A simple tick of the clock that humans assign such importance. Would that life actually cared about things like a new second; we would surely be more attentive to each moment, each action, each decision that we make that makes life harder for those around us.

But we’re not. Life isn’t like that. Life doesn’t care that the new year is coming. It doesn’t care if our neighbor is hungry or thirsty. Life is selfish. It’s concerned only for its continuation. The only ticks of the clocks that actually matter to life are the first and the last.

But being human means that our lives are more than mere existence. Being human means that we develop our essence over those ticks of the clock. We develop whom we are. We hope for whom we will become.

And so we assign importance to ticks of the clock: birthdays, holidays, and the beginning of a new year.

There is hope that we will be more than we were before. Here are a few of mine.

I hope that I will love more than I have been loved. There’s little doubt in my mind that I am loved. Every smile from my boy, every hug from my girl, every kiss from my wife proves this to me every day. What I’m not so certain about is that I’ve loved others more. Without being too Schindler, I’m certain that I could have done more. I could have done more to speak for the voiceless. I could have; I will do so.

I hope that the areas where our community comes together, like in our schools, that we will find a way to work together to help all of our kids. All kids are our kids. They are all our responsibility, our duty. And we must fight for them all. We must say to those who are behaving in such a way that some children matter less than others that they are wrong. We could do more; we will do so.

I hope that our teachers, aides, principals, therapists, and volunteers will know how much we value and appreciate the work, the damn near impossible mission that they have taken upon themselves. We must fight for them as they fight for all of our kids. We must value them as they value all of our kids. We must support them as they support all of our kids. We must respect them. We must make certain that they know that they are indeed the most important people in our system. We could do more; we will do so.

I hope that those who have entered our community only seeking what they can take from our community, and particularly from our children, will accept our invitation to leave. Your selfishness is not welcome here. I could do more to make this clear; I will do so.

Finally, I hope that my children will learn to value questions, to ask them boldly, to speak for themselves and others, to scream against injustice, to love selflessly — especially those whom others ignore, abuse, hate and dismiss. I could do more to show them this in my life; I will do so.

These are my hopes for the new year. I will work to make them come true.

May your new year hopes also come true with the tick of the clock.

__________

(Oh, and PS. I hope that Alabama rolls over LSU on the 9th. Just sayin . . . Roll Tide.)

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Fair warning: This is a self-indulgent and selfish posting. There’s nothing unique here; every parent feels this way. Feel free to ignore.

Another Sunday, another early departure from Church for me and the boy.

I know that no one really understands anyone, but I wish I knew what upsets him so. What causes him to cry out, almost in pain, once the music stops? There shouldn’t be a wall between me and my boy.

But there is.

God, I’m sick of seeing through a mirror darkly.

I want to see my boy, face to face, eye to eye.

I want to know the boy behind those eyes.

Update: This afternoon, playing in the tub at Gaygay’s using his tub letters, the boy spelled out and read “Rabbit,” “Tigger,” and “Pooh.” Language is a beautiful thing.

Location:Esslinger Rd SE,Huntsville,United States

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Vacation – a time when we’re supposed to remove ourselves from our daily responsibilities and live it up, let our hair down (well for some of you), relax, and set aside the cares of this world. Even better, a vacation on a cruise ship provides further isolation from the world around us with no email, no phones…no contact. I though it also meant that I’d be able to take a break from the weekly responsibilities of a Bible teacher (or “discussion leader” as I’d prefer to call it). For this month our studies have focused on the life of Jeremiah, and we’ve learned much from his experiences. However, the preparation for these Old Testament texts is tedious and time consuming especially for me. I’m much more comfortable with New Testament scripture. Nevertheless, I’ve always benefited from the preparation likely more than the fellow learners in my class, even if it costs me a little rest. So, a vacation seemed like a good time to catch up on some rest since I wouldn’t have to prepare for one week of lesson.

Lesson #1: God doesn’t take vacations.

Sometimes God has to hit you on the head:

One of our excursions was a trip to the Mayan ruins at Uxmal (oosh-MAHL), a fascinating place complete with iguanas on every rock, a Mayan game field, temple grounds, and a grand pyramid. The pyramid was 150ft high and my son and I climbed to the top to experience a breathtaking view. You could see for miles over the tree line in every direction from our vantage point. The trip up the hundreds of steps was fairly easy…the trip down for me was not. I made it down to a large platform about 5ft off the rocky ground around the pyramid and took my last step. As I planted my foot on the ground I somehow lost my balance and wound up falling face first onto a nearby rock. What was a fun experience now turned into what seemed like a life-threatening one as I realized that blood was leaving my head and nose at an alarming rate.

As I sat there, a couple of people from my tour group, despite not knowing me, came to my aid offering a towel and water. A Mexican man who happened to be a doctor was nearby visiting with his family and attended to me, making sure I hadn’t suffered a concussion. Our tour guides Carlos and Louise came to my side and watched over my belongings. A Mexican paramedic arrived to patch me up and conversed with the doctor in a language I didn’t understand about my condition and whether or not I should go to the hospital. As he was able, the doctor translated for me. It occurred to me that not once during the experience was I asked to show papers of my citizenship or proof that I was able to pay for costs, or any form of ID. The people surrounding me were concerned about only one thing, my well-being.

After the experience I also realized another thing. My lesson that I was skipping for the week included Jeremiah 22, where God instructs the leaders of Judah to exhibit compassion and kindness to foreigners, orphans, and widows and not to be harsh but to be just and righteous. In fact, in speaking about good king Josiah, God says that in taking up the case of the poor and needy, Josiah demonstrated what it means to know God (Jeremiah 22:16). The kind acts of the nameless people who attended to me in my time of need were examples of God’s character present in each and every one of us. We have the capability of knowing God and exhibiting this character if we choose. Although I’m a supporter of strong immigration laws and protection of our borders, lesson #2 taught to me on that day was that I need to remember first to think of all individuals, whether they appear to be here legally or not, as people worthy of respect, kindness and compassion.
The Love of God comes from unexpected places:

A few days after returning to the ship, on one of the last evenings aboard, the cruise director threw a “deck party” for everyone. The party kicked off with a bit of line dancing to songs like “Cupid shuffle”, “Cha Cha Slide”, “Macarena”, and “YMCA”, songs that everyone younger than me know dance moves to. Since my special-needs daughter, Katie (she has Down Syndrome), loves to dance and apparently knows all the moves plus some of her own, she joined in with the help of her “O2” group director, Kate. Even though Katie is a little slower than others at the dance moves, I was quite surprised that she kept up with the group. At breaks people were walking up to Katie to tell her how much they enjoyed watching her and how good her dancing was. Eventually, all the people on the deck gathered around in a circle as some uninhibited individuals showed off their moves in the circle. Again to my surprise (why am I surprised by anything now?), Katie made her way to the middle and strutted her stuff to everyone’s delight. The support people showed and the inclusion of Katie in their event is something that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, but on this night Katie was having a ball.

