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Walt Disney said “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”  I’m reasonably sure that when he said ‘dreams’, he meant ‘aspirations’, or ‘goals’ …but maybe not.  Maybe he meant ‘visions’.  Those words are all related.   Mr. Disney was consumed by imagination and fantasy and sadly, he isn’t here to ask for clarification.

Let me tell you a story about a dream I had.

In January (or there about…can’t remember exactly) I had a dream about a dog.  I couldn’t really see the dog clearly, and didn’t know what breed he was.  But what came through loud and clear in the dream was his personality, a specific trait…and his name.  When I woke up, I told my husband “Our next dog will be named Jasper.  I don’t know when or how…but Jasper is going to be ours.”  What kind of dog was Jasper, he wanted to know.  Seriously, I replied, “I don’t know…I can’t see him clearly.  But he has one ear up and one ear down and he is a complete NUT.”

My husband, used to my strangely vivid dreams shrugged in acceptance and went back to preparing for work.

Over the course of a couple of months, I would occasionally dream of Jasper.  Just fleeting thoughts, in a hodgepodge of images and feelings.  I would wake in the morning convinced that Jasper was out there…somewhere.   But, we really weren’t in a position to get another dog.  The Queen of our household, a Lab named Raven, was set in her ways, and a little bit jealous.  I looked at dogs at PetsMart while shopping, and while they were all worthy and deserving, none of them pulled at my heartstrings.  None of them was the mysterious Jasper of my dreams.

On Thursday April 15, my husband sent me an email with a website link for a dog available for adoption.  ‘Isn’t he cute’, he wrote.  ‘Yes’, I wrote back, ‘but he’s no Jasper’.  Back and forth for most of the morning we went.  He’d email me a link and say “look at Pepe”…”did you see Gordo?”…”how ‘bout Tanner?”…again and again I wrote back that they were nice, but not Jasper.

And then I found him. 

Jasper.

His name really was Jasper; a sort-of salt and pepper Aussie Sheppard mix.  He was very subdued in his picture.  I sent the link to my husband who called me and said “That’s not your Jasper.  Both ears are down.   He looks sad.” 

The website had a phone number.  When the lady answered the phone, I said (as calmly as I could muster) that I was calling to ask about Jasper.  She launched into the story of why she had to get rid of him, and that he was really a very good dog, just not right for her.  I asked questions, and all of her answers sounded reasonable and logical.  Shot record?  Yep.  Regular vet care?  Yep.  Good with other animals?  Well, occasionally (and accidently) killed her chickens.  I assured her I didn’t have any chickens, and said that we’d like to come meet Jasper sometime.  That’s when I told her it would be about a 5 hour drive to get from my house to hers.  I could hear the shock in her voice when she asked me how I had heard about Jasper’s search for a new home.  When I told her I saw him on the internet, she said “Oh, that is such a horrible picture of him.  He is usually such a happy guy; running around with one ear up and one ear down…You’re the first person to call, and that site’s been up since January.”  Goosebumps.  I tried to stay calm.  I finished my conversation and hung up with a shaky hand.  When I called my husband, I was crying.

We drove up that very weekend to bring my Jasper home.

When we met at Jasper’s old house, he barked once when I got out of the car.  I rushed forward to meet him, and without hesitation, I cradled his ears in my hands and put my forehead to his forehead, my nose to his nose.  He licked my face and that was it.  The woman stood surprised and blurted out “Oh my goodness; it’s like he knows you!”

Of course he did; we’d been dreaming about each other.

Have the courage to pursue your dreams, whatever they may be.

—LisaMarie

I was thinking about what might make a good blog topic when the most intriguing subject revealed itself…

Morgan Hill.  Anyone ever been there?  I have; many times.  When I was in the high school marching band back in the 80’s, Live Oak High School from Morgan Hill was one of several large powerhouse bands we competed against.  They were tough to beat, although we did on occasion.  Today, they have only 42 band members and compete in Class A.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

It would appear, Live Oak has ‘fallen’ again…this time, into a political storm of their own making.  In an article I read on MSNBC, it was reported that students wearing t-shirts with American flags were asked to remove or turn their shirts inside-out on May 5.  Administrators told them their shirts were upsetting and disrespectful to Mexican-American students and failure to comply would be considered a suspendable offence.   The Morgan Hill Unified School District has issued a statement that it doesn’t agree with what the administrators did, and allowed the students to return to school.  Still, the whole dreadful incident made the news. 

