Caucus!

The Dryden Democrats will hold a caucus next Tuesday to select a candidate for Town Justice. For more information, see the Dryden Dem website.

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Paul's Wildflower Garden

After the geothermal guys tore up the yard, Paul planted the back meadow with a selection of wildflowers, most of which are currently blooming. Photos don't do it justice.

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War on Women? You Make the Call

Romney and Ryan are backpedaling fiercely from Akin's stupid comments on "legitimate rape," but they can't step back from the fact that Ryan and Akin co-sponsored a bill that redefined "real" rape, the kind that requires abortion, as "forcible rape," a definition killed in the House. When he first ran for Congress, Ryan wanted to outlaw abortion in the case of rape or incest, allowing it only in cases where it was necessary to save a woman's life (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/26/98). So they can't step too far back without really stepping in it.

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Consolidating, One Bit at a Time

When Paul was in Colorado, he discovered that many tiny schools there field small football teams and play a modified version of the game. In NYC, the kind of consolidation mentioned here is happening more and more. Dryden and Groton did it for a while with wrestling. Now Newfield and Trumansburg are merging football so that Newfield players have a chance to play.

Losing teams is often the main reason districts have for failing to approve a merger. This kind of sharing can be a reasonable first step toward opening those discussions. (Not that Tburg and Newfield can merge—I don't think they are contiguous at any point, which is a state requirement.)

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Hooray Romney Ryan

Not because I like the ticket, but because this ticket, out of all the possibilities, offers the best chance of a real, substantive debate on the kind of America we want to have.

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Another One Bites the Dust

WHCU reports that Superintendent Grimm is leaving Lansing for Penfield, a suburban Rochester district with nearly quadruple the number of students and even lower free-and-reduced stats than Lansing's. In doing so, he returns to his roots.

Grimm lasted four years in Lansing, which is about three years longer than his each of his most recent predecessors. Not that anyone will ask me, but I could recommend someone for their next superintendent.

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Another Year, Another Search

With the departure of District Superintendent Ellen O'Donnell, I find myself involved in yet another executive search. We are lucky to be assisted by our interim superintendent, the DS at Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES, who has managed to reduce the paperwork for us to what's critical. Tonight will be a long night of interviews and discussion. With luck, this will separate the sheep from the goats, and we can proceed. I can't help feeling that the right person in this position could make a world of difference for the local districts. We are handicapped by the salary cap, which places DSs below many NYS superintendents in income, although not in workload, since half of their time is spent commuting to Albany, sifting through State Ed arcana, and bringing The Word back home again.

One starts to wonder: Who would want this job?

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