It was then that the evening turned uneasy for me, but wound up teaching me another lesson. The DJ kicked off a sequence of slow dance music and most of the people left the deck to just a few who paired up to dance. Sure enough, Katie was there dancing as she often does with her imaginary date. For a few awkward moments she stuck out from everyone and I debated whether it was worse for her to dance with her imaginary friend or to have to dance with her father. As I was about to make my way to the floor to join her, a young man stepped away from his date and joined Katie for a little while. This young man was not someone you’d typically think about letting your daughter date. Like most of the other people on the deck, he was drinking and like many, smoking. But, he did something that most of us never do…he had compassion for my daughter. He and his date decided that they’d put their evening aside for a moment, and create a highlight for Katie’s evening. After he danced with her for a while, another young man danced with her. Two young men who based on appearances alone I’d never let near my daughter demonstrated God’s love by showing compassion to Katie. This shouldn’t surprise me. Lesson #3: We all are made in God’s image and possess the ability to love. In fact, Jesus commanded us to love one another (John 13:34) and He won’t command us to do something we’re not capable of doing. Despite their outward appearances, these two men demonstrated the truth that we all bear God’s image by putting Katie’s needs ahead of their own.
The choice is ours:

So there you have it: God’s lessons for me during my vacation. I share them with you because they are the most fundamental aspects of relating to God. We all can choose the path we take. We can ignore the makeup of our being, the fingerprint of God on us and choose the path that is quarrelsome, uncaring, and devoid of love. Or, we can choose the path He intended for us where we love one another, not just those close to us but even those foreign to us. I’m glad those nameless individuals I encountered during my vacation choose the latter path.

The post Lessons Learned while on Vacation–David S. appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Fifteen years ago today, on what would have been my dad’s 56th birthday (Happy Birthday, dad, I miss you), under a window-rattling thunder clap, the most beautiful woman in the city said “I do” when asked if she would marry me.

The thunder was a nice touch. Even the gods were celebrating the union of soul-mates. Or maybe they were just warning this amazing woman away from the guy with the Flock of Seagulls haircut. (Jeez, dude it was THE NINETIES already! What were you thinking? At least the tie was real . . .)

Our First Family

Ah Huntsville, know how to welcome a guy to town. Despite the storm that made getting to the Weeden House for the reception a little soggy, the day was the best of my life because she decided to spend the rest of her life with me.

I suppose the blessing we received from Jeebus and the EggBeaters musta worked.

__________

I am a lucky man.

Nearly every day of the past fifteen years I’ve been allowed to laugh, hold, cook, build, cry, and fall in love with all over again with my best friend.

I am a lucky man.

When I’m worried, she brings me comfort.

When I’m melancholy, she brings me laughter.

When I am totally batshit crazy, she grounds me and loves me back to reality.

When I’m off chasing an obsession (I’m looking at you HCS), she gives me boldness and reminds me to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all (Re-WHAT-alous?)

When I’m so focused on the inner monologue (that often has a thousand voices), she sings to me, piercing the cacophony, and draws me back out of myself.

I owe her everything.

I am a loved man, and for that, I am amazed.

I love you, sweetie. Thank you for being my partner in this crazy, wonderful life.

r

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On Thursday night, the board began it’s meeting by honoring the coaches and players of the Huntsville High Baseball team for their state championship. It was an honor well deserved. While doing this, Dr. Wardynski stated that honoring these achievements reminds us of excellence, and “excellence calls us to our better angels.”

He’s correct. Seeing excellence in our community does call us to our better angels, and it’s important to recognize it when we see it.

I saw excellence in the form of two dedicated teachers who took time out of their busy summer schedules to celebrate my son’s birthday on Saturday.

(To all those wonderful families who also joined us in celebration at Pump-It-Up on Saturday, thanks for loving our boy and accepting him for who he is. Even though I’m not singling you and your children out this time, each of you made the party wonderful for a kid who sometimes has difficultly playing with others. We love and appreciate each one of you.)

These two examples of excellence are Mrs. Susan Cooley and Mrs. Terri Klinkhammer.

Mrs. Susan Cooley was the boy’s substitute teacher for the second half of the year last year. She came into his classroom halfway through the year when Mrs. Bowling had to be out with a complicated pregnancy.

She was his sub.

But because she is a dedicated teacher, she went out of her way to learn and love each of the boys in her special needs classroom. Wanting to see her student, she re-worked her schedule at the last minute so that she could attend and cheer for the boy as he played with his friends.

Mrs. Terri Klinkhammer was one of the boy’s aides. Because of the disruption that my son’s class experienced this past year, the much of the burden of his education fell to his the aides working in his classroom. Mrs. Klinkhammer was one of those who helped to shoulder that burden. She, along with Mrs. Kim Collins, brought my boy out of his shell, taught him to interact with his friends and learn to operate independently in a new setting. Without their dedication and excellence, my son’s kindergarten year would have been wasted.

She was his aide.

Their presence made my son’s day. He sought them both out, made eye contact, flirted, gave high-fives and big hugs to his two teachers who made time to celebrate his big day.

This is why I love teachers: they aren’t teachers when or because they get paid to teach. They aren’t teachers because they get paid a huge salary. They are teachers because they love students and education. And they need our support.

Miss Susan, Miss Terri, and Miss Kim are all are currently without positions for next year.

And yet each of them remain committed to caring for and loving my son.

To Miss Susan, Miss Terri, and Miss Kim: Thank you for being excellent teachers and for all your hard work with my boy. He loves you all. And so does his family. Y’all are truly special.

_____________

These three teachers are among the 420 employees laid off by Dr. Richardson when he was collecting $41,687 for his four months of work with the system. While I don’t know exactly how much they made, Richardson’s four month salary would have easily covered their salaries for another year.

If we’re going to honor excellence, Dr. Wardynski, we need to start by keeping the excellent teachers and aides who were unceremoniously fired last year. We need to start by putting an end to the hiring of consultants to produce shoddy work at exorbitant prices as we did with Dr. Salmon and Dr. Wilson. We need to start by following the system’s hiring policies in hiring assistants to the Superintendent, like Mr. Aaron King from Mississippi, at a rate of $59,211 a year. We need to start by not paying Dr. Moore $99,000 to stay at home for the rest of the year.

Mr. King is costing us six dedicated and excellent aides. Dr. Moore is costing us three dedicated and excellent teachers. Your salary, itself $55,000 above the minimum, is costing us at least five aides or two teachers.

You claim to support excellence. It’s time to back up that claim with actions. So far, with the addition of Mr. King and the continued employment of Dr. Moore, your misguided actions are screaming much louder than your words.

Dr. Wardynski, you were sold to the community as a leader who would bring a difference perspective to the table. So far it seems that you’re following the same patterns as before. We won’t be fooled again.

The post “Excellence Calls Us To Our Better Angels” appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Yesterday a reader wrote to ask, “How can we work to save all these wonderful schools?”

This was a fantastic question, and it reminded me that I had been meaning to write something like this for a few days now.

Now that the public meetings concerning the demographer’s report are over, what can now be done to work to save all these wonderful schools? After we commiserated a bit about the worry and grief these school closing rumors are bringing to the lives of our children (my daughter has cried over her school closing repeatedly during the past two weeks), I came up with some suggestions.

Now, these are not earth-shattering by any means, they are just a few logical suggestions that might help.

And yeah, they will take work.

So here are my suggestions for how we might find a way forward. If you have others you’d like to add, please do so in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter. We need to work together to free all of our daughters and sons from worrying about the future of their schools.

