Monday, June 15, 2009

knives and forks

The school year is just waiting for the proverbial lady to finish her song. Workshop day tomorrow and then our little SAD will ride out the month and then cease to exist. The new RSU starts July 1, with all the hope and fear and potential and dread such a change brings. It's good it happens over the summer: we teachers are conditioned for changes to take place in July or August rather than January. I think everyone is nervous-- so many unknowns to work through, and the only way to answer the questions is to have them pop up as the year unfolds.

I do so love my job, whatever the outside structure around me looks like, and summer vacation is a part of that reason, but not just because I get to exist without an alarm clock for 10 weeks. We are all ready for some down time, and some time away from each other. We are ready to come back rejuvenated and refocused, with new goals to attain. Summer isn't just 'free time' for teachers; it is just as important-- maybe more so-- for students to get a break from the intensity of the year. Sometimes the big changes in thinking happen when you aren't thinking about it.

So farewell to this year, and to this district on it's way to becoming a region. We will be ready to come back and tackle the new year in the fall.

3 comments:

Wendy said...

The last 'official' meeting of the Old Orchard Beach school board was last Wednesday. They are no more, and the RSU takes over here beginning in July, also.

In April, the superintendent came up to me at the school board and said, "Uh, our last meeting is, probably, in June, and, uh ...."

"And I'll no longer have a job?" I filled in for him :).

It's the end of a era, and having been involved in consolidated school districts before moving to Maine, I hope it is what the government thinks it will be ..., but having been involved in consolidated school districts before, I'm skeptical :).

Unknown said...

It's funny, I'm really not too worked up, even though I've been involved so heavily in the merging of the associations. Maybe it's BECAUSE of that, but I doubt it. I think it's probably due to the demise of our own little school department a few years back, I just haven't gotten very invested in our SAD. And the "family" has never really taken hold in me, either.

The Buck Shoots Here said...

Skeptical, yes. Trying to embrace inevitable change, you bet. But today I wore my shirt from our beloved district that got eaten by the big fish 4 years ago: a delightful k-8 district of 150 kids and 20 staff, with little money but lots of heart. I miss *that* place daily, in a way I'll never miss the big fish that just got eaten by the whale born in Augusta.