Well, hopefully I won't be living in the doghouse

"You're the big dog now, it's time for me to drive you out to see your buildings." That's the way that our head of construction at All-American Public Schools greeted me this afternoon. And I think he meant it as a compliment. It came across that way, at least.

The buildings that inspired this bit of show and tell today are the buildings that have been renovated, and in one case added on to, at two of our elementary schools over the summer. Both schools were built over 25 years ago, and they needed some TLC and some deseventiesization. Yes, I made that word up all by myself. We've now brought them into the 21st century, and it was great today to see the teachers excited about moving into the refurbished rooms. At one site, they were having electricity problems, but the lack of airconditioning didn't stop the teachers from checking out the changes in their rooms. It was great to see how excited they were, and I know the students will appreciate the new digs as well. I am fortunate to work in a district where the voters continuously approve the bond issues that allow us to do these renovations, build new schools, and purchase technology equipment.

While new buildings were the topic of today, new teachers will be the focus for tomorrow. The newly hired teachers reported to their schools today, and tomorrow they'll spend the entire day with us at the district-level. I'll do two presentations, my first since taking the assistant superintendent position. These are key events to conveying the culture of our school district. It will be a long day, but I can't wait to see all those new, enthusiastic employees, one of whom I ran into today. This freshly-minted 3rd grade teacher was walking the halls of All-American High just four years ago. She's gotten married, so I didn't realize who it was until I actually stepped into the room. It's amazing how fast time flies! It's great, though, to see high-quality students like this young woman become teachers and return to All-American Public Schools.

I have to be at work bright and early to make sure everything is set up for the training tomorrow, so I'll sign off now, but not before making a blatant plea for some comments already. I've been seeing that "0 comments" tag for far too long!