What about the schools?

One of the most critical considerations for anyone moving with a family from one community to another is the quality of the schools. Dunwoody is blessed with great schools that thrive in spite of lackluster central office leadership, strangled budgets, self-protective personnel policies, and education pedagogy that change with the whims of state and county administrations. 

All those woes are well documented in DeKalb County School Watch, a blog that serves as watchdog and gadfly for our local system.  If you're a parent, you should read it. Knowledge is power.

For awhile, there was a grassroots effort underway to consider turning Dunwoody High School and all its feeder schools into a single Charter Cluster. I don't know if the steam has run out of that effort, if the folks engaged in the foundational work have turned to other issues, or where things stand today, but I hope the concept finds new energy in the near future.  Fulton County Schools are considering charter status, one of many school systems and clusters willing to tackle the massive documentation, research, and development work required to satisfy the state's evolving requirements.

DeKalb Schools has a new superintendent. Maybe she's a rainmaker and something good will finally come out of that dysfunctional nexus. We have an outstanding School Board representative in Nancy Jester, who is often the lone voice of pragmatism in a group of people who seem to add to our problems rather than solve them. Georgia is requesting a waiver from the illogical No Child Left Behind paradigm and trying on yet another measurement tool that ignores the realities of student capabilities and inconsistent parent support. Our state level elected representatives would have to change state regulations and budget limitations that prevent Dunwoody from having greater control over our schools. There are lots of obstacles (costs are #1) to having our own school system. But there are many, many positives to having our cluster go charter.

By the time the education juggernaut changes direction, my kids will likely no longer be in Dunwoody's public schools. But I'll still be a taxpayer, homeowner, and passionate booster of this community.

Schools are relevant now and for the future.

An American Town

May in Dunwoody comes with a flurry of endings and beginnings, each tinged with an old-fashioned red-white-and-blue aura of small town life. Final exams, awards and honors programs, neighborhood block parties, festivals, season-ending games, Mother's Day, planting vegetables, yearbooks, spring cleaning, college acceptances, vacation planning, fundraisers, school dances, Scout crossover ceremonies, high school graduation, concerts .... May is the busiest month of the year.

It's exhilarating. And exhausting.

Of all the celebrations, perhaps one of the most heartwarming was our neighborhood block party, held to celebrate the end of a long and hard fought battle against a detrimental rezoning decision. Our wonderful neighbors surprised Terry with warm words and a gift, neither of which he expected. We lingered late into the evening, enjoying catching up, sharing news, and sampling an amazing array of foods. 

The stressful, stunningly expensive effort - more than $20,000 shared by neighbors and community supporters to fight a large daycare playground behind our homes - has become a template for other groups and communities facing similar decisions. We learned much about our city and legal system as well as just how complex our relationships can be.

Life lessons:

• Friends, neighbors, colleagues, and fellow volunteers will sometimes find themselves on opposing sides of critical issues. How we deal with each other has far-reaching consequences. I choose civility, setting aside disagreements for the sake of congeniality and progress in other arenas. 
• NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) is a term used with scorn by folks who are not directly impacted by eminent domain, rezoning decisions, and misdirected development. Take care. You may need those same neighbors someday when it's your NIMBY concern.
• The City's code of ordinance should not force citizens to expensive court actions rather than an intermediary Council veto.  I don't know how much our City had to spend on the legal action, but it was wholly unnecessary.  Even if the Council was aware that its rezoning committee's decision was deeply flawed, its own code of ordinances prevented it from taking action or intervening.
• Placing volunteers in powerful and influential committees such as Rezoning and Community Development without training and oversight is disingenuous and dangerous.

There are life lessons to be gained in every experience, particularly the hard ones. Mine is that you can love a town and want to help it thrive even when sometimes it lets you down.  I value the gadflies, those people who stand at the public speaker microphone, write letters to the editor, blog, and send emails because they are active, engaged, and concerned enough to speak up.  I am grateful for volunteers who are willing to take on overwhelming and sometimes thankless roles in policy-making. And I appreciate community leaders like John Heneghan, who listen to diatribes and disagreements with courtesy and respect.

It isn't easy, but it's quintessentially American to be a community of individuals, not head-nodding sheep.

And now, a few highlights from the Knitternall family album as May builds to a crescendo of activities before it bows to more leisurely summer pace.

Going to the Renaissance Faire means pulling an ensemble together from the family costume stash.

The PCMS Band's Spring Concert drew a huge crowd; it included a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society in memory of beloved teacher Keith Davis, who passed away this Spring. Both of our kids had Mr. Davis for 7th Grade Language Arts.