1. Talk to everyone you know. Tell them your opinions about the report and the plan to close schools. Encourage them to read it for themselves. Get them to share their opinions with you and others. I’m certain that the hope (on the part of at least some of the board) is that as time passes and the summer progresses, people will lose interest. We have to keep that from happening.
2. Go to the board meetings. They are held on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays every month at 5:30, except when they change it. When you can’t go, watch it on ETV, but going is better. It lets the board see you and see that you’re serious.
3. Contact the board members. I’ve posted email addresses for every board member on the HCS Board Contact Info Page. I would recommend starting with your board member, but I would contact the others as well. With just a single exception, I’ve been impressed with the board’s responsiveness to email contacts. If you include your other contact information, they will often call you as well. This doesn’t mean that they will agree with you, but you are at least being heard.
4. Organize. Facebook pages are good (You can find a list of the ones I know of over on the right side under HCS Facebook Groups); face to face meetings are better. Get other people involved and call meetings to discuss the issues. Invite your board member to attend if she or he is able. (I have found Dr. Robinson, my board member, to be extremely approachable and interested in hearing what parents have to say. Again, she and I don’t agree regularly, but she does listen. For that I am grateful.)
5. Contact Dr. Casey Wardynski, the new superintendent, after July 5th and give him your opinion (and the opinion of as many people as you can speak for) directly. I don’t know Dr. Wardynski (and if it matters, no I didn’t support him in the selection process), but I am hopeful that he will at least be willing to listen.
6. Friend and Support your Teachers, Aides, Staff and Principals. They are the ones caught in the middle, and they often feel like no one is standing up and fighting for them. They have been asked to pay the price for a lack of leadership with their jobs and salaries (which have been frozen for everyone and lowered to the state minimum for all newly starting teachers).

Despite the flawed leadership of this system, Huntsville still has absolutely superb teachers. They need to hear from parents regularly about everything: good, bad, suggestions, encouragement, and even criticism (of the constructive nature) if it is needed. I have not encountered a single teacher in this system who doesn’t desperately crave parental involvement and support.

Whenever possible, speak publicly in support of our teachers. I’ve never met a teacher who was teaching for the money. As they are getting paid less and being asked to teach more (class sizes are going to be dramatically larger next year), they need our praise and support now more than ever.

If we can offer that as a community, we will continue to attract good teachers even though the leadership of the system isn’t paying them what they’re worth.

The one really great thing about this ridiculousness is that our community is becoming even stronger because of our shared desire to educate our kids. Hopefully Dr. Wardynski will recognize this and do everything he can to involve the community in the decision-making process he’s going to face full-force on Tuesday, July 5th.

_____________

With apologies to Stephen King, thank you, Constant Reader, for reading, writing, and standing up for our kids. Despite the circumstance of our meeting, I’m grateful to get to know each of you. Like you, I’m doing this for one reason and one reason only: to provide great schools for my kids. So long as we don’t give up, we will see our schools and more importantly our children achieve amazing things.

Technorati Tags: huntsville city schools, school closings

The post A Way Forward: Saving Our Schools appeared first on Geek Palaver.

For starters, keep in mind that whatever I post tonight is going to be inadequate; frankly nearly every question asked over the past two weeks has gone unanswered. These are just a few highlights as night turns into day.

1. Why has David Blair only attended one of the School Closing Meetings? (Huntsville High. He was at the board meeting at Columbia, but after the press returned to the closing meeting, I didn’t see Blair again. While we’re at it, why hasn’t Mr. Blair offered any response to those data questions I asked him two and a half weeks ago?) Really though, these are minor questions. I’m sure that Mr. Blair had some very important meetings to attend for the past two and a half weeks. Let’s move on to some real questions.
2. Why didn’t Dr. Steve Salmon manage to attend even one of the five community meetings to address questions that seemingly only he could answer? Again, while we’re at it, what was Dr. James Wilson’s actual involvement in the creation of the report before the community meetings. At the June 2nd meeting, he was presented as Dr. Salmon’s assistant. (Of course this was when were were paying Gude Management Group, LLC. to create the report. Now we’re paying Education Planners, LLC for Dr. Wilson’s services.) Come to find out, when you look at Education Planners website, you see that Dr. Salmon actually works for Dr. Wilson. Why do I feel like I’m watching at three card monte game on a street corner? Why am I convinced that the whole city is being scammed?
3. Why do the demographers consistently refuse to discuss their methodology and the guidelines they received in developing this report? Interestingly, in January of this year, Bonvillian of the Huntsville Times reported that 11 schools in Huntsville are operating below 60 percent capacity benchmark that the state placed on Huntsville City Schools earlier that month. This study by the Times was based on 2008 data, but didn’t cost the system $75,000. Notice some of the quotes form the board members in that article: Blair said, “Butler is one of the obvious schools for discussion.” Birney followed up by saying, “We’ve known about Butler for years. It just doesn’t look like anything we suggest to keep it going is taken seriously.” Morrison offered this comment concerning Butler: “I doubt that we’ll close the building. We may put another school in there with it, but I don’t think we’ll close it.” Birney and Blair both claimed that they were most surprised by Mt. Gap’s numbers. McCaulley, speaking about smaller schools like Monte Sano said, ”We have to factor in the size of the school. It may be that a smaller school is not effective for the whole system.” No, Dr. Richardson, there’s no evidence whatsoever that the board directed the demographer to produce any results in the report. For the record, this article was published on January 16, 2011. On January 19, 2011, Mayor Battle sent a letter to the Board offering to pay Dr. Salmon of Georgia the $75,000 fee.
4. Why was the new Lee High built if demographics “prove” that the old Lee High was operating well below capacity? In fact, if you take the extra 1,000 seats found at the old Lee High out of the equation, then suddenly, HCS is operating only 4,500 seats below capacity in 10 years. If you factor Butler into that equation, suddenly we’re down to just 3,500 seats below capacity in 10 years. Two schools and we’ve found 36% of the capacity problem. (Again, assuming that these “very real, exact data” is actually real or exact.)
5. If the demographer’s report is looking at capacity issues ten years out, why does the report only include data and capacity from Old Lee High and not New Lee High?
6. Why are we spending $40,000,000 to build the New Lee High when we’re $20 million (no, $18.5 million . . . er, $15.5 million . . . whatever, WE’RE IN DEBT) in debt? Well when we decided to build New Lee in 2009 we didn’t know we were in debt. Right? No one could have predicted this or seen this coming. Right?
7. Why does Richardson constantly claim that the Huntsville City School Board must decide which schools to close before we can consider any specific data concerning the impact of the closings on academic achievement, actual cost savings, realignment issues, transportation issues, or really anything other than questionable demographic data?
8. Why, if Richardson is correct that we will be a healthy financially in two years without closing schools, are we even considering closing schools? According to his latest numbers, Richardson believes Huntsville City Schools is $15.5 million in debt. If you talk into consideration other cost saving measures he introduced on Thursday, June 16th, you can knock that number down to an even $14 million. On April 21, 2011, Richardson recommended and the board approved personnel cuts in the amount of $23,089,027. In other words, with those personnel cuts and the other million or so Richardson keeps finding, we’re already looking at nearly a $10 million dollar surplus.
9. Why can’t we know what will happen to New Century once it is moved to Lee High before the board decides to move it to Lee High?
10. Why does Dr. Richardson continue to insult parents by stating that “all parents want high standards until their kid brings home a D?”

As I said, these are just a few of the unanswered questions that remain after the five public hearings. Please feel free to add more in the comments below.

The post Unanswered Questions: Huntsville City Schools Closing appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Leader of the Playground

Once when the girl was still not quite three and the boy was happiest in his car seat carrier, we were traveling from Georgia and stopped at McDonald’s. Cause you know, you’ve just got to stop at McDonald’s. Doesn’t matter if you’re hungry (it’s actually better if you’re not). Doesn’t matter if you’re less than an hour from the end of an eight hour drive.

The playground under the golden arches is a siren song to bored ears.

So, ya stop, and ya play. Resistance is futile.

Thing is, with any playground, you’re never really sure what you’re going to get. Sometimes the kids are awesome; sometimes they’re not. So especially when the girl is barely big enough to climb the slide on her own, you watch and listen.

Besides, it’s McDonald’s. What else are you going to do? Read the menu?

So on this stop, the girl is easily five years younger than anyone else playing, and we’re watching closely as they play tag.

When you have to make use of every muscle in your body to move from one step to another, you tend to get tagged. A lot.

