Snow: Literal and Metaphorical, and School Funding...

Three inches (or more?) of new snow fell quickly last night, and there's a forecast for more. It looks like January outside.

I'm waiting to hear the results of the annual school budget meeting in Lisbon, to see whether we can order any books or tissues or whatnot for next year. It's always a breath-holding event-- Lisbon is a very small town, does not have a widely diverse tax base, and the school budget is one thing they can all either support or get mad at. Given the tenor of things, I don't want to assume the budget passed, especially since there are emergency roof repairs underway on the elementary wing. The snow is just a metaphor at this point. 

After reading the articles in the newspaper this morning, one talking about water filtration systems at Lakeway elementary and one recapping what needs to be done to move forward with a new elementary school building here in Littleton, I don't feel really hopeful about those things, either. The imbalance of funding is clearly evident in both towns; taxpayers are bearing the burden at the local level, and there has not been a state aid grant made up this way in a good many years. Infrastructure is suffering in the smaller northern towns --indeed, likely all over the state-- and we don't have the business tax base to help things out. And why don't we have more businesses? Location, lack of housing, and for some, the schools themselves may be a deciding factor. This is the issue, right? Few people move to an area where the schools are in question, where there is no housing (affordable or otherwise) to be found, and where there are few higher-paying jobs to be gotten. 

I don't have answers. What I do know is that teachers in these buildings are doing their level best, and are funding a lot of the things that kids need and enjoy, out of their own pockets. We are trying --and mostly, succeeding-- to provide students with rich, engaging curricula while being flogged (metaphorically) by the negativity we hear and read. But we will keep working hard, pasting a smile on our faces, all while hearing that we earn too much, that the schools don't need things, and then we will also get blitzed by the (uninformed) response to test scores. I get the overall feeling that some people tend to complain loudly about these things because there are even bigger things they can't directly control -- and they squawk about "unnecessary" building and curricular specifics (though some of those are mandated), they don't understand how the salary thing works (we are ten month employees, not year-round, and our "summer check" is really just money held from each pay period as a form of savings without interest), and they think we can teach in a chicken coop. Well, we can, but it gets drafty. (And those of you who know me will understand the inside joke on that one.)

Maybe I'm over-reacting, but I don't think so. It's hard enough to be present to so many needs every single day without being made to feel a/ grateful for the begrudged things we have, and b/ being publicly castigated without cause. 

I hope the vote passed. I hope we can keep doing the good work we have chosen to do. And I hope we are able to keep that smile going, snow or no snow. It's cold enough, thanks.

C