Happy Holidays!

I know, I know it's been a while! It always gets so busy in Nov...Dec. that I don't take the time to sit down and really write anything.

Last week we had "Resiliency Training"...which was a code phrase for let's get some random people on our staff some therapy!! NOT kidding. Some of us were 'chosen' to attend the 'training' but all it was was a therapy session with a woman who was trying to play at being a psychic!! All I can say is, it was weird and she picked on people. I stopped making eye contact and quit participating. It was uncomfortable and sad to listen to another teacher who has been at Burnet for like 20 years talk about how it would hurt her if they close that school and she sat there and made this person say back to her, "It will not hurt me." Over and over!

Her psychic vision for me was that I'm supposed to get my Doctorate. After I had introduced myself and basically only said that I wasn't from here, was from north TX, we were affected by the hurricane because Warren and I were split up and not living in the same place, had to move, yadda yadda...she says so when are you going back to school? I said I already have my Masters. So then she says, no you are supposed to get your Doctorate, it's supposed to be Dr. and Dr. I'm like, I don't think so! I'm not going back to school for that...then it was why not...and she kept coming back to it...

Anyway, she picked on me about it, I didn't like it or her and it made me mad and I have to stop typing about it now because it's making me mad again! Who does she think she is? She doesn't know me!! I've already been through my own "resiliency training" it's called LIFE!!! GRRRR!!

List-o-rama:

1. Warren gets to do Internal Med. in Galveston starting in January!! His two classes after that are schedule for Dallas for now, but his director says it's a possibility that they could open up down here in the area.

2. Grace and Pete have settled into the apt. Grace has the routine down now and Pete is working on it. He had a hard time with it being new territory but he likes the windows and he likes trying to open ANY door or cabinet! I may have to get childproof locks for the cat! ha

3. Keep Aunt Lisa in your thoughts please, her surgery is scheduled for this Thursday. She is having her heart valve replaced.

4. I'm sooo glad I have only 2 days of school left! (I took off to come up for the surgery so I could be there).

5. I dislike unpacking. Who knew I had so much kitchen stuff! I am repacking some things to just store away in the extra closet. Tonight I'm going to try to tackle our closet and get everything hung up.

And...I think that's it for now. School is out :)

Also, another Burnet news article...

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=94a1a6b9043c8b81 ...all of the teachers in the article are people I work with...Kusnerick is my Kinder team leader.

Burnet News Article

On Friday there was a news article about Burnet...

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=cedc4d33dc85e942

Also, some of you have asked me what our enrollment is running, this was in an email from the Super this morning:

Since GISD’s reopening on Tuesday, Oct. 7 when slightly more than 4,450 students returned to eight of 12 Galveston ISD schools, enrollment has grown by more than 900 students and is now at 78% of the first day 2008-2009 enrollment.

The number of students returning when school reopened was nearly 65% of the enrolled students (6876) who reported on the first day of school in August. While enrollment numbers are not finalized until Oct. 31 each school year, the beginning enrollment was similar from 2007 to 2008.

GISD Update...

Last Thursday & Friday, I was called over to one of our closed elementary schools to help clean out the library part of the building for, I was told, so families who are camping in their field area to be able to move into the school to live. So I guess when FEMA housing runs out, then Alamo Elementary will be opening up to those already living in the field around it to move into.

Per the notes my friend took from a small meeting with the Super last week...she said:

1. Right now Burnet's building has been stablized as far as carpet, dehumidifying, and spraying (?)...maybe for mold?

2. We are losing enrollment.

3. They can't keep putting money into a building that they may not use in the future.

4. The middle schools, Central & Weis, are priority because of over-crowding.

5. January will start looking closer at enrollment numbers and March will have a better idea of if/which school will need to close (right now there are 3 elementary schools closed, two here in Galveston and the one on Bolivar).

6. A district-wide RIF is possible but wouldn't happen until March.

7. If they do RIF, they will look at first your certification, then PDAS, and finally tenure.

8. Scott & Burnet may close if enrollment doesn't rise (if it gets up to 6,000 then they may need to keep both).

9. They are as of now not going to let people back into the buildings to collect personal items.

10. Pre-paid legal says that if they keep denying people access then we can file suit for our items in small claims court.

Living in Limbo...

Well school started back this week and I am shocked...absolutely shocked at how many students returned. We had alot of Burnet kiddos...they are being bused from all over some as far as Texas City and La Marque (which is across the causeway on the mainland). Our host school(s) Parker and Oppe are seeing less students return because their children feed out of the west end which received much more damage than the middle of the island which is where Burnet students are. Yesterday was tearful...but anytime one of their little faces saw me, or Mrs. Bacon, or another Burnet teacher that they knew, they just lit up and smiled and waved and hugged. It made us all feel better to see one another. Today I saw a rough count of our attendance (Burnet only, we are doing separate attendance for now so we will know how many from each campus are here) and it was hovering around 300 for us. When we left for Hurricane Ike our ADA was about 530. So, roughly 60% of our kiddos are back! Yay!

In other news...read the article entitled, "UTMB avoids massive round of layoffs" here: http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=4c2d61ba4eec5c48 . This worries me. It sounds very ambiguous about if the med school will return?! We could end up in Austin. Time will tell I guess...it sounds like the director is supportive of keeping the school here, but unless they find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and some patients to start rounding on...who knows? Warren is still hearing that they will more than likely start back in January after December break, which is what we had been thinking all along.

There is a rumor that can neither be confirmed nor denied by Warren's UTMB director-man of a 30 ft. alligator running around in UTMB. Eek!

Our landlords are making progress on housing renovations, they got out the flooring and are getting new sub-flooring in already as well as making other little changes too. We'll see. Apparently plumbing is too much to add the W/D inside the house, but building a walkway and carport to have a covered walking area isn't. She is also looking at enclosing the deck, putting in darker wood (or some type of wood-like, pet friendly flooring), putting french doors in the dining room and closing off the kitchen door and putting the fridge there w/ more cabinetry, and an island. Cool! I hope all that pans out :-) Maybe we can move back in over Thanksgiving. Anyone wanna bring down their turkey fryer and some blow-up matresses?! We can have a moving in party for Thanksgiving! lol