Yet she’s having fun, which is good. There is laughter, which is great. My girl is happy, which is heaven.

Until the big kids decide to play a different game.

Being old and crusty, on the outside of childhood looking in, I don’t have a clue what the change in the game was. It still looked like tag to me, but for whatever reason, the girl had had enough. And so, at almost three, she stands to make her speech:

“No, I don’t want to play that. I want to play follow the leader.” And she turns her back to play follow the leader on her own.

Again, I’m old. I don’t have any idea how follow the leader works without both leaders and followers. All I can say is, it’s a shame that we lose our imagination as we get old. The girl had no problem imagining it or doing it.

And so she played, follow the leader, blazing her trail. And as I watched, the older kids, being cool kids with great imaginations, went and followed.

So she’s having fun again, which is good. There is laughter, which is great. My girl, not quite three, followed the beat of her own drum, which is heaven.

Especially to her dad who can’t imagine a cooler little girl.

Thanks for the swinging.

It seems that the attention on Father’s Day is sent in the wrong direction. When you’ve got the two greatest kids on the planet who at almost three were already blazing their own path, honestly, I’m just grateful to be along for the swinging.

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I’m not a numbers guy. In fact, as dangerous as this is to mention in an engineering town, I hate math.

Hate it. That’s why most of my postings avoid mathematics. I’m an English guy, a philosophy guy, a religion guy, a liberal arts guy, but I’m not a math guy.

But sometimes, you’ve got to tread into the abyss to fight battles. So, “Once more, unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”

For some inestimable reason, the Board of Education, and particularly the itinerant consultants they’ve hired to provide them political cover, seem unconcerned that there is no educational justification being offered for the closing of our schools. Additionally, they seem unconcerned about any costs whatsoever excluding that those schools will save us $300,000, $500,000, and $700,000 per year if we close them. These are estimates that Richardson has pulled off the state department of education’s website. Probably took his secretary about 10 minutes to google. For this we’re paying him $600.00 per day. To get general, state averages, we’ve paid him $12,445.91. I hope the political cover is worth it.

(Of course that doesn’t come close to the $75,000 we’ve paid Dr. Salmon and Dr. Wilson to produce a PowerPoint from slides developed by BRAC, the Chamber, and the City, who, according to Wilson, were “amazingly helpful in providing us with data” that will help us close these schools.)

They are offering no educational justification for the closings. This alone should be enough for the city and the board to laugh them out of town. Sadly, it isn’t.

In addition to this oversight, these highly respected former superintendents are refusing to offer any specific financial justification for closing schools. Richardson believes that the 300, 500, and 700 numbers are “conservative” enough to convince us that he’s telling the truth. Never mind that we have already seen schools closed in this town and the promised savings have not come close to that amount. Richardson repeatedly claims that specific data cannot be developed until after the Board has made their decisions of which schools to close.

If we weren’t talking about the very future of our communities and our children’s lives, this keystone cop routine on display every Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks would be the greatest show on earth.

It would seem that Richardson’s only concern in this process is summed up in the following quote he offered a local news channel on Tuesday, June 7th: “I’ve never closed a school where somebody didn’t think it was a bad idea, but in this case we’re saving about two to three million dollars.”

“Two to Three Million Dollars”

That’s what we’re being promised. No specifics. Just a nice round figure.

Let’s assume for a moment that our past experience with the closing of Stone Middle and Lincoln Elementary are not valid. Let’s assume that Richardson’s estimates are completely trustworthy. Does saving 2-3 million dollars justify closing 21% of the schools in the system (9 of 42)? Richardson certainly seems to think it does, yet, as we’ve already seen, he doesn’t seem to like details. They would, as he said to Dr. Robinson on June 2nd, simply confuse us.

I’m not a numbers guy, but these numbers weren’t that hard to come up with. Since Richardson does consider himself a numbers guy (who hates specific numbers), I offer the following information concerning the impact closing a school has upon a community.

“How Much Is a Neighborhood School Worth?”

In 1999, two researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio published the follow study: “How Much Is a Neighborhood School Worth?” in the Journal of Urban Economics. Bogart and Cromwell make the case that closing a neighborhood school reduces property values by nearly 10%.

Ten percent of your home gone based upon the recommendation of a man who’s own home remains unaffected by his recommendations.

The median home value in the city of Huntsville in 2009 was $155,500. The recommended closings affect nearly every area and region of Huntsville City. Thus, these recommendations will cost nearly 10% of the value of the homes in nearly every region of the city.

According to the City of Huntsville there are approximately 75,000 homes in Huntsville. Assuming that 21% of the homes (15,750) are affected by the school closings, Huntsville City home values will drop by a collective amount of $244,912,500.00. [For the record, I have no problem showing my work: (15,750 x $155,500) x 0.10 = $244,912,500].

As the tax rate on property within the city limits is calculated at a rate of $5.80 per every $100 that means that the city of Huntsville will see a drop in tax revenue of approximately $14,204,925.00. [$244,912,500/$100 x $5.80 = $14,204,925]

Note: It has been pointed out to me in one of the comments below that the rate is actually $5.80 per every $1,000 rather than $100. As I read the Madison Co. Tax Assessor’s site I’ve linked to above, I didn’t think that was correct. However, I was wrong. Thanks to the comments below for helping me see it. So the lost revenue drops from $14,204,925 to $1, 420,493 per year. Which would potential mean that if Richardson’s numbers are correct, then the “savings” are at least cut in half.

I apologize for posting incorrect numbers, and I appreciate having them corrected. See, when you show your work, as the demographer should also do, the truth is revealed. Again, I apologize for my incorrect understanding of the tax rate.

That alone tends to wipe out a savings of two to three million fairly quickly, dontcha think?

And they wonder why we’ve lost faith.

PS. Quick note to Mayor Tommy Battle: You might want to ask Dr. Wilson to stop thanking you and the city for your help in collecting the data to close our schools. It’s not going to help you get re-elected.

The post Calculating the Cost of Closing Schools: Tax Revenue appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Let there be no division among you, but let each one have the same care for one another. –1 Corinthian 12:25

Just as children test and trick their parents when they want something, the school board, along with all of the superintendents (and former “excellent superintendents” who are leaving town before this is over) are seemingly hoping for much the same thing with their closing “plan.”

(I intend no offense to children. You’re a child; that’s your job. Adults leading school systems should know better.)

By pitting us against each other, they’re hoping that we won’t notice the ruin they’re spreading across our city.

So, I’m writing today to call for unity to oppose these misguided intentions. From the north to the south, we are not separated by the distance or history between us. East and west agree that all of our schools are needed to educate our children. On the mountains and in the valleys, we all believe in high standards and lofty goals for our kids regardless of the beliefs of our temporary consultant (who’s making $600 a day to hurl those insults, by the way).

I’m writing to say the following:

Save Butler High School

Save Davis Hills Middle

Save Ed White Middle

Save Westlawn Middle

Save Whitesburg Middle

Save Mountain Gap Middle

Save Monte Sano Elementary

Save Whitesburg Elementary

Save Mountain Gap Elementary

Save West Mastin Lake Elementary

Save Montview Elementary

Since Dr. Richardson admitted last night that the plans he has already implemented will have our system operating in the black in two years, there is no need for these closings. Therefore, there is no need for division among us. If April 27th and a lack of ice and gas couldn’t divide us, overpaid outsiders and former superintendents can’t either.

Let the School Board take note: We will all work together to save our schools.

The post Let There Be No Division Among Us appeared first on Geek Palaver.

The boy is crying. Again. Except “crying” doesn’t capture it. He is bawling. He is screaming. He is weeping. He is wailing. He is furious.

