Learning a New Job

Well guys!  I am going to need love and support starting June 24th!!  My Best Friend at Work (BFAW) is moving to Washington!!!  While I am so excited for her, I know exactly how Colleen felt last year when I was leaving.  I am thrilled with this opportunity because it is what she wants but am so sad that she is leaving since we get along so well together.  Her last day is June 24th so I am going to be depressed and sad for a bit!!! :(    I will be fulfilling Megan's responsibilities at John W. North High School.  I will be putting together Master Schedule.  In preparation for this I have been working with Megan very closely this week.  So much so, that on Monday night we were at school until 11:15 pm and I spent the night at her house.  Then on Tuesday we were there until 9:15 pm working as well.  I did not get home until 10:00 pm due to construction that starts at 9:00 pm on I-215.  So this week I have been learning Megan's duties as I have somewhat ignored mine unless they were emergencies.  On top of that, I went to the LCAP meeting on Wednesday night and then on Thursday we worked again on Master Schedule until about 8:30 pm.  So needless to say, I am a little tired this week.  Today, Saturday, I went to work to catch up on the work that I have not done since I have been working on a new learning curve.  It was great to get so much done today and I feel like I am ready to start Monday fresh and ready to go - if I can catch up on some sleep!!!

This is what Asst Principal's look like at 10:30 pm at school while working on Master Schedule.

Please notice the candy that we got into around 3:00 pm.  Yes, we were there that long.

I was also able to avoid Jury Duty this week.  It was a terrible experience and one that I hope does not happen again soon.  I showed up at the Riverside Court House at 8:00 am ready to go.  I got chosen for the first panel where they sent 80 jurors to the room for juror selection.  Upon entering the room we were informed that the jurors being selected were expected to be available Monday - Thursday from 9:00 am - 11:30 am and then again from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm for TWO MONTHS!!!!!  The trial would be over by July 11th!!!  So needless to say, I went into a panic attack.  WHAT THE HECK!!!!!  How am I going to be able to be on a jury for two months?  That is through graduation!!!  That affects Summer School of which I am the principal of!!!!  I have already taken my non-duty days and it will affect other people schedules.  I mean really, what am I going to possibly do????  Then the judge announced that if anyone had a hardship for the case, that we could wait and explain the hardship.  We were then escorted out of the courtroom and taken in 10 at a time.  I was the third group to plead a hardship and the last in my group.  I told the judge that I had three reasons for pleading a hardship.  1) I am working on my PhD and will have to go back to SC to defend my dissertation.  2) I am an Assistant Principal and we are getting ready to graduate students and 3) I am the Principal for Summer School this year for 1400 students in Riverside.  They asked me to step out into the Antechamber and then called me in about three minutes later and said they excused me from this jury.  I then had to go back downstairs to wait for the next round of jurors to be called.  I feel awful because I do believe that Jury Duty is important and part of our civic duty.  I find the cases interesting, even though the last time I did jury duty I ended up on a murder trial, but two months when I have so many responsibilities is hard right now.  I could have done it if it was the summer and we were not doing Summer School or even in the fall but oh my gosh - two months at this point is HUGE!!!!

We also had two run-aways this week.  This is something that I did not experience much in Laurens District 55 High school and did not hear about in Columbia when I worked for Lex-Rich 5 if it happened.  However, we have a student that seems to run-away at least once every other week.  Some of it is because they are mad at parents or such and others is they think they are just so ready to be grown up and can take care of themselves.  Luckily in both cases this week the girls are okay and neither was kidnapped or abused, which was our biggest concern.

Friday, I stayed at school and got the rest of the printer inventory and Promethean Board catalog done.  I can move onto the next phase and figure out what we need to do to make the Promethean Board more useful for the teachers and students in the classrooms.  I got home at 7:30 pm, which is the earlier all week and let me tell you what I did - yep, I ironed and watched a movie so that I have clothes for next week.  LOL!!!  I also felt like I needed to spend some time with Squeak.  On Saturday the bar in my closet fell and I had to put in a work order.  Well apparently they came and fixed the bar on Monday morning because when I got home on Tuesday there was a note stating they completed the work on Monday at 11:00 am.  This is not a bad thing - I wanted this.  However, they closed the bedroom door and Squeak was locked in the bedroom!!!!!  Now that does not sound too bad, however, remember on Monday night I spend the night with Megan so I did not get home till 10:00 pm on Tuesday - meaning she was in there over 24 hours!!! POOR SQUEAK!!!!  I did a search in the room for poo and pee but did not find any in the closet, bed, under the bed or anywhere else.  The toilet was open and I know she could drink water from there.  I guess I am going to have to wait for it to get hot so that I can smell where she peed because I cannot find it anywhere!!!  Maybe she was good and she held it????  One can hope.  So Squeak and I loved on each other Friday night and all through the night.  Now as I sit here and type she is leaning up against me like I am going to leave her.