Hmmmm. You missed so much and yet... Welcome back - I know I missed you!

As for AAA visiting the schools of the most active bloggers - should I feel insulted that he didn't come to mine (yet)? No, since I know he is out there and since I can still taste the change in the air (or is that something in the school lunches?). I know he will come to almost all schools within the next few weeks and I will welcome him with open arms. Actually I have already thought about which students he should hear from.

Good luck to all city students and educators - let's hope this year brings as much as it promises to.

I.O.

If this was how the school was going to be run, they should have just kept Joe Wilson.

Sara, welcome back!

It might be time to update the blogroll; a couple of those sites haven't updated in many months.

I.O., I wasn't aware that you were a local BCPS (the last 'S' is silent, now) blogger. However, given the brevity of his visit to my room, your students may not have had enough time to confront him. This was strictly a P.R. thing, as far as I could tell.

Sarah! The blog has come to life again with frequent posts now that you are back - welcome back! :) Your colleagues are great, but you seem to have the "it" for how to write a blog that gets us thinking and responding.

I read the blog by City students regarding their College Counselor. It seems to me that the principal of City is exactly the type of principal that Union leaders express concern about when we speak about pay for performance and tying tenure to evaluations. I had hitherto never understood the concern - but that is because I have always worked for competent, kind, fair and just principals! Had I worked for somebody as random, unfair, and uncaring as the principal at City seems to be based on the blog, I would be extremely concerned about such ideas as well!

Claude:

S or no S, I have been in the system since the early/mid 90's.

As for the visits, while I agree that these visits smack of PR-ness, it's a darn sight better than others who don't bother coming at all. I am not sure my students would need to confront Dr. A about anything, I just want then to know that there is a place where they can be heard - and it's right here!

As for other issues that Sara might want to tap:

1) The MTA (yes, this time it's not the fault of BCPS) system is having a major impact on attendance. Many of my students ride the #1 and it arrives late, sometimes passes them by completely and often brings them and takes them home quite late. We have students waiting for over an hour on bus stops. We have actually gotten good response from BCPS, but this isn't anything they have control over. I waited with my students (and those from other schools) for over an hour and 45 minutes on more than once occasion over the past few weeks. Not acceptable.
2) While I have worked in buildings without a/c and it's awful, I am now in a building that is supposed to have it and it's not working - yech!
3) I would love to know how many students have come back into the system from private schools over the past two years. It seems like, with the creation of so many new schools, we might be pulling kids back into the system. This would mean that an extra 12 tho' is following those kids back in.

I am sure there's more, just too hot to figure out what it is.

Enjoy the heat.

We are The Youth Council at Herring Run Rec. Center. And we also have problems with the MTA bus system.For example,We (Arionice & Kierra) were on the bus stop on the way home and two buses went pass us and on the way to school this morning four buses said not in service.Most of the buses are crowded,as in nobody else can sit down and and most of the students and adults(mainly adults) won't move back so people can get on the buses.Since the buses are not in service more students can't make it to school on time.All of this seem important to us because from the buses running the way they do they make students late for school and then they get in trouble in have to stay after school.Also they need to get rest for school the next day & for them to get to school on time they have to get up super early and they have no sleep and they don't do good in school because they fall asleep in school.That leads us to our next point....that's why BCPSS needs express buses so that all the students won't be on the buses crowded with adults that are going to different places. It takes Kierra at least an hour and 30 minutes to get to school and It also takes Arionice 50 minutes all together.The differnce between Kierra and Arionice is that Kierra takes 2 buses and the subway to get to school, Arionice only takes 2 buses.