It is now late January, and you might be wondering why I didn't post about what the new school is like. Well.........
Technically, I moved into a new school in September. Technically, my new school opened with a small, but talented staff (6 divisions). Technically, I am teaching the lone grade 2/3 class of 22 students.
If you saw these facts, you would think, "Okay, that sounds about right." It is when you fill in the details that your perspective might change a bit. Mine did, a lot.
Before the September start, we learned that our new school would not be ready for occupancy. We learned that we would be moving into a nearby school temporarily until we could get at least partial occupancy of our own school. A big, but not unexpected pivot.
The school we were moving into is about a 5 minute drive from our own site. It is actually a new rebuild of a school, and they had just moved into their new site in the last week of school. So in August, my new school, CSE, moved into new school, EIE, that had an established staff. I cannot say enough about this "hosting" school, staff, and principal, Dennis. They have been incredibly welcoming, understanding, and accommodating, especially given the circumstances. It is like you finally get your new house built, you move in, and even before you can find and unpack that box that has the can opener in it, your grandma tells you that your cousins who you barely know, are coming to stay for an indefinite time while their house gets built.
And like any arrival of unexpected house guests, EIE, had to figure out a bunch of big things quickly: room assignments, schedules, furniture, etc. Other things we worked out along the way. As you know, I've been through a lot of school moves, and this one wasn't too bad. Mind you, I have school materials in 4 different places, and I will have to move them again when we get the go ahead to move into our own school.
Speaking of which...
Here are the questions I get when I talk about the lack of a building:
- Why is it taking so long? Like anything these days, labour fluctuations and supply chain issues are definitely delaying the completion of our school.
- When will you move in? I really don't know. I thought we would be at our current site for about two months, or the winter break seemed like a logical move time, but now that both times passed, I do not even want to speculate. [Fittingly or ironically, the symbol for my school is the Sasquatch. Fittingly, we chose him in a school-wide poll because of his ties to nature, his watchfulness, and his quiet resolve. Ironically, our school building is like the Sasquatch: talked about, but seldom seen.]
- Wait a second, if your school is a 5 minute drive away, how are the students getting to EIE? A bus picks them up at the CSE site. Parents drop their children off every morning and pick them up after school. The bus has proved to be a popular choice as more than 90 percent use it, so we had to go to two buses. Like our host school, the parents and students of my new school have been hugely understanding and resilient with the unexpected changes.
- The main question I get from those who know me personally is: Do you regret moving schools? That is an unqualified "No." I was looking for one more challenge. I knew going to a new school wasn't going to be easy. I knew there were going to be unexpected obstacles, (like lining up in the rain to get on the bus, two postponed school-wide field trips due to wildfire smoke, more than half our school being Kindergarten and grade 1, etc.). And the pluses far outweigh the minuses: I love my new staff, I am bonding with the wonderful staff and students of our host school who are funny and quirky like me, the building we share is really nice and has lots of surrounding nature, there is enough space outside to share the playground, and despite the finish construction/rehabilitation of the old site, there is a positive feel when you enter the school grounds.
The game-changer for me is Frank, my new principal. He is like a combination of Job, Sisyphus, and that Max character on TV's New Amsterdam. Like Job, Frank gets a heap of challenges thrown at him constantly, as if to test his resolve, his faith in his school's ability to endure. Like Sisyphus, these tasks are never-ending; (mixing yet another metaphor), it is like he is playing Whack-a-Mole with a broken off switch. Like Max, he meets these challenges with a positive "How can I help?" attitude that is deeply inspiring.
So whenever people ask me where my new school is, my best answer is: "Wherever Frank is."