He is afraid. And I have no idea why.

Just moments ago he was happy. All was right in the world in which he lives. Just moments ago.

Maybe he’s hurt himself when I wasn’t looking. Maybe his skin feels like it’s exploding. Maybe Elmo on this episode has a slightly deeper voice that still sounds too high to me, but makes all the difference in the world to him. Maybe the orange magic marker he’s been carrying around since Friday isn’t exactly the right shade anymore. Maybe his little trampoline isn’t bouncing him high enough.

All I can do is hold him and cry too. And I think to myself for the nine thousandth time since he was two and a half: I really want to understand my son.

I want to be able to connect with him. To see that magic marker as the window into the orange universe that it is for him. To taste the cacophony of music, vibrations, sounds, and sometimes words that echo across his tongue, down his back, through the balls of his feet as his bounces on them.

Like him, I want to hug the air and feel her hugging back.

I want to understand him, but when I need to the most, it just doesn’t happen. Beings living in different dimensions of space and time just can’t.

And yet, occasionally, it happens. Just enough for me to believe again. Just enough for me to wake up in the middle of the night with tears rolling down cause we were talking, he and I, just talking in the middle of my dream.

“Hey dad, CATCH!” “Hey dad, I want a hug.” “Hey dad . . .”

Just talking.

A couple of weeks back Sigan Hartley, a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher, published a study that showed that 30% of dads with autistic, Downs and fragile X syndrome children experience depression. They already knew that moms basically have PTSD on levels similar to soldiers coming home from war. Somehow it was unique enough to hear about dads that it deserved to be published.

While I appreciate the attention, please, spend your time and energy studying autism, Downs, and fragile X instead. Help me understand my boy; I can deal with the depression.

I just want to understand him. Is that asking too much? Please?

- – -

And the boy is laughing. Again. Except “laughing” doesn’t capture it. Words really can’t. And while this change is a welcomed one, a wonderful one, a joyous one, I still don’t understand.

All I can do is hold him when he comes to climb in my lap.

All I can do is watch the tears roll down his cheeks because the joke is just too funny,

and cough a little because the laughter hurts a bit,

and laugh till I cry.

connected with my little guy

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L9JvSS-ti8']

The post Understanding My Boy appeared first on Geek Palaver.

On Tuesday, May 17 at an Employee Conference between laid off employees and the Huntsville City Board of Education, Mr. J. R. Brooks, the board’s attorney stated that, “state statute does not require that the superintendent or the board give their reasoning” supporting their plans to lay off employees.

Assuming that Mr. Brooks is correct, he is claiming that the superintendent and the board are not legally required to present any justification for their life-altering decisions. As Mel Brooks told us once, “It’s good to be ‘da king.” A king doesn’t need a plan, only the will and the force to implement his (or in this case her) decisions. Plans are for little people who have no power.

While I certainly do not wish to minimize the fear and uncertainty that these dedicated public servants are facing as they wonder how they are going to make their mortgage payments next month, this attitude is disturbingly familiar to me and hundreds of other parents of special needs children.

Just hours before Mr. Brooks (J.R. not Mel) made his pronouncement concerning the autonomy of the superintendent and the board, Dr. Robinson informed me that Dr. Moore has decided that the report that Ms. Sledge presented to the board on May 5th was the only report on the segregation plan that she was going to offer to the board or to parents.

It’s good to be ‘da king.

So what more could anyone expect from the superintendent and the central office? Not much, just:

1. A clear, detailed description in writing explaining exactly what they are planning to do,
2. A description, of any kind, of why they are segregating our students, or
3. A discussion or approval of the segregation plan by the board.

It’s fairly clear that Huntsville City Schools is in trouble and that we haven’t had a clear plan in place for sometime. We are probably $20 million dollars in debt. (I say probably because I’m not sure how we would know. There are currently five (5) different databases containing the financial records of the system. And these five (5) databases do not agree with each other. So, I find myself wondering exactly how we would know we were $20 million dollars in debt. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that we are.) The superintendent has provided such weak leadership that she had to be replaced by an outsider. Enrollment in private schools and those choosing to home school their children has never been higher.

And yet the board attorney is advising the board that state statute does not require reasoning or the delineation of a plan.

If this is so, the state statute needs to be changed. Now.

For government to be effective, it must be transparent to the governed. It must be responsive to the governed. In must include the governed. Huntsville City Schools has managed none of these. We do not know what they are doing. We do not know why they are doing it. Our concerns are being dismissed, ignored, or denied out right.

We were told on March 16th that there was no plan to segregate our children. Mr. Blair also said on the 16th that even if there were a plan, that it would have to come before the board for discussion and approval before it could be implemented. The plan began to be implemented at least as early as Tuesday April 5th. We were told on April 6th that Ms. Sledge would present the plan, along with her reasoning for the plan, in writing to parents immediately. We were told that the plan would be presented along with her reasoning to the board on May 5th.

In short, nothing we have been told has been fulfilled.

They have no plan. They see no need for a plan. Since the state statute doesn’t require it, they aren’t going to do it. And so the superintendent is balancing the budget on the backs of the powerless, the voiceless, the weak, our children without needing to offer any justification for her actions.

Planning is important–even for a king.

On April 27th, tornadoes hit every county in Alabama killing over 300 hundred and knocking out the power to the northern part of the the state for a week. Madison City had generators on hand to run the refrigerators and freezers in their schools to prevent the loss of perishable food. Madison County did not have generators, but they did procure refrigerated trucks to store the food until the power came back on. The trucks cost Madison County approximately $7,000, but they only lost approximately $250 worth of perishable food. Both systems had a plan.

Huntsville City Schools allowed their food to perish. They lost approximately $175,000 in food.

The average Instructional Aide makes between $10,000 and $13,000 a year. (Stop for a moment and let that sink in. When HCS decided to layoff people, they laid off those who make just slightly above minimum wage. Some of the most valuable people in the system, and we pay them barely more than minimum wage. By way of comparison, Dr. Moore earns $197,685 a year.)

Huntsville City Schools threw away thirteen aides for a year for lack of a plan.

The post The Importance of a Plan appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Truth is in the details.

– Stephen King, Duma Key

Questions keep me up at night; especially when they involve my kids. Here are some involving Huntsville City Schools, the decisions that are being made about both of my children, and the direction of the HCS Board of Education. As I’ve argued before, questions are important. If you have a child in Huntsville City Schools–even a child who is not affected by the Special Needs changes that the Superintendent is implementing–these questions should be important to you as well, for they deal with issues that affect all of our kids.

• How many of the approximately 420 people who have already been pink-slipped, directly and regularly interacted or provided services to Special Needs students? Dr. Richardson claimed when making his report that he had not considered Special Education at all in the budget cuts he was recommending. This is a misleading statement. Here are some details we do know: Of the 137 cuts made in the first round, 65 were Instructional Assistants who work with Special education students. In his presentation to the board in April, Richardson recommended the firing of 45 Probationary Support Employees. He recommended the firing of 77 NonProbationary Support Employees. He recommended the cancellation of 216 Contracted Support Personnel. These numbers represent primarily Instructional Aides and Custodial Staff. As he is fully aware, the vast majority (perhaps as high as 100%) of the Instructional Aides, and every single one of the adapted PE teachers who will be released were employed to work with Special Needs students. 338 of the cuts are classified as “Support Personnel.” Thus, potentially 80% of the cuts to personnel have direct impact on Special Needs Children. Until we have the exact numbers, this will be my working assumption. If the board thinks my calculation is too high, I will be happy for them to prove me wrong with specific numbers.
  
