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Here is why it was easy to say goodbye to my old science lab a few days ago. The picture above shows my brand new science lab in a shiny new school.
The new school is beautiful, well thought out, and so desperately overdue for our poor community. The old school was built in the 1930's as a WPA project and perfectly adequate if you didn't mind leaky roofs, mold, tiny rooms, hodgepodge additions, and swarming termites. I remember a consultant from the Florida Department of Education visiting us once and remarking, " I've always sent my old books to Costa Rica and Guatemala to help boost their libraries, but after seeing your school, I think I'll send them here." She wasn't being mean, she was just stating a fact.
So, now I'm moving into my new "box" and looking forward to a new cycle of kids and learning in a brand new location. (Still glad it's summer break...let's not get crazy here)
This morning, I'm off to another day of post schoolyear training, so I don't have time (looks at time, gulps coffee, types faster...) to respond to all the fun and kind comments from yesterday's post til later, but...
- Hal and Wayne are excused from commenting on some future retirement post due to their kind words. I've already scored your essay.
- Zanne and the rest of you detectives who figured on a new school: extra credit points for you.
- Laura gets extra credit for using a favorite Jimmy Buffet song reference.
- Anyone who used the term or concept of " you're too young" gets a free homework pass.
...Gotta go, y'all make me late every morning.
17 comments:
You must be so excited about the posiblities of the new lab and the new school. "y'all make me late"... I guess your students taught you that.
Spiffy looking digs!
I'm glad you cleared up the fact that you were still on summer break, and enjoying it. For a second there I was starting to worry about you!
FC, that's just awesome. If there was ever a good reason to look forward to the first day of school, this is it! Ahhh, it's going to be a summer full of possiblities, just in the excitement of getting the school ready for August. y'all have a blast!
I didn't make my blogging morning rounds yesterday (all this traveling is just too much work and very distracting), but dpr told me about your post and turning in your keys for good. I said, "I bet FC is getting a new lab." Woohoo! I am so glad for you and especially for your next crop of students. Wonderful news.
Nice! Our school district just finished a new K-12 complex a couple years ago; all the older folks complain about the cost and say they don't need a fancy new school, but I think kids (and teachers) deserve a comfortable environment free of mold and bugs. Enjoy the new lab!
Congrats on the new school, but as a historian, I can't help but wonder what is happening to the WPA school which should be a historic site. Does your school district know that there are grant funds available to rehab that leaky moldy building into something else for community use rather than tear the "old" (as opposed to historic) one down?
What a nice new lab! It looks as if it is just begging for some interesting experiments like the M&M's bag and the banana peel.
And somehow I am glad you aren't retiring. It would be such a loss to your students and I get nervous when people retire young. Don't know why. Maybe it's a farmer thing (my inlaws farmed until 90 and 83 years of age), but I worry.
This is not posting right for me. Hope it doesn't end up on here twice.
Deb,
I second that opion!
Our kids are long out of school, but we still vote for every school levy that is for improvements to schools in our disctict!
Excuse my fingers, that should have been opinion!
My mom and one of my best friends and my sister and my cousin and... well, seemingly almost everyone I know is a teacher up here, and they are constantly low on funding, getting stuck in shabby buildings that most people wouldn't use for a homeless shelter, having their classroom size limits upped, etc., etc., etc.
Hence my borderline terror when you said you were leaving your keys, because something like that up HERE wouldn't mean a nice shiny new building, it would mean a buy-out package or early retirement or yet another school being shut down and more teachers getting laid off.
And I KNOW you're too young for retirement - you're only about my dad's age! ;)
Wow a new school. Awesome!
I'll have to admit that the picture of your old lab was kind of scary. I'm worried about what lurks under those ceiling tiles.
I must be hanging around with too many preservationists and historians because like Cathy S. my first thought was, "What's going to happen to the old historic building?"
Congrates on your new lab. I am glad you got a new school. It should be a better enveriment for the students and their teacher.
This is excellent news, and what beautiful room! Congratulations to your school and county, FC.
I spent the 7th and 8th grades in a little school in Oakwood, Georgia, one much like your old one. It was unairconditioned, underequipped in all respects, overcrowded, and hosted some of the most barbaric kids I've ever run across. At the same time it had the best teachers of any I ever had in much more favored places such as Atlanta or Tallahassee.
Last night, I responded to everybody who commented, clicked "Login and Publish" about a zillion times and nothing happened except 20 minutes of posting vanished...
So in a general sort of way, here's a blankey thankey as dpr says.
Thanks to all for commenting and welcome to PureFlorida, Cathy S.
The old building will live on as extra office space for the school board bureaucrats and as a new site for our alternative school for troubled, at risk kids.
I know that technically it's historic, but my hometown of St. Augustine is 435 years old, so a WPA building isn't what I think of as historic. Good thing I'm not in charge huh?
It has been the center of the small town in which it sits, so it's nice that it will continue to be used.
fc- That is good. Our town currently is in the process of "what will we do with the old school building?" It is a beautiful structure, built of local (> 10 miles) sandstone, so there is historical significance. I keep dreaming of a local arts/history/some moneymaking office center, but most of that is beyond me. I would teach music lessons though...
Deb,
The original oldest building at our old school has floors of heart pine from the local forests.
Cool if you could teach music at the old school.
I am glad that the old school will be saved. Ah, yes, WPA is old, anything 50 years old or older is considered historic. That means I can list my husband on the National Register next year. Your school district should contact the Florida State Division of Historic Resources about applying for a special category grant to do some work on the building. It is too late for this year, but will give your community time to get their ducks in a row before next spring's deadline. We are sitting in the middle of a squall line compliments of Alberto that is headed your way. Heavy rain, flooded streets, some waterspouts and tornados. Lay low and keep your loved ones at home. Unfortunately, we had to all go to work including the kids, so I'm a little anxious about everyone's whearebouts this AM. Keep yours at home if you can.
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