Wednesday, February 23, 2005

• Made it through the day despite my mostly sleepless night.  We went grocery shopping and managed to avoid Crazy Check-Out Lady.  I know this makes me sound like a twit, but I'm a sucker for new cleaning products.  Today I grabbed a bottle of Orange Glo Hardwood Floor cleaner.  You're supposed to use it in conjunction with the Orange Glo Microfiber Mop, but I noticed that the mop was little more than a piece of terrycloth on a stick.  A terry rag worked fine for me, and I must say my floors look good.

  Still progressing with Clarissa.  Now Lovelace is getting on my nerves.  He hints at marriage, but won't name a day; is always ready for a delay.  Clarissa, meanwhile, isn't willing to lose face by pressing him while what Lovelace really wants is for her to beg him to marry her.  And he's got her installed in a rented apartment in a house in London, but unbeknownst to Clarissa, the "widow" who owns the house and her two "neices" are all buddies (and possibly lovers) of Lovelace's.  He's trying to get her to sleep with her maid (also in cahoots with him) presumably so that she will unlock the bedroom door for him.  So Clarissa is screwed, figuratively and (almost) literally.

  I've just come from a local news website and am feeling quite discouraged about our public schools.  I'm homeschooling my two younger children, but my two oldest attend public school.  We have a new superintendent who appears to be completely crazy.  The city is rife with tales of how she "bullies" and "abuses" staff.  There are so many stories, from so many sources, that they can't just be idle gossip.  And the assistant superintendent publicized a scathingly critical letter of the new superintendent.  Many parents are upset about the changes the new super has instituted, especially when some of those are inconsistent with her purported goal to narrow the achievement gap.  For example, she has cut funding for our preschool program--a program that serves children who are at risk for academic troubles.  In her initial budget, she awarded herself a 15% raise, gave teachers a 5% raise, and gave support staff--instructial aides, secretaries, custodians--NO raise.  She also proposed firing 3 PE teachers and 2 guidance counselors, while hiring several new central-office consultants who would be bringing in six-figure salaries. Parents went haywire.  I have attended school board meetings off and on for years, but never have I seen them crammed with hundreds of parents the way they are this year.

  But the really discouraging thing is the racial fighting that has arisen.  The new superintendent is black and a handful of black community leaders are saying that people are criticizing her because she is black.  If that's as far as they went, it wouldn't be so bad, but last week, parents had to sit through a school board meeting at which they were publically accused of being a "modern-day lynch mob" and similar to the KKK.  Teachers who have spoken out about the superintendent have been labelled as racist.  It's horrible.  Meanwhile, the superintendent and the chair of the school board just sit there and allow this vitriol, but parents and teachers who speak out against the super are publically chastized.  I am seriously considering removing my older children from the public schools because I don't see an end to this problem.

  The new superintendent has had nine jobs over the last 10 years.  Before coming here, she was superintendent of the New Orleans Area Public schools.  That district is now embroiled in an embezzlement and kick-back scandal.  Meanwhile, our super has proposed buying the "I Can Learn" curricula for our schools even though the I Can Learn company is under federal investigation for requiring kick-backs from school districts!  At a different school district where she worked, she was quick to sue people who criticized her.  What the *hell* was the school board thinking when they hired her?  There's now an outcry for the chair of the school board to resign, but I feel they are all culpable.  IMO, the best solution is to buy this woman out of her (three year!) contract and let the assistant super fill in until we can get someone else for the job.

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