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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Sympathy

Yesterday I learned that there is an elementary school in Calgary that closed yesterday due to a rotting roof or something like that. Apparently the school knew that the roof was in danger of collapsing for a while, but didn't decide to do anything about it until now. I'm not really clear on the details so if I got that wrong, meh.

But the real reason I'm posting about this is because the students had to be moved to other schools... which schools? Well, half of the school went to my dad's school. SO, here is me, reaching out to my dad and saying "It's okay!" I'm imagining him today at school rescheduling all the PE and Music times, trying to shuffle around classrooms, find room for all the extra students and teachers, trying to discipline after recess when the bully from his school met the bully from the other school, trying to find the balance between his staff and the other staff... It doesn't seem like too much fun.

Papa I hope you don't have a heart attack, stroke, anurism, ulcer, and I hope your blood pressure doesn't sky rocket! I love you! You can make it through the week!!! This is when you say "re-LAX... re-LAX..." and then laugh at me doing jazz fingers in front of your face.

2 comments:

--Nathan-- said...

maybe he should do some shopping. works for me. Yeah the whole school situation doesnt sound like fun at all for anyone involved let alone the principal of a school recieving the unexpected surprise.
If he's too busy to go shopping i will gladly do it for him.

Dr. Dan said...

Nathan,
The day I let someone else do the shopping for me is the day I truly die from any of the above mentioned maladies. However, I love having someone to go shopping with and K. never enjoys shopping. I think it's the spending money aspect of shopping.

Anyway, though it all sounds nightmarish, it was far worse being part of the school that had to move. Granted we had to find space for them. The hardest part was telling the kindergarten teacher, who had the most wonderful double classroom and had pretty much spread all over the place, that she had to move every little peice of equipment up stairs to a single room much smaller that any other classroom space.

The best part of the entire process was the incredible people with whom I work. There were no complaints. Lots of extra work - made even more difficult by the students being there while we sorted through and got rid of 4.5 tonnes of "stuff." We had made tentative plans to do this clean up over the next four months to prepare for receiving about the same number of children next fall. So instead of 4 months, we had two days.

This morning, at 8:00, the kids from the other school arrived, entered the building and their classes started as if there had been no bg fuss. At 9:00, our kids arrived and until they heard the faint sound of a bell ringing outside to tell the other school that recess was over, they really didn't realize that the other kids were there.

They do everything an hour earlier than us, so we are never on the playground at the same time, in the gym at the same time, or really involved with anything together.

So, H. Thank you for your thoughts. Perhaps that's what kept me calm the whole time.

Thank you as well, to one of the most amazing groups of people I know - my staff. You are incredible!