Sayonara Fernood, Friday, September 29, 2006

Sayonara Fernwood, Friday, September 29, 2006
The last day at school was Friday, a Banking Time Day. Although there were no students, this was a busy day for our staff. After a morning of meetings, I spent the afternoon trying to get everything in order before departing. It is hard to go away and leave others to do my work.

Fortunately at Fernwood we have a staff that is willing to pitch in and do what needs to be done. A number of people have taken on different pieces of my job, and I am very grateful to them. Thank you to Mr. Jakes and Ms. Romie for doing double duties at lunch; to Ms. Buckholt for handling the Tree Day planning; to Ms. Buckholt and Ms. Guenther for all of the work involved in CABS and WKCE-CRT assessment planning; to Mr. Ray for jumping in on bus duties and to everyone who will be inconvenienced my my absence.

I am sure that the greatest burden will fall on our already overworked secretaries, Karen and Karen. They are going to be working on the Parent Newsletter and handling correspondence and phone calls that I would ordinarily do. I am especially appreciative of Ms. Kadow's willingness to allow me to undertake this journey. It is a huge job to run a school of 475 students. My absence will certainly be an additional burden on her.

I am very appreciative of all of your kind goodbyes and good wishes. In return for the sacrifices and extra duties required of our staff, I promise to use this opportunity to the fullest benefit for our whole Fernwood School community. I have already begun to implement an ambitious plan for sharing everything I am experiencing and learning with all of you. You will learn more about that as the year goes on.

Please continue to share this journey with me through this blog. I welcome your emails and will make every effort to respond. You can email me at: holmanpk@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.
And now, on to the city of the Golden Gate, San Francisco!