Gosh. 

I’m sure everyone reading this has an opinion.  I’m not going to state what my opinion is.  This is not the place for that.  What I am going to say is that this is just another example of what gets in the way of teaching.

Instead of teaching tolerance, we—and I mean the collective we as a society—trample on the rights of some to preserve the rights of others.  Instead of teaching academic subjects we—and here I mean we as educators—are pressed upon to teach social and moral values.  Too often, it seems the two are at odds.  And the schools—particularly the teachers—are stuck in the middle. 

I love to play devil’s advocate.  I will defend and discuss sides of an argument that I don’t even agree with…I will question and probe sides of an argument that I believe to be the proper answer.  With that in mind, I ask this:

What are all the pieces to the story we do not know?  We do not know the background or disciplinary history of the students involved in the incident.  We do not know which vice principal approached the students (the school has two).  We do not know the ‘climate’ of the school…perhaps there has been racial tension in the past.  There’s a lot we don’t know.

And what would have happened if a fight had broken out at Live Oak on Wednesday?  Who would have been blamed for it?  BINGO –The school. 

Like I said, I am not going to even entertain the idea of weighing in on what I think about this event.  It’s not my school…it’s not my district…it’s not my business.  BUT the situation sure bears watching.  Because no matter what side you are on, no matter what your personal beliefs, no matter WHAT…it affects all of us in education.  

Thoughtfully,

—–LisaMarie

In case you didn’t notice, Thursday April 22 was “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day”.  This day, created in 1993 was intended to inspire students to think beyond school and see the connections between the curriculum they learn and the job skills they need.  Originally just for girls, it was expanded to include boys in 2004. 

This year, schools across the nation begged, pleaded and implored parents to skip the day and send their children to school.  There were a couple of significant reasons for this.  H1N1 has had a crushing effect on attendance in some schools.  ADA (Average Daily Attendance) is down, and every day a child is out is a detrimental blow to the schools’ bottom line.  Also, state testing has become compulsory in just about every state in the US.  No Child Left Behind affects everything from funding to mandates.

I read a great article by Don Babwin that outlined all of these concerns.  Unfortunately, George McKecuen, the spokesman for the TOD&STW Foundation (Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work) {huh…that acronym I just made up looks like Toad & Stew…I like it.  So it is!  I have now dubbed thee “Toad & Stew”  hee hee…anyway…???  Where was I?  Oh, right…spokesman…}  So, the spokesman for Toad & Stew says (and I am paraphrasing) that the event is more important than one day of school and the schools can just test some other day.

A-hem.  Excuse me?

Believe me, folks…teachers I talk to would LOVE to test some other day; preferably a day closer to the end of the school year!  End of the year testing in April??  Whose idea was that??  Oh right…it was the politicians.  Well, that’s a blog for another day…

Toad & Stew won’t budge, and have dismissed the notion that the day could be moved to summer or during a school holiday (spring break, winter break, etc.).  They want schools to design their calendar around the Toad & Stew Day.  Here in CUSD, we’ve worked very hard to minimize holidays that negatively impact our ADA.  A perfect example is Veteran’s Day.  ALWAYS on November 11, it sometimes falls on a Tuesday or Thursday.  Over the years, we found that parents would stretch out a four day weekend, and our ADA would take a big hit.  We’ve now made it a habit to place a Staff Development Day there.  This allows the parents the long weekend, but still preserves the ADA and maximizes instructional time.  Something like that wouldn’t work in this scenario, because not every child takes the Thursday Toad & Stew Day.  By making it a school holiday, schools would still run the risk of losing ADA on the Friday after.  There is no way to mitigate the impact of the day. 

The article was really very balanced.  I give credit to Don Babwin for attempting to show both sides of the issue.  Also, there was a “vote” at the end that would seem to indicate an almost perfect split in reader viewpoints.  At the time I reviewed the article out of almost 2000 internet ‘voters’, it was 49.7% for “Let them [the children] come to work” and 49.1% for “Keep them [the children] in school”.  1.2% voted “I don’t know”.  

