I wanted to make my last entry in the "Starting Over" blog distinctive by detailing a chronology of the last week of school. Unfortunately, everything was happening so fast that I did not have time to write about it. Today, I am reserving the time for this special piece of work. It is so important that I am pushing back everything on the desk, including submitting invoices for my consultant's salar...

Four hours ago, Board members, Tracie, Madonna and I, had the privilege of presenting awards to a few hundred students at our school's first annual Scholastic Awards Ceremony. The auditorium was filled to capacity for this special event. One of the teachers did an outstanding job of decorating the room for the end of year assemblies. Giant sized students in graduation caps and gowns, spring flowers...

The operation on our former principal was a success. She has survived a pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, a medically induced coma and more. Now she is "out of the woods." Thank you for all of you prayers....

In the past, I have always loved the closing days of school. Not because it signaled the end of the session, but because it was a time to assess what had been accomplished and begin planning for the next year. It was like getting ready for New Year's Eve. In addition to the awards programs, promotional exercises, graduations, end-of-year parties, Teacher's Appreciation Week, volunteer recognition c...

Yesterday was an emotional time for me, with shocking ups and downs all day. The best experience was picking up the trophies, medallions, and ribbons for the Scholastic Awards Night which is coming up in two weeks. The worst was news that a friend and colleague, our school's former principal, was seriously ill and had been hospitalized. I was in Slidell, LA picking up the awards when I had a reunio...