Situation Normal

 A week went by. We herded kids into their new classrooms. Their new grades. There were those who expressed surprise when there were "too many" students in multiple grades. This came about as a direct result of having the powers that be "downtown" predict just how many students we would find when we opened our doors this year. Those folks determined that we would need three fewer teachers, and that we would be hard pressed to find one hundred seventy-five students to attend our school. 

They were wrong. On Wednesday, we passed two hundred, with the anticipation of a few more each day as families begin to settle in to the 2022-23 school year. Those who had moved away from the Bay Area in the early days of the pandemic have begun to find their way back, and wouldn't you know it, all those kids need a neighborhood school. I have spent the morning of each day scrambling to find desks and chairs to put down in front of and under the kids who are returning to our school. 

Reports of the death of Horace Mann Elementary seem to be premature. Now we are scrambling to hire at least one new teacher, with the sad irony of having sent away valuable team members away at the end of last year. Those that have already found new places of employment to teach and grow with kids who need them. 

We really could have used them here. 

Has anyone from the school board or the district come down to check up on us? No.

Has there been at least a couple parents each day asking me, "Are they still closing the school?" Yes. 

What do I tell them? I say that our business is education. We are going to do our business. Every kid who walks through those doors, sits at those desks, plays on the playground that continues to be a wreck, will receive the very best education we have to offer. That is our job. That is our mission. 

Closing a school is not what we do. We keep schools open. The fact that there are still those of us on staff who have that question in our own minds as we go about our day gets pushed to the back. We have work to do. The kids have work to do.

Right here.