Yesterday I had a meeting with the school district superintendent. Nice office, Bigger than my living room and I have a big living room. He had a desk that could hold a Macarana dance contest on it and next to it a ten person meeting table. One thing that stuck out of all the pictures and knick-knacks in the book case behind his desk was a "Wilson" volley ball with the bloody hand print and smile. Odd.

We talked for about forty minutes about the district's long term plan to get the students tests scores out of the cellar and then onto regular school stuff. He said the long term plan was implemented about four years ago when he took over. He had three ways to improve the scores and it basically came down to more participation in the kids lives through the school. Sorry, but the other two made my eyes glaze over so I don't think he really had a real answer. Just "We have a stragetic plan and we are implementing it, currently". Oh well. But he did go into detail as to why the scores are below the states average. He said that in this school district the parents don't have a great influence within the kid's schooling. I.E. he was saying that a lot of the parents are either drug addicts or the parents are not in the house (skipped out on the family and left the grand parents to raise the kids) or both parents work two or more jobs and at the end of the day are too dang tired to care about school work.

I can understand that sentiment because around this area poverty is very prevelant. Low cost of living, no good jobs to be had, and a mentality that a person will never rise above the level of their parents. (Live in poverty, dwell in poverty, rely upon the government teet for money, and no ambition). So it is an uphill battle to get kids motivated to want to do better. There is a glimer of light on that, though.

Another thing I asked about was the school buildings and how they could handle an overabundance of new enrollees. He said that a few years ago the district had around 2200 kids enrolled. Now it had declined to around 1700. He said there was plenty of seats for new enrollees. Ok, then so there should not be any need for new capital expenditures for the next decade, I suppose.

I then was able to ask about the daily experiences of the kids while they were learning. Do the kids learn how to write in cursive? NO! he said. Because all of the lessons the kids are learning are taught on ChromeBooks. No need for a pen or pencil on a piece of paper because the entire world is leaning to virtual writing. This got me to think "Oh God, they cannot even write a sentence, so how are they expected to use their brains for critical thinking activities"? Plus there are no books for the kids to carry around like I did a few years ago. They have a few notebooks and a ChromeBook in their backpacks and go from class to class. (I HAVE MORE TO SAY ABOUT THIS LATER IN THIS POST).

So, all in all it was a good meeting that made me believe he knows what he's doing, the school board is on board with his plan to improve scores and he really cares about the kids. I give him a thumbs up, currently, until I'm proven wrong with my assesment of his abilities to lead this school district.

Fastforward to todays school board meeting at 7:30AM. I didn't find out about it until I looked on the schools website last night and scrolled down to the bottom of the page and saw the official announcement. I made plans right then and there to attend, just to see if other tax payers showed up.

I got to the school at 7:25AM and walked into the school with a couple of students. I walked right past the Principals office and into the library. It was dark in there with three students huddled in the dark looking at their cell phones. I wanted to see how many library books were there and was saddened by the dearth of books. A kindergarten class has more books on its shelves that this high school library. So I moseyed on into the cafeteria and was treated to musical strands of Bob Segar being piped through the school's PA system. Pretty odd to hear old rock and roll in a cafeteria, but I enjoyed it. A lot of the students looked like Gotha adherents with black clothing, pasty faces, and long hair. All were looking at some sort of digital device and no one looked like they were hustling to finish a school assignment. My next stop was at the board meeting room. I walked into a dark room. Nobody was there but a door at the back of the room was ajar and voices were coming from behind it. I walked to the door and was greeted by the superintendent and the school board. They were waiting for the starting time and just chitchatting amongst themselves. The superintendent pointed me to a chair in the back corner of the room and said I could sit there. The meeting started and one agenda item was discussed, the filling of a vacant board member. The had one guy from a list of three and he was voted in as a temporary member until December. Then he would have to toss his name in on a county election ballot and see if anyone else would contend for this position.

The meeting took about ten minutes and as I was leaving a female board member said to me "I'm glad you came to this meeting." Yea, I was the only person from the public to attend. Ugh.

But as I was leaving the meeting room, through the cafeteria, a lady came up behind me and said, "Excuse ME! but do you have permission to be on school property?" I said, yea I was attending the school board meeting and was leaving. She came over to me and we began chatting about school "stuff". Turns out she is the cafeteria manager. Glad to see she noticed an adult without official permission walking through the school. As we were talking four students came up and began talking to her. Since I was there to get answers to some questions I have I asked all the guys "Do you fellows know how to write in cursive?" Sadly not one of them new how to do that simple task, but they all could write their names in cursive. Wow, and now I understand why this school district is in the 40th percentile in the state. One of the lads said the last time he wrote in cursive was in second grade. I can only guess that he was a junior in the high school. Ten years have passed since he learned how to write his name and absolutely no follow up with pen and paper. Another one of the kids said he hated the ChromeBook. I didn't get to ask him why so that is for another day.

The cafeteria manager was very enlightening about why the kids sucked at school. She said it was mainly because of apathy on the part of the drug addicted parents, the lack of a parent in the house and parents working like dogs and too tired to care about their kid's education. We talked about the 84K square foot VoTech building and she thought it was a great addition to the school system. Kids who aren't college material could attend the VoTech and when graduated they could land a good job. I liked this lady.

At least now I have some more information to think about. I understand why this school district is in the top ten in the state when it comes to buildings that shine, and why the students suck. I think it can be turned around, but it will take ten years and penmenship is the backbone of my idea.

Thanks for reading this long post. I hope some readers can give me ideas to improve the scores. Maybe I can add those to what I think and then go to the boad members individually and bend their ears. Who knows, maybe my one voice can be the starting point for getting the kids to learn.......better. Cheers.