• Where are the central office cuts? Dr. Moore, Dr. Richardson, and the Board have repeatedly stated that cuts must be made. Dr. Richardson laid our $23 million in cuts to address a $19.5 million deficit, but his plan included not one single cut to the central office. When discussing the cuts that are being made to Special Education, Dr. Moore recently claimed that they had been “overly generous” but offers no evidence supporting this claim as it relates to Special Education. The only area where the claim of “overly generous” applies is to the central office. Yet, the central office is currently facing no cuts. When asked at the end of his presentation about this “oversight,” Dr. Richardson claimed that the central office would face cuts at some point in the future. Here are some details we do know: The Huntsville central office employees 500 people. The Madison County central office employees 11. Madison County has 20% fewer students in it’s system than Huntsville City. Huntsville City has 99.8% more people working in it’s central office.
• Why won’t Ms. Sledge and Dr. Moore put their segregation plan in writing as Ms. Sledge promised she would on April 6th? I’ve written about this here.
• Why hasn’t the Board, as they claimed they would do on March 16th, insisted that Ms. Sledge and Dr. Moore present their plan for Board input and approval before they implement their plan? I’ve written about this here and here.
• Why does the Board need to pay an outsider (Dr. Richardson) to propose a scorched earth approach to the budget crisis they have created? His advice is bad. He isn’t being straightforward in his claims. He’s free to leave as soon as he has collected his check without any accountability for his decisions.
• Why is Dr. Moore still implementing policy without oversight from the Board even though she was fired twelve months ago?
• Why is the Board of Education limiting Public Comment and Participation?
• Why isn’t the Huntsville City Schools’ budget published on the system’s website for public review? Many other Boards publish extensive budget information on their websites. Why doesn’t HCS?
• Why does Huntsville City Schools have more instances of Mediation and Due Process than any other system in the state? From 2004-2008, Huntsville City Schools had 121 incidents of Dispute Resolution. The next largest number was 93 from Birmingham City Schools. BCS has approximately 3,000 more students than HCS.
• Finally, why is the central office and the board of education so adverse to transparency in their budget-making, policy-making and implementation? It is reasonable to assume that when someone refuses to share the motivation behind their decisions as Ms. Sledge and Dr. Moore have done that they have something to hide. It is reasonable to assume that when Dr. Richardson hides the specific details of the cuts he is recommending and that the board has approved (like the impact these cuts will have on special education) that they are aware that the cuts are being inordinately placed upon one specific population of the system who had nothing to do with getting us into this financial predicament.

These, and likely many more, are questions that need to be addressed immediately. We the public, the parents, the people who care the most because we live here (unlike consultants from outside) need to insist that the board, and the superintendent answer. The truth is in the details that we must insist our board and superintendent provide.

Those details will, I believe, set our system and our children free.

The post Questions for HCS Board of Education, Superintendent, and Consultant appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Special needs Parents for the Education of All Kids

Special needs Parents for the Education of All Kids (S.P.E.A.K.) will be hosting an open forum for all Parents of special needs kids on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 from 6:00 – 7:00 pm at Merrimack Hall, 3320 Triana Blvd., Huntsville, Alabama 35803.

This meeting is open to any parent or guardian of a special needs child (any child with an IEP) in Huntsville City Schools. S.P.E.A.K. is a group of special needs parents in Huntsville who are concerned about the quality and direction of the education our special needs children are receiving in Huntsville City Schools.

This meeting will provide you with the following:

• An opportunity to meet other special needs parents in Huntsville City Schools so that you may learn you are not alone in your interactions and struggles with the school system.
• Sources of information concerning the current plan by the central office to segregate our kids into two schools.
• A discussion about the New Superintendent Search Process.

If you are interested in this organization, please take a look at www.speakup4specialkids.org. There is also a link on that page to sign up for additional information. Just click on the “Join Us” banner at the top of the page.

If you too feel strongly about speaking for those who cannot, please consider joining us for this meeting on Wednesday, May 25th. It will be well worth your time, and it will be one more way to hold the superintendent and the board of education accountable for their decisions and actions.

Together, we will S.P.E.A.K. for those who cannot.

The post Special Needs Parent’s Meeting Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 6:00pm appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Congratulations are in order to Superintendent Moore. On your way out the door, with the cover of Dr. Richardson and the complicity of the Board of Education, you have successfully implemented your plan to segregate our children without any oversight or accountability.

Dr. Moore is using her power to force segregation upon a segment of the student population without input from the parents, teachers, administrators or even the Board of Education. And while I greatly appreciate that Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair worked to get even a modicum of accountability from Dr. Moore and Ms. Sledge, they have not done nearly enough to provide the oversight that they are supposed to provide of the superintendent.

This is a colossal breakdown of the system that is designed to serve students not segregate them.

On Thursday, May 5, 2011, while hundreds of people still did not have power in their homes from the worst tornados to hit the state in perhaps it’s history, the Board of Education received an oral report from Ms. Amy Sledge, the Director of Special Education, and Dr. Moore, the Superintendent about the concerns that have dominated my life and the lives of thousands of families in Huntsville for the past six weeks.

The timing was quite fortunate for Dr. Moore. Not only did the recovery efforts keep the majority of the city from paying attention to the school board meeting (students had only just returned to school for the first time in a week hours earlier), but also the first round of interviews for the new superintendent had happen just moments earlier that day distracting the press.

Yet, Dr. Moore’s attempts to segregate our children without oversight were perhaps best aided by the decision of the Board at the previous meeting to only allow public comments if they were included on the agenda.

No public comments were allowed at the conclusion of this meeting.

It is also clear from the final moments of the Board meeting video that I linked to yesterday that Dr. Moore had no intention of discussing her plan until after the plan had been implemented. She stated on Thursday, May 5th:

I think that what would probably help, Amy, is once you get all of the schedules settled, and all of the students moved, then you can present that information to the board with the exact locations of specific programs and how many students now that the IEP has been written. (She stated this in the third clip at about the 9 minute mark.)

The truly disturbing part of this is that both Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair may be heard in the background stating that waiting until the implementation of the plan was completed would be “very helpful.”

Respectfully, waiting until after “all of the students [are] moved” is anything but “very helpful.” It is, frankly, like waiting until the world has exploded to begin talking about ways to avoid a war.

By waiting until all of the students are moved, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Blair, Mr. Birney, Ms. McCaulley, and Ms. Morrison have abdicated their responsibility to provide oversight to the Superintendent of Huntsville City Schools. (This is the very thing that Mr. Blair stated on March 16 that would never happen when he pointed out, “that no decision could be made without the issue coming before the board.”

Mr. Blair: The board hasn’t heard, review the plan, or approved the plan, but Dr. Moore will not actually present any details of what will happen (let alone, why it is happening), until after all the students have been moved.

In addition, Dr. Moore’s description of the order of events does not tell the complete story. She claims that any decision to move students is being made in the IEP meeting. As you can see from this letter which showed on April 15th that Dr. Moore was issuing directives to the school administration representatives on the IEP team to tell parents that their child will be moved in the coming year.

On April 21, 2011 at about 4:30pm, I spoke with Ms. Sledge via phone and asked her what directives were being sent out to the IEP teams from the central office. I specifically referenced the Matus’ letter and my own experience of being told that “we cannot write aides into IEPs without prior approval from the central office.”

Ms. Sledge denied that this was happening and claimed that she would immediately send out notices to the principals that they do not have to seek prior approval for items written into an IEP. I am still being told that aides cannot be written into IEPs without the approval of the central office.

Parents are still being told that their child will be moved to a new school next year.

Additionally during my conversation with Ms. Sledge she informed me that if parents did not like the segregation plan, that they could request a mediation over the issue.

