Changes

Oh, my, there's a lot going on.

Mike has a job! Probably. He had a phone interview yesterday, and now they want to interview him face-to-face. The job is in Delaware and starts June 1. He is the only candidate they want to interview. He leaves today, to drive to Delaware and begin work. Julia and Maddy will join him after school is out, and the three older kids will spend the summer with Jayesh, and then Julia will fly back to Oregon and drive everyone to Delaware in August (she will leave the van here all summer). All of this has happened since yesterday morning.

It will be wonderful to get our house back to ourselves over the summer, but I am really going to miss Julia, Mike and the 4 grandchildren. They have been a big part of my life for a long time.

More budget cuts are coming for Oregon schools. We already knew that there would be some cuts next year, and the school district and the union had an agreement figured out for that. They were going to tell all of us what that looks like at a meeting next week. Then the state announced yesterday that the state budget shortfall is going to be much worse than anticipated - half a billion dollars less - and all state agencies, including schools, will have 9% budget cuts across the board. That's on top of the cuts we made last spring and the additional cuts we already knew we were facing for next year. Mark and I are secure in our jobs, but our paychecks will certainly be smaller and our class sizes larger.

Wedding plans continue...not much new there, just lots of things to be done in the next 8 days. The extended weather forecast indicates showers, so Maleena is looking at moving the picture-taking indoors. Not a big deal, but now we are trying to figure out where we can do that. They have limited time at the pretty little pioneer chapel where they will be married, and LDS churches are more about practicality than lovely places for photo ops. We'll do the best we can.

Met with my principal and the two middle school principals yesterday, to map out the in-service plans for August. Naturally, they are more involved than I had anticipated, and they will require more hands-on planning / implementing than I have done in the past. Good thing we have a math coach this year, too - she is a sharp gal, and we work well together. We'll be meeting today to figure out how to put the principals' plans into place.