Sadly, scanning the “reader comments” after the article did not reflect such an equal point of view.  Many parents slammed their schools; complaining about uninspiring lessons, lackluster teachers and simplfied test-prep curriculum.  One person posted this statement: “Schools are just whining because they get paid for attendance.  It’s all about money for them not what is best for the children.”  Another said “Missing one day of class does not matter”.  And another blasted “If one day has that big of an impact on test scores, then the parents and teachers aren’t doing their job the other 179 school days!” And what I think is the very worst comment of all… “Do you honestly think that it’s about ‘disruption’. No it’s not especially in the money grubbing school district I live in…”  Ouch.  I feel badly for their children if that is truly what is happening in their schools.  I know from visiting all of the classes in our district that is not the case here in CUSD. 

Maybe because our teachers work so hard, AND our schools are so good, AND our community knows that…Toad & Stew Day didn’t have a significant impact on us.   Year-to-Date our average attendance rate has been around 95.9%.  That’s good.  Very good.  H1N1 hit us a little bit, but it appears we’ve been able to get through the regular seasonal flu season with few attendance dips.  We’ve done a tremendous amount of outreach to our community.  We’ve explained the importance of good student attendance, not only for the sake of the children’s learning but for our revenue.  Yes, those ADA dollars are important.  There’s no getting around that…because without the money, we can’t do what we are supposed to do.  The enormous amount of effort that went into educating our community (and more importantly, their faith in us to always do what is best for their children) resulted in this: our attendance on that Toad & Stew Day was 96.27%.  Yep.  Higher than the year-to-date average. 

Good for us.

Keep on teachin’…

—-LisaMarie

The cost associated with elementary sports (or all co-curricular, for that matter) is a question that has been raised quite a few times.  There is a feeling that that are no firm answers, and to a certain degree, that is correct.  Depending upon several factors, costs are not absolute and change from year to year.  However, we can get very close in our estimation.   You may have heard several different numbers thrown around, and even I have shared some figures.  I understand everyone’s curiosity though, so I did some additional digging.   Here you go…the best figures that I can come up with…

Equipment/uniforms:  As I said in my previous post about uniforms, it can be costly to outfit teams.  Fortunately, PTCs and Foundations can help defray the costs so that it doesn’t crush a school’s Student Body Fund.  It’s hard to pin down an exact yearly costs district wide for this… In talking with elementary principals and coaches, it can cost as much as $4000 to replace equipment, but that’s not an every-year-expense.  Safety/protective equipment like helmets have a life expectancy and new gear must be purchased when necessary.  Is there a way to reduce these costs?  Of course, and it is already being done.  Principals, coaches and athletic directors already stretch their dollars as far as they can.  I know at some schools, jerseys are used for multiple sports whenever possible.  For example, the uniform shirts used for cross country might also be used for track, and sometimes basketball as well. 

There are some minor differences for secondary schools.  High School sports rely heavily on gate receipts, but also do additional fundraising for equipment and/or uniform needs.   At the Intermediate level, there are no gate receipts for regular games (only a very select few special events, such as tournaments).  Therefore, fundraising is very important.  Teams and Booster Groups hold individual fundraisers for equipment or uniform needs.

Transportation:  This is always assumed to be a huge expense and it really isn’t.  Last year, elementary co-curricular bus runs for the entire district cost under $50,000.  For much of this, the drivers were already “on the clock” and therefore, no extra expense was incurred to move kids from place to place.  Routes are arranged to utilize the drivers we have working already at any given time.  For example, a driver might pick up an elementary group that is traveling to another school for a game.  After dropping off the athletes, they complete their regular school day dismissal route, and return for the athletes.  After that, they could do a late “rec-run” for one of the secondary sites.  All in a day’s work. 

Certainly fuel consumption is an important consideration, and mileage is carefully measured when routes are created.  Karen Malcolm is a genius when it comes to designing bus routes.  If there’s a way to squeeze a dollar out of a bus, she has already found it.  Fuel efficiency is even considered when deciding which bus will travel to a particular event.  Still, the Elementary Athletic Committee has already made changes to the elementary schedule to reduce transportation costs, saving $10,000.   

