90s28 Excerpts For My Journal

The 1997-98 school year was a challenging one! I will get to some of those challenges but first will share some journal entries from the beginning of the year.

Principal's Journal 1997-98

Friday, August 8, 1997
Came back to work this week after a very busy summer. Worked in the office all day Monday and on Tuesday morning. Paul Davis and I went to the SAI Conference in Des Moines on Tuesday afternoon and stayed until Thursday noon. The conference was uneventful. Went to an Apple session and a teacher evaluation session. The latter was interesting. We managed to put in 52 miles on our bikes riding to the Salorville Reservoir each day. Concerns right now are about the number of students we will have and how many sections we will have at each grade level. I also have to find and hire an intermediate SCI teacher and maybe a half-time fifth/sixth teacher. We also have to do all the preparation for the school year so things are going to get hectic here very soon.

Monday, August 11, 1997
We worked on the class lists today. Changing from five sections at first/second to four sections. We are planning on interviewing for the Intermediate SCI position tomorrow. One of the persons called this morning and said she wouldn't be coming because she has been offered another position. That leaves only two to interview. We advertised in the Register over the weekend so that might generate a few more. Things seem to be getting more hectic by the minute! This afternoon we are going over to West High for training with the new elementary database. It will be great but I'm not excited about messing with it right now. Chris has been working with it so we already know quite a bit about it. The session on the database went well! It will be very useful! The Press-Citizen has requested information from each school about ITBS. Because of the open records law we are obligated to give it to them. It could be the source of some local controversy. There may be a school-by-school comparison. That is not an appropriate use of the scores but the press doesn't understand that. We will just have to wait and see how it develops.

Tuesday, August 12, 1997
We interviewed two candidates for our intermediate SCI position this morning. Several teachers helped with this. We liked one but she is already under contract with WACO so it may be a problem. She is to call me back this afternoon. I think they will let her go pending finding a suitable replacement. We may have to use a sub for a while until she gets released. I hope we get her! If not I guess it's back to the drawing board because I don't think we want the other candidate. Several teachers have stopped in and started working on their classrooms. We will need to hire a 1-hour noon associate before school starts if possible. The person who did it last year, our Media Secretary doesn't want to do it this year. Hopefully we will be able to get someone who can help us out. The SCI candidate called and said that she needed until tomorrow morning. She needs to talk with her principal. I told her she could do that. It delays us a little more but I guess I have no choice if I want her. We had 10 new students register today. That makes our count look a lot better.

Wednesday, August 13, 1997
Wow! A lot has happened today. Our enrollment continues to grow. We are very busy keeping up with everything. I met with the other elementary principals, Barb, Tim, and Ann to discuss staffing based on the new numbers. It now appears that we will be able to staff Longfellow with five first/second grades and three and a half fifth/sixth grades. That is an increase of 1.5 teachers over what we thought we would have. That is great but we need to move fast in getting those teachers. I'm waiting for the CAO to tell me whether they will be new hires or transfers. Either way we are a lot better off than I expected we would be.

Friday, August 15, 1997
Whoaaaaa! Things are crazy now!!! We had administrator inservice all day yesterday. The session was good but we all wanted to get back to our buildings to work or do some hiring. ITBS scores for each building are going to be published locally and that has everyone concerned because they are misunderstood and misused. Some custodians in the district have been involved in a drug ring and that was made public yesterday, too. This afternoon we are interviewing for our first/second position. We interviewed two and the staff was split on the decision so I made the final decision and will offer the position.