Random Thoughts for the First week in October About Sam, The Army and EUHS

Sam won't be jumping off the towers after all. Too many jumpers in too little time. He will be jumping out of planes this next week, if the weather complies. They are expecting thunder storms in Columbus and that will stop the flights. Sam needs to make five jumps to qualify and move on to RIP. This is what has happened in the last two weeks and will happen next week.

Sam also said that RIP is changing from 4 weeks to RAST (Ranger Assessment something and something that Sam told me and I forgot.) and 8 weeks. He will be in the last class of RIP.

If you are ever in Columbus, GA you should stop at the Infantry Museum. This picture was taken on the morning before Sam's graduation. It is a free/donation only museum that chronicles US Infantry battles from the Revolutionary War to Present. It is Smithsonian quality and the two partial days we were there were not enough time to do it justice. There is also an IMAX theater inside.




World War I Trenches


Vietnam helicopter

Just a few shots of what is there. The second day we went the Civil War and Revolutionary War sections were closed and we really wanted to see them.

The Monarchs beat Dinuba last night in the Homecoming game, 21-17. Great game, and for the second straight year Exeter prevailed after many years of shooting themselves in the foot.

With the game done, Homecoming Week is over. The frenzied madness of activities has finished. One more week of school and then a week off for Intersession. Intersession comes to mind as a once grand idea that evolved into something non-educational and mildly harmful to students (They have to "start" themselves up again after a break.), and is entrenched in the local mindset like dried concrete. Mostly people think of it as vacation when no one else has time off. Most teachers work at least part of the week on school related business.

We are in the process of changing our daily school schedule from 4 periods a day/8 classes a year to 6 periods a day all year long. This has been a long politically charged process and it seems far from over. Discussions on site took place this week regarding how the school will service the needs of the students, and how many teachers will be needed to make the school function. One of the spoken reasons for the change in schedule is the cost of the present schedule and the need and desire to cut costs. The fastest means to cuts costs with the greatest savings is to cut staff and salaries. Much of America, excluding bank management, is finding that out. The same mindset is being applied to EUHS. A problem has surfaced though. To operate the 6 period day with the current number of students only two teachers need to be eliminated. Some departments will need to add staff. Management is expecting to cut four teachers to gain the saving they have stated they need. But the class offerings cannot be maintained if four teachers and salaries are excised. And that is with current student enrollment. Enrollment is expected to increase next year based upon current enrollments at feeder schools.

Another of the frustrating aspects of this process is the lack of time allowed to make the changes and the lack of direction in making the difficult choices. 13 years ago the school moved to the present 4x4 schedule to give students more choices for classes. It took over a year of investigation, planning and work to make the changeover. We now have been given the order to change back in four months. There is little possible way to make the required changes in a student and teacher friendly way in that amount of time without some mistakes.

The wonderful surprise in this entire adventure is the school board was just told their budget reserve, their savings account so to speak, just inexplicably jumped to nearly double what was expected. A total of $900,000 in new monies. What could be done if the welfare of children and doing things the right way prevailed?