1/31/09

Change.....hmmm not always good!

Well, I have not blogged much this week because of a numbness of emotions.

Mom-Please do not worry. This will sound bad but it could make for some possibilities in my life.

We found out this week that our school is going to be cut by about 50% next year. The Utah Legislature is going to cut the education budget by about 11 million dollars for the next year. This is going to cause every district in the state to do some major budget cuts. Our district is hurting bad already and this has only made the problem worse. Anyway, what this means for our school is that it is going to be restructured. There will not be any freshmen at Independence next year. There will also only be a staff of about 9 instead of the 18 teachers that now teach. (Funny how my mom a few weeks ago said to me: "Good thing you and your sister are in a profession where you do not have to worry about job security").

I was really mad about this news. Not only do we all fear for our jobs at our school but we also are a family and I cannot imagine walking through those halls with half of my family gone. Also, we care about our students and in the end that is who is going to hurt by this decision to cut our program. I am not too worried about my job. I feel I have a good chance to be one of the nine that stays seeing that Health and PE are required core classes and I am the department, but you never know. I have already come up with a plan as to what I would do if out of a job. I probably would move back to Wisconsin and work some half the pay job for a year until I could get accepted into the journalism graduate program in Madison(I missed the deadline for Fall 2009 already!). I also may work in the District for a year(I am tenured so if I am not at Independence they will try an alternated placement for next year at a different school) and then proceed with the same plan. It is all up in the air until we know exactly what is going to happen with Independence and the state budget. (the state legislature will finish voting in the next week or so)

I really don't want to work at any other school and I do not have a mortgage to pay so I am in a good place to make other plans in life. I am working real hard right now to pay off my car so that debt will not kill me if I decide to do something else in life. It is funny how sometimes your plans are laughed at by the guy upstairs. I was perfectly content with just waiting and seeing what happened in my life but plans always change and sometimes we may be forced to do different things. So all in all, I have been mad, sad and angry this week. That is normal. I am getting to the point of acceptance of this huge change in my life but I am not quite there. I may be a little weepy about it for a few weeks so let's not talk about it! (that was mainly for mom or any of you that may be close by and actually have a conversation with me.)

I still am one of the faith that thinks everything happens for a reason and that things always work out in the end. This is just another bump in the journey. It will be exciting(even if a little scary) to see how things will work out!

Well, have a great day! I am going to live in denial until the plans are all finalized. I am going to see a movie tonight and go to lunch with some friends this afternoon. Cheers!