Transportation costs for the secondary schools can climb as the teams travel to distant locales…but those ‘special’ travel costs are offset by fundraising.  For example, many of our high school volleyball teams traveled to Las Vegas for a recent tournament.  Individual schools may have had some mileage allocation they used, but the majority of the cost was covered by team fundraising.  Here’s something else I’ll bet many of you didn’t know:  when a team travels to a CIF State Championship Playoff, some of the money for travel or other accommodations is reimbursed by the CIF.  I didn’t know that.  That’s important.

Officials/Awards:  We are a competitive bunch here in CUSD.  Always have been…  Even so, at elementary games, officials are only used for the “A team” matches.  These officials are paid out of district funds and $40,000 is allocated for this expense each year.  It is important to note that also paid out of this $40,000 are the ribbons and medals that our elementary athletes receive as winners of district-level competitions, such as track/cross country meets or wrestling tournaments.

Again, the cost of officials for secondary schools is handled a bit differently than elementary.  For example, funds raised through Jog-a-thons or magazine sales pay for the officials at our intermediate sporting events.  However, just like elementary, not every intermediate team/sport has an official to referee.  Coaches take turns stepping into that role. 

Insurance:  Our district carries insurance for all kinds of stuff…not just student sports.  It is impossible to separate out the costs of JUST sports because that isn’t the way our insurance cost/coverage is determined.  Insurance costs are not based upon how many teams we have, or what sports our students participate in.  The JPA sets a rate based on overall ADA and a district’s actual cost is then adjusted by various factors.   For instance, in CUSD we are fortunate to pay approximately 80% of the amount set by the JPA because we are considered a low risk.  CUSD pays $500,000 per year for liability insurance with a $50,000 deductible for general liability coverage.  It is important to note that if we were to eliminate sports—any sports—all sports—it would NOT change the cost of our insurance.  The amount or type of sports we offer has no bearing on the cost of insurance for the district.  Thus, there is no insurance cost savings to eliminating any of our co-curricular programs.

Given all of that information, you can see that it is fair to say the cost of elementary sports is somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-100,000.  Secondary sports either cover their costs, or even bring funds into the district.  But there is one last significant expense…

And it is us.

Stipends:  Last year, the district spent over $4mil in payment of stipends—athletic and academic.  Using the current Co-curricular Stipend Salary Schedule, I came up with some startling numbers.  To reach the number I found, I made two assumptions:  1) all allocated stipends are used and 2) all stipends are paid at the highest amount.  (We know that neither of those assumptions is necessarily true in every case, but I needed a number we could all agree upon.)  I found that given those assumptions, each elementary school could encumber as much as $27,578 for athletic stipends.  Multiplied by 32 that is more than $880,000 just for elementary athletic stipends.

For Intermediate JV athletics only, given the same assumptions, it is about $14,292 per school.  Multiply by the 5 schools and it could be more than $70,000 for JV coach stipends. 

True, that’s a chunk of change.  But it is salary.  And it is only a fraction of what is paid in total stipends. 

Back in December, when Faculty Senate surveyed teachers about a proposed 5% reduction to the co-curricular salary schedule, only 60% of the respondents who receive stipends indicated they would be in favor of that action.  That’s not really an overwhelming majority.  I can only wonder what the percentage would be if the proposal had been to eliminate the stipend completely.  As it is, although the 5% reduction was initially approved by the Governing Board, it has since been repealed.  There will be no percentage reductions to the co-curricular stipends for next year.

Now you have some numbers.  And they really aren’t as big as we might have thought…

No easy answers…

—LisaMarie

Sly, sneaky, crafty, clever and scheming.  Those words describe my husband.  Thank goodness he uses his powers for good instead of evil.  What did he do, you may ask?  I’ll tell ya’ what he did.

My birthday was March 31.  For weeks, he’d been telling me that we were going somewhere for my birthday, but wouldn’t tell me where.  He gave hints, but frankly, they were pretty general and not helpful at all.  I did learn that we were traveling south, approximately 200 miles.  Humph.  That still leaves things pretty wide-open as to the ‘what’, even if it narrows down the ‘where’.  And it wasn’t all that narrow, anyway. 

