school schedules running in my head that it's hard to keep track of where we are on the real calendar.  And our weather here is fairly constant throughout most of the year--it's warm to hot--so I don't have any external cues.

But it is lighter much later these days.  Last night when I carried glasses to the sink close to 9 p.m., it still wasn't completely dark.

This week-end, I look at the calendar and see we don't have any plans--the first week-end without plans in many weeks.  Maybe, in addition to the chores, I can plan some staycation type of things:  reading a book by the pool comes to mind.

Kitty Breaks at Work

Yesterday I got an idea of why people spend so much time posting/watching cute puppy or kitty photos and videos.  One of our Vet Tech students brought an abandoned 4 week old kitty to school, and our registrar has adopted it.  She will be bringing it to work so that our staff vet can keep an eye on it and give it shots.

Throughout the day, I watched people come to the registrar's office to have some kitty time.  Most of them simply held the kitty.  Some of us played a bit.  I had forgotten how small mammals of most varieties can be amused by playing any type of peek-a-boo.  One of our registrar's pens has a floppy top, and each time I moved it, the cat pounced.

The cat didn't have boundless energy.  She spent a good part of the day sleeping in a box curled against a stuffed animal.

It was also fascinating to watch her navigate the world.  We have long windows beside our doors, and the kitty walked right into it.  Soon she will understand how glass works and won't make that mistake again.

I am guessing that these kitty breaks made us more productive.  It's much too easy to get lost in the weeds of spreadsheets and student records, while we try to figure out a way to make our ARC (registered average credit) higher.  But if we move away from the screen, pet the kitty, and talk to others who show up to visit the kitty, we might come up with a possibility.

At the very least, the kitty got us out of our seats to go see what the kitty was doing.

I always look back and say, "Why didn't I write a poem?  Why didn't I write the next chunk of the short story?  I could have sent my work out into the world.  I could have taken a different kind of break!"

Today, the kitten will be at home.  Today, during a break, I'll send out at least one poetry packet.

Random Fragments from a Week with a Cold

Before last week gets lost, let me record a few impressions from the week:

--Spending a week coughing is a good way to develop some abs.

--Taking aspirin for the headaches caused by the coughing and taking ibuprofen for the sore back caused by the coughing--these help with the arthritic feet.

--My cold didn't seem like a major one, although it was noticeable to people.  It's taken me awhile to shake it.

--I'm glad that I didn't have to miss the 2018 Broward Teacher of the Year Awards.  It's good to remember how many people are out there quietly doing good work.

--A local high school choral ensemble performed.  My colleague and I were there early because she created centerpieces, and we had to set them up.  There was lots of down time, and some of the ensemble members worked on other pieces. 

--It is strange to hear a Bon Jovi song arranged for a choral group.

--Yesterday I heard Maria Shriver interviewed during an On Being episode on NPR.  I was struck by her final thoughts.  She talked about being on book tour and seeing people who had books in their hands.  Her first thought was that she was on the wrong stage, that those people were waiting for someone else.  She reflected on the idea that's she's 62 and spent so many years working on the political campaigns of others and that she only now feels like she has time and focus for her own work.  She encouraged those of us who are feeling like it's taking a long time to come into our own.

--Yesterday I spent the morning being in charge at church.  It went well.  As always, when preaching goes well, I wonder if God is trying to tell me something.

--As always, I tuck those thoughts away for a later day. 

Koinonia and Intentional Communities

Can I just say how delighted I am that the word that won this year's National Spelling Bee is koinonia?  And I am delighted that spell check knows the word--because I just misspelled it when I wrote it.

I have visions of the nation looking up the word--online, as so many of us do.  And then it takes them to Koinonia Farms in Americus Georgia.  In this time of racial divisiveness, that place has an inspiring story of black and white farmers working together in the heart of racial ugliness in the middle of last century.

It's the birthplace of many an initiative.  Perhaps the most famous is Habitat for Humanity. Less well known is the Jubilee Partners community in Comer, Georgia, a spin off community from Koinonia that has helped resettle refugees for several decades.  During my college years, I visited them several times, and that idea of intentional community still has a hold on my imagination.

That group was in the process of building homes for the community, and they were beautiful, simple, functional facilities.  I think about creating something similar:  small cottages with a single larger house or two.  Then, when people want solitude, it's there, but there's communal space too.  My experiences have shown me how important it is that everyone has their own bathroom, which they are responsible for cleaning.  I think that the kitchen can be more communal--people are willing to pitch in to clean up after a communal meal. 

For now, I'm living in a much smaller intentional community of two--and it's time to go to Home Depot to work on various projects.

Hurricane Season Begins

Today is the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season--but it's already begun, as our friends in the mountains of North Carolina know.  Once again, my friends who live around Asheville are having a much worse hurricane season than the rest of us.

Let that sink in.  Think about how far inland and upland my Asheville friends are.  They are suffering massive amounts of rain, and it's not over yet.

In this same week of our first named storm, we got information about Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico.  It did not come as a surprise that the death toll was higher than originally reported--but so high!  Over 5,000 dead.  And those who are left alive, many of them are far from back to normal.

That's true of many of us who suffered one of the worst hurricane seasons in modern memory in 2017.  Think of the people in Houston.  Think of those in the path of Irma.  And then, Maria, just for good measure.  There are Caribbean islands which will be forever changed.

In this week of our first named storm and the beginning of the 2018 season, we are far from recovered.  We've had a very rainy month of May, which has delayed our fence project.  But finally this week, the survey company came, and now we can mail the property survey and the notarized documents to the fence company--and then, they can apply for permits and buy supplies.

And we're still in the very early stages of getting the damaged floors restored.  We did get confirmation that the floor joists are Dade county pine, one of the more water/rot resistant types of wood that exists.  So we won't need to rip those up.  They've been here since the house was built in 1928, and they will probably be here long after the Atlantic reclaims the coast.  Two hundred years from now, divers may swim in the wreckage of my house, and the floor joists will likely remain.

Regardless of where we live, today is a good day to think about our emergency plans:  count your supplies, take some pictures of your valuables, put those pictures with your insurance and other important paperwork.  You do know where those important papers are, don't you?  You could grab them at a minute's notice, if you had to evacuate?

And while we're at it, we should back up important papers and important pictures.  If you can't afford cloud computing, you can e-mail files to yourself.  Or put it all on a data stick and ask an out of town person you trust to hang on to it.  That way, even if you don't have access to your hard drive for whatever reason, you've got your important stuff.
We live in a time where it's good to have some skills that lead to self-reliance.  Until recently, we assumed that our government could save us from anything that might go wrong.  Believe that at your peril.  At least realize that it might take awhile for your government to ride in to the rescue.  Could you eat in the meantime?
You might think that you have nothing to worry about.  Until recently, most of us assumed that we lived in a world with stable, predictable weather patterns.  Surely no one believes that anymore.  And even if your weather is stable, disaster is never out of the realm of possibility:  a house fire, a water main break, all sorts of things can go wrong.

It doesn't hurt to have a plan and some supplies on hand.