Come Stitch With Me

  Visiting New England in its full blaze of fall glory has long been on my bucket list.  Last Wednesday, I boarded a plane for Manchester, New Hampshire to do just that.  I spent the day in New Hampshire and Central Vermont admiring the fall foliage before heading to the greater Boston area to meet up with my niece for dinner.  The rest of the time was spent in coastal Maine.  It’s been ten years since I last lived on the coast. Breathing in the salty air as I exited the car at my hotel was yet another poignant reminder that I really need to figure out a way to get back to the sea on a permanent basis.  Portland, Maine is a really neat town with everything this city girl could want or need. I’m already planning a return visit  for spring break or early June.

Just a quick update on our therapy dog work.  We have joined CAREing Paws, a local therapy dog organization based in Newnan.  For our R.E.A.D.ers, nothing has changed except the logo on my shirt and Boomer’s business cards. Parents, you will be asked to sign updated permission slips reflecting the change in our local R.E.A.D. program affiliate.  Times, location, policies and procedures all remain the same.  Please continue to schedule times with Miss Carmella at the library.  Thank you for your support.

Boomer and I made the switch because I wanted to expand our therapy dog work to include nursing homes, retirement communities and other community events.  It’s much more fun to visit  with a group of dogs than to go it alone.  Look for us at Marietta Reads! event (on the Square) in a couple of weeks!

Be sure to check out Boomer’s blog!

I typically don’t write too much about my day job, but I want to share a typical example of the roadblocks we face in simply making a purchase because there are so many different pots of funding with varied strings attached to each pot of money.

Goal:  Purchase a school-wide subscription (grades 1-5) of a weekly printed nonfiction news magazine aligned with Common Core Standards to help our students with their nonfiction reading skills

Funding pot:  Title I funds (since we’re a Title I school)

What happened?  Title I office called to say the restrictions from last year were attached to this money.  This meant only about half the student body was now eligible.  I had to come up with the funding from somewhere else.  We split the purchase orders between Title I and Media funds.  Title I purchase order was approved, media was rejected stating I cannot purchase that with Media funds.  Why, I have no idea.

So now, I have to waste precious instructional time to find another funding source, plead my case with the media supervisor or cancel my part of the order completely.

All the money ultimately goes for the students.  What difference does it make?  Can’t we just put all of the money in a single pot?