So, on the morning of March 31, we set out in the rain for southern California.  We made excellent time.  We’ve noticed that there just isn’t anyone on the road anymore.  No traffic jams, no bottlenecks, no mysterious slowdowns…just no traffic.  It’s kind of creepy, but a sign of the economy, I believe.   

Anyway, after lunch at a Gordon Biersch Brewery in Burbank, I figured out at least that there had to be a shoe store involved.  It is our usual MO to dine at GB before shoe shopping at DSW.  I usually do this because after dining at GB, my hubby doesn’t care how many pairs of shoes I buy (it is a brewery, after all).  I guessed his plan correctly, because next we—well, I—drove to Hollywood where we shopped at the DSW right there on Hollywood Blvd.  Very fun, if I may say so.  I saw stars for both Patrick Stewart and James Doohan right there on the Walk of Fame.  Cool huh?  Yeah, go ahead and pretend you don’t know who those guys are…I took pictures of their stars while my husband and son pretended not to know me.  They are just lucky I didn’t know ahead of time, or I might have worn my Next Generation Bridge Officers Uniform.

So, I was pretty happy, thinking that this was turning out to be a very fun birthday.  A nice lunch, great shoes, getting to play ‘Hollywood tourist’…what could be better?

Well, it just so happened that right around the corner and a little way up the hill was the famous Hollywood Bowl.  And it also just so happened that Paul McCartney was performing there that night.  And it also just so happened that my dear, sweet, lovable, incredible, amazing, remarkable, marvelous, full-of-surprises husband had tickets.

What a birthday!

—LisaMarie

“It is important that people think outside the box, and try to find innovative and inexpensive ways to improve what we do.  We just have to do our homework when exploring the possibilities.”

I said that.  Back in November of ’09 when discussing 4-day workweeks on this very blog, I said that.  What is more important is that I believe it. 

I’ve been out to a lot of schools, and talked to a lot of teachers.  Several have shared ideas with me.   We sent out a mini-survey to gather some input about the budget and many people took the opportunity to share some ideas there.  And emails…good golly, I get emails.  Dozens—no, hundreds—of emails.  I read and respond to them all, and appreciate the ideas that are offered in them.  Some good, some bad…some possible, some impossible…some thoughtful, some silly and meant only in jest…  The most important thing is that we communicate and try to address the challenges our district is facing TOGETHER. 

Many good people have put in long hours gathering data, reviewing data, and looking at possibilities to make the best of this epic state budget disaster.  It’s been difficult, and there’s lots of ‘Monday morning quarterbacking’ going on.  Not everything has gone smoothly, I’ll give you that.  It is because we all care so much for each other and the place where we work that things have gone the way they have.  A perfect example is the Expanded Benefits Committee.  As the committee gathered data, and began to examine what changes might be necessary to our Health Benefits plan, there were some that felt we were moving too fast, yet others were frustrated by how slow things seemed to be going.  You might wonder how two completely different feelings/ideas could come out of the same committee.  After all, these people saw the same data, viewed the same PowerPoints, heard the same presentations…how could they feel so differently?  Because they care, that’s how.

Everyone is moving very cautiously.   No one wants to make a decision in haste that will affect our district and all the employees for years to come without completely, fully, and absolutely studying every angle.  Sometimes, that can be frustrating.  But it is for the best. 

We’ve never faced anything like this before. ‘We’ as a district and ‘we’ as individuals…this is new economic territory we are plodding through.   Economists call this a “deep recession”.  I’m not sure what the difference is between a ‘deep recession’ and a ‘depression’, but I guess only time will tell.  At any rate, it is uncharted waters for families, businesses, schools and cities.

So, to get back to my self-quote at the beginning…we are doing our homework.  No one likes homework.  My son doesn’t.  I didn’t when I was a kid.  Pretty sure my husband hated it.  It is, however, necessary.  There are lots of ideas out there, and those that are viable are being considered.  Unfortunately, just because something is a good idea doesn’t always mean it is possible, and ideas that are possible aren’t always good.  Sometimes it takes time to figure out the difference.

