And quite a few to go. Observations. I miss last year’s seniors. Had them from 7th grade on. This years? Will have had all four years of HS, so there’s that. A good bunch overall. Sr and Jr classes are over 160 each. Soph and Frosh are closer to 300. That’s NOT a typo. Not enough lockers. Or library space. Or auditorium space for “all school” assemblies. Anything that can’t go on forever won’t. I attended a competing school back in the 70’s and remember how devastating it was for the district when the AFB was closed. They went from classes of almost 150 to under 100. I a heartbeat. Now they’re going the other way. What a difference 50 years makes.

A few policy changes. Only 3 minutes between classes. It’s doable for most but to get from the music rooms to Social Studies can be tough. Several mobile teachers having issues as well. We’ve run on weird schedules this week for multiple reasons. Get to be “normal” starting on Monday, with our first new early release day on Wednesday. Sharply limited phone usage. Seems to be going OK so far but I’m guessing there will be problems by September. Limited hall passes seems to be having the desired effect. Few students in the halls (many habitually) and fewer congregations in the RR. I’m guessing that in coming weeks the students will get better at coordinating the congregating but time will tell. And finally – hats are allowed. Mostly seeing doo-rags and a few ball caps. No issues. But the BIGGEST “unintended consequence (?)” from that? No hoods. Which HAD been a problem and a never ending source of aggravation. In 2-3 months as the weather cools down we’ll see if that holds.

A handful of new faculty and staff at the HS and they all seem reasonably competent and capable so far, putting them several jumps ahead of many of the folks they replaced.

So far so good. And we’ll hope it continues.