It was awesome to see the front office and facilities staff. Both the office manager and financial manager asked if they could give me a hug if they put on their masks. The development director who was hired after I left said she had heard amazing things about me. The principal told me the priest said the school lucked out getting me back. Given how undervalued I felt after the previous school not only decided to let me go before the uncertainty of COVID-19, but declined an offer from my partner teacher and I to both go part time, it made my day. Heck, it made my summer.
I'm back on the staff email distribution list with my old account recovered. I had over 2,000 email messages, about half of which I had read but never deleted while I actually worked for the school, and the rest from not being taken off the email distribution list for over a year after I left mixed in with marketing emails from companies that I had given my work email to for one reason or another. The thousand or so messages that were marked as read were a walk down memory lane. I hadn't deleted (or at least moved to a folder) emails that I thought I might have to deal with again... so that meant lots of emails from a select few families. I started out re-reading a few before I realized that was a rabbit hole I did not need to go down, and just started deleting.
Before I left today, I walked from the office down the hall to the room that will be mine in the fall. It is currently the middle school science lab, even though it is surrounded by third and fourth grade classrooms. It is the correct location for a second fourth grade classroom, but it is stuffed full of science supplies in storage that makes sense for beakers, test tubes, magnifying lenses, and the like, but not really for regular classroom supplies. It also has a long counter cutting part of the space off from student use, creating a teacher space, with two sinks and additional storage. The facilities guy is fairly certain the plumbing below will not be quick or easy to deal with, but the principal was hoping to move the counters and sinks to the middle school end of the building. After talking through the move with me and the facilities manager, I think the decision was made to leave the counters and sinks and move a wall of metal storage cabinets instead. This will involve painting before September, but not dealing with exposed plumbing. Other storage will remain in my room, but hopefully enough will be moved that the science teacher won't have to be in and out of my room regularly to collect supplies for her classes. And I get to keep the sinks!
The school is planning for an all in-person start to the school year. That is why I was hired - so class sizes could be small enough to accommodate six feet of space between students. But the principal sent out a survey this week asking for staff input about opening in the fall. He asked for our thoughts on students wearing masks: Should the preschoolers be asked to comply with wearing masks like the older kids? During which activities might it be permissible for students to remove their masks? He also asked about our comfort level returning to the building (which will strive to be in compliance with the complete list of CDC recommendations) and gave us space to write any additional concerns or comments.
This fall is going to be an adventure. Who knows how it will shake out? Whatever happens, I know I am extremely grateful that I will be living through this as a member of a caring community where I feel valued and heard.
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| Outdoor Environmental Education with St. Luke 5th Graders in 2016 |
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| Conference in 2016 with the science teacher whose room I'm moving into. |
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