The fact that it has been over a year since I posted to the blog speaks for itself. Busy isn't quite the word to describe it all and I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that I survived and I've been offered another contract for next year, but the newly hired principal, who was my boss last year, was not. Long story with fascinating nuances that I will also spare you of here. To be brief, they hired yet another principal who will be my boss in the upcoming year and I am very excited to work with her. Branciforte Small Schools is what reform in education, social justice and small schools choices in communities is all about and its a crap-load of work to make it function as it deserves to function. The fact that they've had so much turnover in leadership has been, well, destructive at best. And the recovery is only now just starting to begin, I think. It might even turn-out to be stronger in a few years. I like to think so. You know what they say, "Hard times make you strong". Yep.

The kids are awesome. Alternative Education Rules. Schools shape the future. All that.

I cook a LOT less than I used to and I'm lucky if I do a load of wash every two weeks. (Xia helps there) I think that there were three weekends last year when I did not go in to the office. The rest of the time, you guessed it. And if I'm not doing school work, I'm taking a solitary and meditative walk with our dog Lilly. Much processing has occurred on those walks. Critical. In this past year eeping the ship afloat at school and at home was my primary goal. The upcoming year will be much, much better and I'm very excited about it. Xia will be in the graduating class at our school next year. I don't know if I'll be able to hold it together to preside over that ceremony. We'll see.

More to come.