Knitting 40 shades of green

Something is rotten...

   

I had lunch with a friend today who is also a work colleague at another location.  At one point during our discussion of work, she made the comment "I feel that if any of us knew what to do next, we would leave". This, coupled with the fact that my location has seen 12% of our professional staff willing to break their contract (and this is a profession where contracts are renewed on a yearly basis so most people with legitimate reasons to leave do so between contracts) and we are only 3 months in to the contract year, made me take pause. The only thing keeping many more of my colleagues in the profession is a bad economy and a need for substantial training to change from what was once a passion and a calling into something that will allow them to enjoy going to work again. 

    The economic situation is all over the news: unemployment, bailouts, foreclosures, bankruptcies.  It doesn't seem so bad here just outside the beltway.  Unemployment isn't quite so high here and in the state of Virginia as a whole it is only 6% -- quite a bit below the national average (likely an influence of the federal goverment and large military presence throughout the state).  But there are little indications that things aren't so good...a favorite student whose family is moving back to Central America and when I ask why he simply says "Things are so expensive here and my dad doesn't have a job.", friends having a harder time looking for a job (and employers being more picky selective because they can be), and people afraid to make changes or leave jobs they don't like.  I know that it is bad in other parts of the country, but we seem in a bit of a bubble here outside of DC. 

    BlogHer, this years sponsor of NABLOPOMO, has teamed up with CreateJobsforUSA.org to help blog for Jobs.  In a nut shell, starbucks has pledged $5 million of seed money to provide loans for start up businesses, as well as small local business looking to expand.  This will allow small, local companies to get loans in this difficult economy and create jobs at a very grass roots level.  Let's get America working and working in jobs they love!

 

 

Such a teaser --

So, I post this non-post about how I finally got my computer back (and I can finally,after over a year, load photos from my camera to my laptop) and lead you to believe that I will be posting again soon having used up all of my stored vacation posts and then nothing...

It is a good thing I have a small select readership because I was sucked in to the hell that is budget planning for the school board. While I don't mention it every post or anything, there are likely plenty of clues to the fact that I am a teacher. I am also the Vice President of our local affiliate of the teachers' association. This means that when a novice school board is struggling through a proposed budget that is millions of dollars above the city managers recommendation, I better be paying attention. That means attending a lot of meetings and budget work sessions and the like. Since the elected school board is not considered a full time job (only a stipend position), these meetings are held in the evenings. Our present school board is 7 new members who have no prior political experience and 2 who have some prior school board experience. They talk alot and often need additional explinations, and they don't get along so well. So it is not unusal for these meetings and work sessions to last for hours and hours and hours. Last night's add/delete session started at 6:30 and wasn't over until sometime after mid night. I have to leave for work in the morning at 7 -- so these are late nights for me. Although in full disclosure I left around 11 last night.

In an ideal world that would have meant hours and hours of knitting at meeting time but last night was standing room only and our dinner (happy hour crab cakes and my favorite elixor elixor ) took a little longer than was prudent to get a seat at the meeting.

I will say that it was nice to see students, parents, and teachers all holding large signs that said "Keep Teacher Pay" since the board was discussing the idea of not giving us a Cost of Living adjustment for next year. As it is, it has been years since we have received more than a "diet" COLA -- since inflation seems to have been above 2% for 6 of the last 7 years and for 2006 was three and a quarter. For now, we will be receiving steps and a 2% COLA but all this is dependent on City Council approving the budget which is doubtful, but at least there is a bit of a hiatus before round 2.

What is that you say? You come for the knitting? Well, you are in luck since I opted out of the school board meeting and instead went to late night and finished some seaming but that post will have to wait until I get a chance to take some photos and sit in front of my repaired computer --