Hot Chocolate

 This one has been tough.

There is a tradition of the last week of school before vacation being a  tough one. Teachers and staff are running on fumes while kids are becoming super-energized by the approach of two weeks of existence outside a classroom. 

This year has been more challenging down here at Horace Mann. We have struggled mightily to keep our staff together. Questioning the commitment of our teacher and staff would be the wrong tack to take, but circumstances of one sort or another have kept us from having our full compliment of teachers in their own classrooms for a limited number of days. Our current streak for having everyone on site on time is three days in a row. 

Three. 

The rest of those days have had at least one of our grades impacted by teacher absence. Sickness, funerals, pregnancy, childcare, and an assortment of other adult variants of "I can't come to school today because" have made the past four months a game of Whack-A-Mole. Some days we have substitutes available to fill the void. Some days we don't. Our kids and their families don't know this struggle. They send their kids to school because that's what we have told them to do. 

Behind the scenes, there is a group of us scurrying to make copies and prepare for whomsoever crosses the threshold willing to take whatever class is in need of coverage. In the week before Winter Break, our lineup is struggling to meet the bell. The bell that tells us when to start. And when to stop. 

Meanwhile, we continue to make strides academically. The hard work we have been doing to bring our kids to grade level is paying off in test scores as well as the sense of community that we hope to instill with all our staff and families. It's a marathon, and we're only halfway there.

Which makes this upcoming water station, metaphorically speaking, so vital.

I hope they are serving hot chocolate.