I’m sure many of you have heard Carlo Prandini say he believes this crisis will be Clovis Unified’s finest hour.  I think it certainly can be, if we just stick together. If we can be reasonable, be rational, and be true to what makes us unique, we will make a bold statement to everyone about what is right in education today.

—-LisaMarie

Yesterday was March 15.  A rather famous day in history, really.  Way back in 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar, it is said, had been warned to “beware the Ides of March”.  He should have taken the warning seriously, because it turns out that on that day—the Ides of March—March 15—he was assassinated by a group of his inner circle, including his traitorous friends.  Bummer.

I found a website that lists some past events on March 15…worth a peek if you are interested.  There’s a mix of good and bad so you can’t really make a case for the Ides of March historically only being a dark day.  For some it is a day to celebrate; for example March 15 is will.i.am’s birthday.  Aren’t you glad I told you that?

But I digress…for many in California yesterday, the Ides of March held bleak news as schools in our state continue to struggle with budget deficits.  The news is reporting 22,000 school employees state wide received “pink slips” yesterday.  Some news agencies are saying that most of those teachers will get their jobs back next year, and the pink slips are just a formality.  I wish that were true.  However, I know student teachers who are not finding any open job prospects.  I know current teachers who are looking to move, and not finding any open job prospects.  I spoke to a teacher last week who works in a highly sought-after position.  She sent out 50 applications…and only got ONE positive inquiry in return. 

I am usually a glass-half-full person.  But our state is in a terrible mess.

There is a bright spot in the news, however, and it’s us.  Channel 26 did a story about the cuts to education, and highlighted the fact that we didn’t issue any pink slips.  [If you missed the story, I’ll try and post a link to it here…KMPH’s website as down as I write this…]   That’s something to be proud of; we’ve always said we were different than everybody else, and in this case, we are proving it true.

..This reminds me of a song by Montgomery Gentry:

“That’s something to be proud of
That’s a life you can hang your hat on
You don’t need to make a million
Just be thankful to be workin’
If you’re doing what you’re able
And putting food there on the table
And providing for the family that you love
That’s something to be proud of”

The Ides of March can come and go, and as long as we stick together, we’re going to be OK.

—-LisaMarie

I know.  That is a pathetic play on words.  But it got your attention.

I was never an athlete in school.  I tried track once in elementary school.  In 5^th grade, my teacher told me to try out because I could sprint fairly well.  I went to practice every day, running the 50 & 100 yard dash, and the relay.  Unfortunately, in the heady days of the CUSD Competition Model, I didn’t run the 50 yard dash quite fast enough, so I never got to go to any track meets.  After a few weeks of being left at school on game days, I quit track.  I never tried out for any sports again.  

Now, I don’t tell you this because I expect some pity or want you to feel sorry for me.  I turned my focus to music and band, and had many, MANY doors open to me in the process.  But…what if? What if I had at least been allowed to go to the games?  What if I would have continued to go to practice, and maybe even improved?  What if I had remained interested in sports?  What if I had tried out for other opportunities?  What would my experiences look like today?

We can’t answer the ‘what if’s’ of the world, but I guarantee that there are still kids out there today, just like me.  Good, but not good enough.  So…  Do we keep them engaged and encouraged?  Or do we shut the door and hope they find something else to occupy their time? 

Many schools in California are considering cuts to their athletic programs, some even at the varsity level, due to the budget crisis in our state.  It has been suggested by some teachers here that we eliminate elementary sports, and/or J.V. sports at the intermediate level.  That’s a tough decision, with many ramifications. 

The loss of opportunities for students is not only a personal loss for them, but an on-going loss for us as a system.  Without the experience for children to build upon, they will arrive at the varsity level unprepared and untrained.  Imagine this; what if due to budget cuts, we decide to eliminate teaching any science skills in intermediate school.  Hmmm…What would happen if we really did that? Kids would get to high school with few skills, or bad habits.  How could the secondary science teachers address that and meet the standards and benchmarks they are responsible for?

