lexington sc tonight....

I've been a bit under the weather the past few days and so I wasn't sure I would make the trip south this year. I did. Still not 100% yet, but here I am.





Rain, cold and gloom. Ah well. It could just as well be snow and ice. I HOPE NOT. That is something I hope to avoid. The forecast says the next few months will be warmer and drier than usual.






I don't exactly know what to make of things at school. Our principal is doing his level best. I really think that. Some others don't agree but then, pleasing women is near to impossible at times. But as I have said before, our principal has NO supporting cast. None. The two APs are inept. Can't say it any nicer. It is isn't a nice situation. When the principal is absent, which happens often, the school doesn't run well. It doesn't run at all, actually.



Still uncertain about my future. There are some tendencies present that make me uncomfortable. The place is still run like a high school and many there are who seem to like it that way. I definetly do not. Central office continues to wreck havoc, pushing their self-serving agenda and making life tough for us. I am overly weary of that. And the state....well, it's being run by stupid more than ever now. The ultimate goal of the self-absorbed GOP is to torpedo public education. I remain convinced of that.

So why stick aroun?. Why tolerate this any longer? I am left to wonder.

Merry Christmas?

I head for South Carolina in the morning....

I still feel odd, seemingly intruding on another family's Christmas day, but the Griffins insist they want me to come. I've no doubt they are sincere, but I still feel peculiar. They are about the only "family" I have left. Not that I really had one to start with.... And this time of year always serves to remind me of that. Gotta stop dwelling on the past. Cannot change it. Why worry about it?




I have torn the meniscus in my left knee. Or so says my doctor. That might mean surgery (ugh); I knew it was coming though. Something just told me the ole knee wasn't what it needs to be. I was right.

I seem to have dodge another bullet...

that seems to happen to me a bunch, lately.

In the mountains tonight....

It doesn't feel as hot as it is "down below," but they are saying we will be dodging thunderstorms all weekend.


6/30/2012. It all ends.

If you haven't seen the advertisement for the final Harry Potter movie, one of its sub titles say something like this, only with different dates. It signifies the end of the Harry Potter series. 6/30/12 signifies the ending to my career in education, at least in North Carolina. Yep. That is the plan. Gonna be right up front with it from the start. Many who have retired tell me it is far better to go out "on top" rather than burnt out and discouraged and I agree with the sentiment.




It will be bittersweet, no doubt. Some who are already retired or who have been pushing me to retire myself just don't understand what it is like to not have a family, not have anyone to dote on day after day. I needed the break this summer, after the horrible year we had, but being with the 9 little girls for a week reminded me of what I have been missing. Nuts, I still do miss them. and if that make me strange, so be it.





During the 4 and 1/2 hour drive home last weekend, it occurred to me that I need not take anymore excrement from people. Once I retire, my income will all come from sources that I have earned the right to. I will no longer be beholden to politics, to selfish administrators or short sighted central office dolts. They will no longer be able to harm me.

Furthermore, they can kiss my 4th point of contact!

My head is so screwed up.....

I don't feel comfortable remaining where i am. I've a real sense that our new principal would sell me out in an instant, if she thought it were to her advantage.

Public education in north carolina seems headed down a bumpy road. Not sure I want to go along for the ride.

I don't want it to end this way....

OUr legislature is busy disembowling public education. They're talking 35-40 students per class, large pay cuts, vouchers, unrestricted numbers of charter schools....
Add to this we have a "climber" for a new principal who is using us to propel her own career. And, as usual, many do not see the obvious.
I think my health is being impacted. I am approaching 300 pounds. A lot of it has to be stress.



Utter madness.

Well...the news isn't good.

Not by a longshot.

I want to go on record as saying that I tried to support our new Principal. Seriously. I truly did. I can't do that anymore.

Her actions have shown, without much doubt, that her priorities are NOT the good of the students, the welfare of the staff, or anything except her own advancement. She's a "climber," one who appears willing to use us as a vehicle for self-promotion. I have seen it before, twice. Neither time was it particularly pretty.

The SACS team will be here this coming week. Our new leader has been bonkers over it. I've been through a SACS accreditation visit twice. Neither time was the pressure or tension as high as it is now.

I hear understand that better than half the staff feels alienated. One has outright resigned, claiming medical problems. I checked. That wasn't the real reason. We've sunk to lying now. I remember that happening in another middle school, several years ago....

So for me, it ends in June. No matter what, I will NOT work in a school with this person in charge. This kind of person ruins lives, wrecks careers and can destroy the community of a school community.

And it makes me really sad.....