Life and Times in CA: Long Time Since I Blogged!

November, 2017

Professional Life
It has been a long time since I have written anything on my Blog - July 2016. It has been hard because a lot has been going on but I have felt I needed to be careful about what was out there on the web versus keeping to myself. In order to censor myself, it was easier to just not write anything. In addition, I just did not want to relive the events by having to type them and think about them again for the hundredth time that week. For those of you that have been keeping in contact with me via face to face communication, text, phone, or private message you know some of the trials and tribulations I have been going through. I am hoping to get back to blogging if for no other reason, simply for a record of things happening.

Soooooo....I am at a new high school. Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) moved me from John W. North High School to Martin Luther King High School in July. It has been a great adventure for me even though it was not something I thought I wanted to start with. However, it has probably been the best possible thing that has happened. Here is the breakdown of the schools:

HS Name	John W. North HS	Martin Luther King HS
# Students	2300	3200
# Teachers	101	140
# Admin	5	4
Title 1	Yes	No
FRL	87%	35%
Programs	AEL – Newcomers AVID ED Academy GBIT IB / AP LAPS MYP READ 180 SFS	AEL – Newcomers AP AVID Pathways – (5 programs) PLTW SFS
School Started	1965	1999
Colors	Dark Blue & Yellow	Navy, Scarlet & Silver

Now, most of you probably knew or could guess that my office at North High School had a yellow wall. When I got to King High School, I knew I could not paint the wall yellow, no matter if it is my favorite color or not because I was coming from North and as you can see, King does not use yellow as one of their colors. So I was stuck with beige walls. However, fellow administrator Amanda, decided to decorate her office so we modeled our leader, Principal Mike West's office and go with red trim around the windows. However, we also decided a blue wall would look great. Hence....my new office....

Leann's Office at King

Since I spend so much time at school and in the office due to working on the Master Schedule, I decided it needed to be homey, friendly, and fun. The curtains were hung up because of the afternoon sun that "beats" in the window and the AC cannot cool the office off at a reasonable rate. They are blackout curtains and they help with the heat and also the fading of the paper on the Master Schedule board that was redone over the summer to be more colorful.

Panoramic of Office at King

The administrative team that I am on is phenomenal. Here is a picture of us:

King HS Admin Staff - 2017-2018

Going from left to right, Chip (Athletic Director), Amanda (AP of Attendance), Michael West (Principal), me (AP of Guidance), Jeff (AP of Discipline), and Dave (AP of Discipline). Now, here is the funny thing and an example of how big the world is yet how small the world of Athletic Training is at times. When I was first searching for a teaching job in CA, I contacted the CA Athletic Trainers Association High School representative (for those of you in SC, that would have been Barry Atkinson), to try and get some guidance on how trainers / teachers were hired in CA and to see if there was any way that I could get some help finding a job. I exchanged emails with a guy by the name of Mike West who told me that high schools did not really employ certified athletic trainers at the site but they were contracted out by a clinic or worked at school through the Regional Occupation Program. We exchanged a few more emails about ways to find a position. Well, wouldn't you know it, two years after I had been in CA working, I met Mike West. RUSD hired him to be the principal at Martin Luther King High School.

So a little about each of my co-workers. Chip (far left) was the AP of Guidance at King HS until this summer when I was moved. They flip flopped two assistant principals so the AD that was at King is now at North High School. Chip, a huge sports fan, took over the AD position vacating the AP of Guidance position. Chip has done a great job as the new AD and has been a huge help to me coming in as well since he was working on the Master Schedule. Having him there has allowed me to get answers to questions very quickly so there was consistency in the master schedule planning process.

Amanda, (2nd from left), has been a great friend during the entire past year. During the summer of 2016, I sat on the panel where Amanda interviewed and thought she was great. I was extremely happy to hear that she was hired in RUSD and would be placed at King. In February of 2017, I was tasked to put together a group to present one piece of a book for the District Leadership and Amanda was part of this team. We hit it off during that time and when I was asked to help with Summer School and Amanda would be the other half of that team, I immediately said yes. We got to be even better friends during this time and when I found out I was being moved to King it was a relief to I already had a great relationship with one of the AP's there. It is actually very scary at how much we think alike and plan similarly.