I know; I know…you can’t compare what happens in the classroom to what happens on the field.  But the two ARE linked.  Students who participate in some type of physical activities do better in school than their peers who don’t.  In a study titled “The Impact of Physical Activity and Obesity on Academic Achievement Among Elementary Students”, a portion of the conclusion states:

“…A positive relationship existed between physical activity and academic achievement. In other words, students that maintained a higher level of physical activity maintained higher grades and learned at a faster rate than those students who were less physically active. Conversely, a negative relationship was observed between obesity, as rated by the BMI, and academic achievement. In other words, obese students performed below their more physically fit counterparts regarding academic achievement.”

Physical activity is not the magic bullet to student achievement, but it certainly plays a part.  How many students have you seen over the years that were motivated to do well in class so they could participate in sports?  It happens.  We can’t pretend it doesn’t.  In fact, it is key that we recognize how strong that connection can be. 

I talked with the principals at Sierra Vista, Tarpey, and Red Bank and they all spoke of how strong that connection to school sports is, and how important our programs are for their students and communities.  For example, at Sierra Vista, Cathy Dodd said 80% of the sports-eligible students participate.  Kevin Peterson reports 80-85% participation at Red Bank.  Darrin Holtermann says 40-50 kids go out for each sport; so A, B and sometimes C teams are the norm at Tarpey. Detractors think that if the schools stopped offering sports, parents would simply enroll their children on city, all-star or traveling teams.  Sierra Vista and Tarpey principals both dismissed that logic; for their students, what is offered at school is IT.  The parents do not have the disposable income to pay for out-side teams and travel to games/practice can be a hardship.  While Red Bank’s principal estimates that around 20 students play for outside teams, that number represents only 10% of the students that play at school.  For some of these students, the experience they get in elementary school may be their only experience with organized sports. 

Barry Jager knows how vital Reyburn Intermediate’s JV teams are for the athletes at his school.    Reyburn’s JV teams allow for 100-120 additional students to participate who would have been cut from varsity teams.  When asked about travel teams or outside opportunities, he said “Many of our students wouldn’t be able to participate.”  There is minimal traveling for Jr. High teams, and costs can be reduced through judicious purchases of uniforms and equipment. Some of those costs can even be carried by PTCs or Foundations.  Even at the elementary level, PTCs can help with uniform costs, which can be a big purchase.  Fortunately, it is a purchase that doesn’t have to be made every year.

Not every kid matures at the same rate.  I’ve often said “Today’s JV players are Tomorrow’s Varsity players.  Give them your best now so they can return the favor.”  Some little wirey 98-pound 8^th grade weakling is going to be a monster when he’s a junior in high school.  

So if offering these things are so important to our students and communities, how much do they really cost?

Tune in next time, and I’ll tell ya’…..

—-LisaMarie

Lots of things seem like good ideas at 3 in the morning.

—-LisaMarie

I thought I was done with “3am feedings”.  I remember the first time my son slept through the night when he was an infant.  I woke up in a panic, and rushed in to his room to check on him.  I watched him breathe until I was convinced he was OK.   Nowadays, because my son is 15 years old, I thought I was assured of at least a few more nights of uninterrupted sleep (at least until cars and curfews came around…).

The trouble with diabetes is you can’t tell they’re OK just by watching them breathe. 

My son got an insulin pump last week.  As we adjust to this new way of managing his diabetes, we need to very closely monitor his blood glucose and make changes to the pump settings until we find the levels that work for him.  This means either my husband or I (but usually both of us) get up at midnight and 3am every night to check everything.  That doesn’t mean just watching him; we’ve got to test the blood glucose and check the pump.  We have to make sure we are awake enough to think clearly, process information and make decisions.  No zombie-walking through the process; we’ve got to be alert.  The doctor has warned us that it could take as long as two weeks to get everything zeroed in. 

It’s a lot of work, stress and worry…and the learning curve is steep.  I imagine that the first night the doctor says we can all sleep through the night again, I probably won’t.  I suppose I will wake up anyway, and go in and just watch him breathe.

And I will thank the stars above that this is a problem that is manageable.

Things could always be worse.  Be thankful for what you’ve got—challenges and all. 

And don’t forget to breathe.

—–LisaMarie