The central office is daring parents to take legal action against the segregation they are forcing on our kids.

Dr. Moore also repeatedly made the implication in the May 5th meeting that we’re all having to make cuts to address the financial situation the school system, under her direction, has experienced. What she has not said to the board, and what the board seems slow to recognize is that Special Needs have already been the primary group affected by the cuts that have taken place so far. The majority of the layoffs that have already occurred have been from Instructional Aides, the majority of which work with Special Needs students.

In addition during this poorly attended presentation, we now discover that Adaptive PE, which Mr. Blair correctly described as a central part to inclusion for special needs children, is also being cut. Dr. Moore claims that all PE teachers are trained to offer Adaptive PE, but she avoids answer any questions concerning how these already overworked teachers are supposed to teach both their regular students as well as their special needs students.

She claims that to be a “staffing issue,” and that Instructional Aides (whom have already been pink slipped) will be able to assist.

While special needs kids are being asked to bear the heaviest burden of cuts, there still has not been a single cut, nor even a plan to cut, from the bloated central office.

If you agree that one person should not be allowed to implement her own private agenda against the will of the public, and without oversight of the board, please contact the board and insist that they order Dr. Moore to halt the moving of students to new schools until she provides a written and public justification for doing so.

You may contact the board via Ms. Gail Kiker, Administrative Assistant to the Board at (256) 428-6940 or via email at gkiker@hsv.k12.al.us.

You may contact Dr. Moore directly at (256) 428-6810 or via email at armoore@hsv.k12.al.us.

Perhaps if there is a mass outcry, the Board (who aren’t leaving office in July as is the Superintendent) will begin to finally hold Dr. Moore accountable.

There is always hope, but there is little time. The next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 5:30pm. School will dismiss for the year on Wednesday, May 25, 2011.

The post Hold the Superintendent Accountable appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in my life. I wouldn’t be the man that I am today without you. But as much as I love each of you, this one goes out to my mom, Evelyn.

Mom and the baby girl feeding fish.

Narrowing down all that you have taught me in our short time together is nearly impossible, mom. You taught me to climb trees. You taught me to make homemade biscuits (but mine were never very good). You taught me to pick up after myself (which, I still only do when you’re coming to town, by the way). You taught me to say thank you to everyone who does anything for me. Ever.

So coming up with just one thing, one best thing, that I learned from you mom is hard, but I think I’ve managed to narrow it down to at least two.

It’s funny that most of what we learn from our parents, we learn when they’re not trying to teach us anything at all. We learn it when we’re all just going about our business, dealing with our feeble attempts to just make it to the end of the day. (This is something that I try to remember with my own kids, but I usually screw it up.)

But since this is true, then the best thing I ever learned from my mom, I think I learned when we were all working together in The Sandwich Shop in the Mall.

For about six years or so (I can’t remember exactly; it was many miles ago) while I was in high school and college, mom and dad owned The Sandwich Shop in the Statesboro Mall. It was here that I think I learned my most important lessons from her during the times when she was too busy to actually try and teach me anything at all.

If you’ve ever owned a family business, you know that the vacations, holidays, and even just days off are far too rare. So you adjust to schedule, and push through. This was how we operated at the Sandwich Shop. Working until we could pull the gate closed at 9 when the mall closed, rushing home to make the chess squares for the next day, dragging in before opening the next morning to make the salads.

Food service, in other words. It was hard, but somehow, Mom, you always found a way to uncover the joy in making sandwiches, chili, salads, and of course, sweet tea.

And so the best thing I ever learned from you mom was two fold. First, you should always find a way to love the work you have to do. This, maybe more than anything else, has served me well as I also worked in jobs that weren’t always my first choice. Because of your leadership, I still found a way to love doing sleeve jobs on tuxes before prom, calling doctors about jobs in a telemarketing firm, selling software, staying up all night at children and youth lock-ins, struggling to meet a deadline for a grant, and grading endless stacks of 101 portfolios. If you could find joy in slicing tomatoes every morning, I can find it in a well-written sentence.

But the second thing that you taught me as we served food together was that a life of service to others is a life worth living. And that, Mommy, is the best thing you ever taught me. (So far.)

Happy Mother’s Day. I love you.

The post The Best Things Mom Taught Me appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Wow, what a week. I’m sorry for having taken so long to post again, but I’ve been exhausted.

So on my birthday, at the end of a week without power, without ice, without hot baths, without internet, without “WATCH TV” as the boy shouted just an hour into a week without TV, without hot food, without knowing where I might find a tank full of gas to allow me to drive the family to a place that wasn’t without those things, without sleep cause the total dark and quiet kept the boy awake most of the night, at the end of all of that, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to my city-in-law.

Frankly, I’m amazed by the beauty of this city.

I’ve never been in a blackout that last more than a few hours. I’ve never been afraid about where I might be able to find food for my kids. I’ve never worried about not being able to drive to safety because I didn’t have enough gas and couldn’t buy more.

And yet, this city took care of each other in a way that I had hoped would happen, but have rarely experienced.

I saw strangers help push a car into the gas station. I saw neighbors offering neighbors ice, the single most valuable commodity perhaps next to gas, without expectation. I saw Star Market find a way to sell bread, peanut butter, jelly, chips and diapers to a city desperate for the security of “maybe enough” to make it through an extended power outage.

And so I feel the need to say thank you.

Thank you to our police department for working endless hours to keep us safe.

Thank you to our fire department for standing between us and any accident imaginable.

Thank you to the EMS, Hospitals, Doctors, Nurses, and all those who worked to keep us and our loved ones healthy and alive.

Thank you to all of Huntsville Utilities and their staff who never stopped working to restore power.

Thank you to all the Huntsville City Schools Teachers and Principals who put their own lives at risk to protect our children as they were dismissed during the height of the storms.

Thank you to Exxon on the corner of Whitesburg and Lilly Flag for finding a way to sell gas in a dark city.

Thank you to Wavaho in Laceys Spring for doing the same thing.

Thank you to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts on South Parkway for helping a guy replace a dead car battery right at closing time.

Thank you to Domino’s Pizza for selling hot pizzas at a cheap price during the blackout.

Thank you the lady in Publix who saw me tying to hold 15 items in my arms and found a basket for me.

Thank you to Publix for having the boy’s chicken once the power came back on.

Thank you to Laurel’s parents for looking out for us.

Thank you to my mom and sister for giving us a break from the cold showers for a couple of nights.

Thank you to Laurel for holding my hand when I was worried.

Thank you to the girl for reading Harry Potter to me by candle light.

Thank you to the boy for saying, “I love you” for the first time after the power came back on.

Thank you to the dark for letting the stars shine as they never have before.

Thank you Huntsville. I told my daughter once that no matter what people try to tell you, love will change the world. Thank you for showing her this to be true. And my, my, my, it’s truly is a beautiful world.

Thank you.

Listened to: Beautiful World from the album “Man at Work” by Colin Hay

The post Thank You Huntsville appeared first on Geek Palaver.

These are comments that I’m planning to make to the School Board tonight.–rw

I am here tonight to share with you a success story from Challenger Elementary. While I am a “special needs parent,” I am not here to speak for my special needs child, but rather for all of our children. My son has autism, and recently he has been included in a regular education classroom for the first time since he was moved by the central office from Farley Elementary last year.

There are two reasons why his inclusion has taken so long. First, moving him set him back, and he needed extra time to adjust. Yet even after he had adjusted, the school had difficulty finding an aide to take him into the classroom. Eventually, this job fell to his OT Ms. Kelly Smith who took him into Mrs. McCord’s classroom last week.

His inclusion was a huge success. My son, who has difficulty making eye contact, playing with others and talking, made eye contact, played puzzles with the other children, and learned to say the name of a friend.

