Last Monday, after much more discussion than I thought was needed, the tentative agreement became the contract. The picture is of the 1200 or so of us who took the time to vote at Benaroya Hall. the meeting went from 5:00 to about 8:00 after a work day in the classroom. What is in it for me? A 2% pay raise, 3 days without students to hold family conferences before they start school (only for kindergarten) and our work day stays at 7 hours till next year. Hah! Whoever works in their classroom only 7 hours a day is not up to the standards I set anyway. 22 of my 24 students and their families showed up for those conferences this past week. They are really a diverse group. There are so many many more mixed cultures at our school in recent years. Exotic combinations like Indonesian-Pakistani married to Philipino-Laotian. The languages other than English that are of highest incidence spoken in the homes of my students are Cambodian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Only one Spanish speaker so far. It's always changing!
Tomorrow the 'rubber meets the asphalt'. Kindergarten begins their full day schedule. There will be a lot of sleepy kids by the afternoon especially if it gets up into the 80s again as is in the forecast. Thirty one years of this and I am still nervous. There are so many new twists in our school and in my classroom this year. I'll have as many butterflies in my stomach as my 24 students do! This time next year, the first day of school will be just another lovely late summer day!
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