Michael West (Mike), (3rd from left), is the Athletic Trainer and has recently retired his certification. He still is very active on the medical advisory panel for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), for those in SC, think SC High School League and then think of what Barry did as the high school medical representative. I know, I know....you are probably thinking "Iacuone, how do you find these people?" I just consider myself lucky and blessed that I end up with the right people in the right places at the right times. Mike has been fabulous at helping me adjust to King and being supportive of me and the changes we are making in the guidance department. I know it will be a slow process because the counselors must believe in what we are doing or it will not be fully implemented and become part of school culture. Mike is a fabulous principal and I am learning so much from him about working with the public, handling difficult situations, and having hard conversations. I have grown so much as a person and administrator in the last 5 months working at King.

On my right is Jeff, AP of discipline. Jeff and Mike have worked together previously and are a great team. Jeff interviewed the same summer as Amanda so I was there for his interview as well. Jeff is a great guy and very funny! He is super easy to talk to and helps to lighten situations with a smile and laughter. I have been so impressed in how he handles conflict between adults and students. He is also in charge of the school safety plan, which is no small feat, considering the 3200 students we have and the size of the campus.

Two from my right is Dave. Dave works as the other AP of Guidance and is in charge of the website and calendars for the school (and yes, there are many). Dave is one of those individuals who has a natural voice for public speaking and therefore we call him DJ Dave sometimes. His humor is so dry that sometimes I am not sure when he is joking or being serious. He would be terrible to play the game, two truths and a lie, because it would all sound like the truth or all sound like lies. He is hilarious and can get any confession from any kid. We call him the "student whisperer," and I really need to sit and learn how he can get any kid to confess, because we all know, that I am not good at that.

It has been a great year so far with some ups and downs. The ups and downs have been due to a change in job site and learning a new school, faculty, and students. Nothing that I will not learn in time. I said that I needed this year to heal professionally, mentally, and re-affirm my self-efficacy as an administrator. Michael West, the admin team at King, the faculty, and the school itself is giving me the opportunity to do just that. I do miss North High School, the faculty, students and my friends terribly, but I do see them at different events.

Home Life
It has been a lazy year personally due to the craziness in the professional life. However, since things are better at work, I am trying to change things on the weekends a bit. I have spent a lot of time over the last year sleeping and dealing with issues and had stopped doing a lot of things that I enjoy. This past week as I sat and worked on my athletic training CEU's over Thanksgiving Break, I had time to think as I watched videos and answered questions and it hit me (yes, like a V8) that I stopped doing the things that I loved doing. Today, Sunday, I sat and looked at the list of things in my Google Drive that friends and myself put together in 2015 and realized ugh....we have not really done anything in a while. We / I want to get started back on the list so today, I looked up up addresses, times, and costs of some of the places on the list and am planning on planning those adventures for 2018.

It truly has been hard since I lost Squeak in July 2016. I miss my little buddy who would talk to me when I came home and would lay next to me anywhere I was. She would follow me around or call to me and have me follow her. As anyone who has lost a pet knows, it is like loosing a part of your family and therefore each holiday and event is a milestone to work through.

Squeak - April 2016

Husky's personality has changed. About three months after Squeak had passed, Husky started talking more and sitting closer to me. She is now sleeping between my legs at night as well and as long as I am laying down or in a position that she feels is non-threatening (I can't grab her) she is all over me. Since I was spending so much time on the computer over the Thanksgiving Break she would come and stand next to the chair and just Meow. I would have to lift her up and put her on the back of the chair for her to lay down so that she could be near me.

She does have a very unique personality and head movements. I have never had a cat that wants to be with you when you go to the bathroom this much or talks to you when you get into the shower, like you are never coming out. She wakes me up pretty much every morning at 5:30 am if I am not already up (regardless of weekend or not). And she will shut the bedroom door during the day. Then when I come home, I can look down the hall and see her little hooty eyes looking through the crack of the door and when she sees me, she will come out and cry to be fed. She does this head tilt thing also that I have never seen a cat do, it is almost like an owl where she turns her head so she is almost looking at you upside down. Who knows....as a stray, maybe she had some brain damage or mal-nutrition issues that she is exhibiting.