Pinecrest Pagent

Last night I attended Pinecrest School's presentation of "The Littlest Reindeer." This year, Mrs. Hebert's K-2 class were the stars, and they did an outstanding job. On a cuteness scale of 1-10, I don't think anyone in attendance would argue that it was, at least, a 14. The kindergartners as elves produced many "Awwws" from the audience, and there was no way you could not smile as the whole cast performed. The older students serenaded the audience with traditional Christmas carols before the performance as well. It was great to get to meet some of the parents and families of these students, and I felt very welcomed. Kudos to Mrs. Hebert, Mr. Brown, and Ms. Terry for all their hard work and dedication to our students. It takes a lot of hard work and extra hours to put on a show like this, and from the smiles on the faces of the parents, it was well appreciated!

Choir concert

Last night was our winter choir concert. If you had a chance to attend it, I'm sure you were impressed by the talent our students. As I said last night, there is nothing that says Christmas to me more than children singing on the stage. It was great to look out at the audience and see a sea of smiling faces. The students all did fantastic, and I want to thank the teachers who came to help and support their classes. Of course, the largest thanks go to Caitlyn Randall, our music teacher, who singlehandedly orchestrated the entire concert. Without her dedication to our students they would be missing out on an important component to their education. I believe arts can have a tremendous impact on our students, and I hope to be able to expand our arts program at our schools when the budget situation settles down more.

Back to normal?

This morning it is raining, and the accumulated snow on the yard is slowly giving way to the rivers of rain. Part of me is relieved to have this round of snow and ice behind us, but part of me is sad to see it go. The snow truly is beautiful, and it makes the school look as if it is putting on it's fancy winter clothes. I know we'll see more as the winter wears on, but this first storm was a nice first blast.

Wednesday Late Start

Just a quick update... As of 8:30 on Tuesday night, our plan for tomorrow is a one hour late start. It will be icy, for sure, but with some care, we should be able to get everyone around safely. Looking at the weather forecast it doesn't look like we'll be above freezing until lunchtime, so please be careful everyone. Of course, if something changes, we'll alert the radio stations, so keep you ears open!

Let it snow?

Well, the weather outside is frightful... Sorry, too much Christmas music around my house. The snow has certainly hit with a vengeance. I was at school early this morning and there was a good 8 inches of snow on the ground already and it was snowing at a furious pace. Dr. Keiter and I had been in phone contact Sunday night and had decided on a 1 hour late start before the storm had hit in earnest. We decided it was not worth trying to get the buses out and about and it was too dangerous, so we called a snow day. I called the teachers and told them to stay home. Kathy and I held down the phones for a while as parents were calling to get updates. Finally, I grabbed some work, and headed for home, as I was afraid if I didn't go soon, I'd be stuck at school. It was amazing to see the snow accumulate at home, and it was a shame to see the massive black oak tree in my neighbor's house loose some massive branches.

I just received a call from Dr. Keiter, and we will be canceling school for Tuesday, as well. The weather forecast is for a hard freeze overnight, and temperatures are not expected to get over 40 for the entire day. The roads will be too icy to travel safely on.

On an unrelated note, it was great to see everyone at the Twain Harte "Winter Wonderland" parade on Friday night. It is these types of events that make me glad we are here.

We're not in Fresno anymore, Toto!

This morning started out in a way that I'm sure no principal in my former stomping grounds of Fresno has had to contend with. I got a call from Mr. Dunlap first thing this morning that there is a big buck and a doe nestled down on the hill above the middle school campus. Still being a relative newbie to the foothills, Mr. Dunlap and Mrs. Anderson made sure I understood the potential danger of a buck with a doe at this time of year. I've seen enough episodes of "When Animal's Attack" to understand the threat this buck posed here. So what to do? I went to look, and the two of them certainly didn't seem like they were at all worried about me, and had every intention of staying put even as our kids were starting to arrive on campus. I decided my plan was to get the doe to move on, and the buck would surely follow. I started to climb the hill towards her, and she didn't really care about me. I got withing about 10 feet, and she still wasn't even standing up. The buck wasn't standing yet, but I wasn't sure if I got too close to the doe, would he see me as a challenger, and come at me? I started throwing sticks and pine cones to try to get her to move. Finally the doe stood up and so did the buck. The doe then started moving down the fence towards the gate on Twain Harte Drive. It was clear she didn't want to head out that way, and so she turned and headed back towards the corner where they had been resting, Mr. Buck 3 feet behind her at every step. I was able to chase them down out of the corner, and out onto the soccer field. The doe kept looking at the fence like she was going to jump it, but the two large dogs in the yard next to the school made her decide otherwise. She then got down behind the baseball backstop, and was looking for a way out. The buck was in hot pursuit, and it was clear the doe didn't want to head towards him, and kept coming at me instead (I was the lesser of two evils, I suppose). It took much coaxing, throwing things, beating my coat on the fence, and blowing my whistle to finally convince the doe to leave. I'm sure I looked like a fool throwing piles of leaves at her (there wasn't anything else nearby!). When she did decide to go, she ran across the soccer field, down the ramp behind the bathroom, around Black Oak School, and out across the parking lot and over Manzanita Drive. Mrs. Berry was just coming in at that time and was pretty surprised to see the deer. I think she was more surprised to see me in pursuit.

After spending the better part of half an hour with these deer, I was finally back at my desk. For fun, I thought I'd look up my official job description to see where "deer herding" fit. Alas that "other duties as assigned!"