My son has a friend.

But again, I’m not here to talk about my son. I’m here to tell you what Ms. Smith shared with us after his second inclusion experience on Tuesday. She wrote:

Kids at his table cheered when Mrs. McCord announced he would sit with them. They like him. They ask some questions but are accepting of his singing over talking.

They cheered when they were selected for inclusion. They are accepting of others.

I am a teacher, and I love my job. But I’ve long since realized that there’s very little that I can teach my students that they could not learn on their own except communication.

We cannot teach ourselves how to communicate. To learn that, we have to be integrated; we have to be included. There is little in life more important than learning to communicate particularly learning to communicate with people who find communication difficult.

Those students chosen to be integrated and included cheered.

Please, give all of our students the opportunity to learn from each other. Keep them integrated. Give them the aid and the aides they need to be included. Not because it benefits my child, but because it benefits all of our children.

Give all of our students the opportunity to cheer.

Thank you.

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When the mist breaks, when the canopy opens to the stars, when the smoke is blown away by a cool breeze, that’s when life begins. Those are the fleeting minutes that I hope to find. Those are the times that I fight for with my boy.

It’s the connection that keeps me awake when he’s in a talkative mood in the darkest hours of the night. It’s that clarity that I, and every autism parent I know, fights for every minute of every day and night. That’s what I constantly watch for so I don’t miss them because I know that they don’t happen nearly often enough. They don’t last nearly long enough.

And so I watch, staring into the dark, straining my eyes, wishing my hearing were better, praying for connection, fighting against the fog.

You see more than I . . .

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1 in 69 in Huntsville City Schools. 1 in 69.

That’s the number of kids who are on the Autism Spectrum right now. Nationally that number is around 1 in every 110, which is significantly higher than the 1 in 150 number we heard when our boy was first diagnosed in 2007.

Today some one thousand people turned out at Milton Frank Stadium in Huntsville to walk for autism in themselves, their family members, their loved ones, their friends, their students, and sometimes even complete strangers. To everyone who came out, I say thank you.  Thank you for reaching out towards those who sometimes don’t reach back. Thank you for holding those who sometimes don’t want to be held. Thank you for saying, “We love you” to those who have a difficult time saying it back, but who absolutely show it–if you’re willing to look.

I’m having a difficult time putting my emotions into words tonight. I’m sad and happy, tired and electrified, depressed and elated.  The house is quiet from the busy day. The lights are blue in honor of my boy.

But that number is keeping me awake.

One difficult thing about autism is it’s diversity, but that’s also, as I saw today, a great strength. I saw the exhaustion of parents who didn’t sleep the night before because their child was having a meltdown. I also saw community and belonging that carries us through those long, dark nights. And most importantly I saw joy on the faces of the kids playing together on the astroturf.

You’ve never experienced pure happiness until you’ve watched a child who loves to bounce jumping on a moon bounce. You’ve never seen joy until you’ve watched one child blowing bubbles for another to chase, catch and shout, “MORE.” You’ve never felt exultation until you realize that that word is coming out of your son’s mouth as he overcomes those barriers in his brain that keep him from asking for what he wants or needs.

That’s why inclusion is so important.

Not just for the child on the spectrum, but for the child and the adult who aren’t. We need to be reminded of that joy.

We need to be reminded of the miracle of communication.

We need to be reminded that if my boy can cry out for “MORE,”  that–when we laugh, love and play together–we can accomplish anything. Anything at all.

Thanks little buddy for reminding me of that every day. You and your big sister–who loves you more than anything–are my best teachers. Your mommy and I love you both.

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Going . . .

I never wanted to become Polonius: spouting off advice to Laertes and Ophelia when all they wanted was to receive his blessing so they could leave. All I can say is that it started as sort of a joke, but I’ve since realized that it’s much more than a joke to my little girl. And it’s much more than that to me.

Every morning I have the distinct honor of taking my children to school. It’s a blessing that, despite having to circumnavigate two school’s car lines, I would never give up. It gives me just a little more time with both of them in the morning to remind them that I love them and to remind me that there are far more important things in life than papers to grade and bills to pay. Other than tucking them in at night, it is my favorite time of the day. Strange what having kids will do to you; I used to hate the morning commute.

Anyway, each morning I drop the girl off about a block away from school so she can walk in. She LOVES doing this, and it gives me a few more stolen seconds to hug and watch her grow.

And it breaks my heart fresh each morning when she turns to walk away. It’s the reverse of all those stupid car commercials that show the dad talking to a five-year old as she waits, somewhat patiently, behind the wheel for the keys so she can go out. When my girl turns away and starts walking, my seven-year old is suddenly seventeen, complete with a toss of her hair over her shoulder. And I’m left wondering where the time went. (Yep, I was once told by my college Drama professor that if he were to do a production of Hamlet that he would have to cast me in the lead. I was the definition of melancholy. At the time, I took it as a compliment rather than a curse. Strange kid was I.)

Anyway, back to Polonius. I decided one morning to offer my Ophelia (minus the insanity, that is) a bit of advice as she walked away in hopes that she would wait a little longer to turn her back on me and transform into a teenager that I’m having trouble connecting with. As she walked backwards away from me, I looked her in the eye and said, “Learn everything you can.” To which she replied, “Okay.”

Not wanting her to turn, I added, “Have fun!” As she takes another step away from me, she shouts with a grin, “Okay!”

Desperate to keep her eyes on mine a little longer, I reminder her to “tell Mrs. Wrenn thank you and give her BIG HUGS (thank you teletubbies!).” She’s so far down the sidewalk now that she has to shout, “Okay, dad!”

going . . .

“Be nice to your friends!” “Okay.”

“Be nicer to your not so friends!” “I will.”

Knowing now that I’ve got to cut the strings or I’ll be crying all the way to drop off the boy, I shout (to the great pleasure of those sleeping in the house we’re parked in front of I’m sure), “Always remember that I’m proud of you, and I love you!”

At this, she grins, and I die a little inside cause I know she’s about to turn, but before she does, she shouts, “I love you, too, Dad!”

And with that I climb back into the car with tears rolling down my cheeks anyway.

“Be nicer to your not so friends.” I came up with that, as with most things by my seat-pants flying, but other than our “I love yous,” I think it may be the most important of my proverbs. Yeah, I totally stole it from the Gospel of Matthew, but that’s okay, I always did think that Picasso was right about stealing. It’s the one thing that I try to remember myself through the day. And it’s the one thing that I forget the quickest. My memory really sucks.

Be nicer to your not so friends. If we love our children and our friends, what credit is that to us? Doesn’t everyone do the same? The truth is that if we really want to make the world a better place for our kids (and we do), then we’ve got to step up to the bullies and be nicer. We’ve got to step up to the despots and be nicer. We’ve got to reach across the aisle and be nicer. We’ve got to hold our arms open wide in one of my daughter’s patented “air hugs” and be nicer to those whom we don’t like, we don’t love, we can’t stand the sight of, we think even God hates.

We’ve got to be nicer to our not so friends in this world because it’s the only way that we’ll survive to see our little girls grow up into beautiful young women ready to change the world with their dreams. We have got to be nicer to the world.

To that young woman, my daughter, I have only this to add: No matter what people try to tell you, love will change the world.

And always remember that I’m proud to be your daddy.

. . .

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2 Samuel 12:15 tells the story of how God responded to David’s adultery and murder of Uriah. He doesn’t take David’s life. No, instead God strikes the child.

It’s late, so I’m not exactly sure what to say about this other than if this doesn’t convince you that scripture isn’t inerrant, nothing will.

More to come.

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