Many Hats

 Ten years ago, I was recognized by my principal at the time and by the school district as The Outstanding Teacher. To commemorate this honor, my wife made me a set of matching baseball caps. These were to acknowledge all the different jobs I held down at my school, Horace Mann Elementary. One said "teacher" on the front. Another said "coach." Another said "liaison" for my connection to the after school program. Of course there needed to be one that said "tech" for all the things I fixed. Or turned on. She made one that said "principal" for those days when I had to step in to that role for a moment. And the sixth one just said "slash," which made the others less useful since it described best the way I moved through my day.

Ten years later, I am still doing pretty much the same thing. What makes me happy is that I work with a group of people who could also wear any one of these hats as they go about their day. That is because they take the same approach to teaching I do: It takes a village. It always has. It always will. 

When I first got to Horace Mann, it was a year round school. There were so many kids enrolled here students alternated being here for three months and would then take a month off. Things have changed a lot since then. Somewhere in there, charter schools started popping up around Oakland. Someone even came by to sell us all on the idea of converting our school to a charter. We sent him away. We are a public school, named for the man who invented public education. We are a school for the community.

And we will continue to be just that.

The school district wants to point at our declining enrollment as a reason for closing our school. They do this without acknowledging the impact of the past two years of COVID. They do this without outwardly acknowledging the number of students in our neighborhood that are attending charter schools. Rather than finding ways to grow our student body, the district is using this opportunity to close a school that has been the center of a community for much longer than the years I have been here. I am just a tiny part of the history of Horace Mann. All of those students, families and educators who came before me and all those who come after I am gone will tell the rest of the story. 

Right now we are gifted to have a dedicated staff, and a principal who has brought all kinds of services and programs back to our school. The fact that our library is open for business after years of being used primarily for storage and meetings is a blessing. The same can be said of our after school program and all the ways we connect with our kids and their families every day. 

We are asking for your help to spread the word about our school. Horace Mann is down, but not out. We deserve the right to show everyone what a special place we all make it. Let's tell everyone: Horace Mann is here to stay.