Dunwoody High School recognizes its college-bound students ... so many, they circled the gym nearly twice.

Peachtree Charter Middle School recognized its top students in academics, music, character, drama, and more.

It's gardening weather.

I had no idea so much time had passed since my last post. Let's see ... finished my tenure at Dunwoody Nature Center, had a birthday, enjoyed the resolution of our long rezoning headache,  demolitioned some sad-looking plants in the yard, re-enlisted at DNC to serve an interim role during the transition from retiring Executive Director Claire Hayes until her successor is named, moved the garden box to the front yard (where there's actually sun most of the day), watched our son compete in his last Mock Trial competition for Dunwoody High School, sent several more checks to North Georgia College & State University for our rising Freshman, enjoyed the Student Showcase at Peachtree Charter Middle School, and wrote lots and lots and LOTS of copy for my wonderful clients.

Love writing. Love gardening. Love this beautiful, warm February week.

And now for a public service message.

Dear neighbors passing our home on the way to and from the path to Dunwoody Village:

PLEASE don't let your darlin' dog PIDDLE on my soon-to-be-planted bed of lettuces, radishes, and early peas. Yes, it's right at the edge of our yard, in tempting leash distance from your sniffing-for-a-good-spot pooch. But it's the only sunny spot in our entire yard. And I have high hopes for spring and summer crops. So please aVOID the temptation to let your dog  ELIMINATE on our vegetable garden.

A Farmers Market bike - what a great birthday gift.

Thank you very much.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Take a walk. Ride bikes. Explore the trails at Dunwoody Nature Center and Brook Run. Get outside and breathe. Just breathe.

Aaaaahhhhh.

Out with the new, in with the old.

Georgia's state school superintendent had a press conference late Thursday where he announced his opinion that school districts should have the option of going back to traditional math.  Now we wait to see if the state board concurs.

Hoo-rah.

The clunky, spiraling, grazing new math program does NOT work. Students barely grasp a new concept before they spiral away to something else. They return to that concept in another year, by which time they've forgotten how, what, and why. We've had to resort to private tutoring for our daughter, who has been a strong math student. But the spiral has caught up to her this year.

For example, her teacher spent a scant two days on intersecting slope equations. Then spent a a few more days on parallel and perpendicular equations.That's it. Time to move on. If students don't understand, it's up to them to "figure it out for yourself."

We have seen a troubling trend of poor retention of basics such as figuring percentages, remembering how to simplify fractions in multiplication and division, complete lack of understanding of negative integers, and others.

Something ain't right.

Please, please, PLEASE DeKalb Schools. Why wait for the state? Other school systems have already figured out how to dump Kathy Cox's pet math project and get back to the basics colleges expect on that almighty high school transcript. Put traditional math back into the curriculum. Read your own scores, trending quickly downward just as they are across the state. Schedule our rising Freshmen for Algebra in 9th grade, not Math 1-2-3-4-Button-My-Shoe-Close-the-Door on mastery. Imagine the challenges facing next year's graduating class, the first in a long line of guinea pigs for this experiment, who will have to explain to out of state colleges what the heck Georgia's math program means. Understand that while you're shuffling students from one facility to another, your business is education in the classroom, a fact that I fear will get lost in that shuffle.

Do it now, while high schools are building schedules for next year, so the staff doesn't have to redo those schedules again over the summer because your timing isn't reasonable.

It's broken. Fix it.

Back to school.

My kids are headed back to school.

I'm glad. And sad.

Glad they can be with their friends again.

Sad to get back into the constant bombardment of school news and needs.

 

Glad we came through the snow uninjured and with a surprisingly clean homestead.

Sad to face the less-than-wonderful school issues that are still waiting in the wings.

Glad that middle school is nearly behind us. Very, very, VERY glad.

Sad to face the ebbs and tides of homework and project deadlines once again.

Glad the Dunwoody High School renovations are on schedule and looking really, really good for my rising freshman.

There. I ended the Glad Game on the positive side.

Rise and shine!

Redistricting inside the lines.

Consultants are everywhere. Before making a difficult (politically risky) decision, governing bodies bring in the objective expert, who researches and opines, then presents well supported recommendations that said governing bodies can then hold like a shield before constituents.

1. Consultants put together the smart-%$$ Dunwoody branding that it appears we'll have to live with until all parties feel they've gotten their money's worth.

2. Consultants have been guiding long-range planning for development of key city areas. Anyone who has been part of the sounding boards or surveys quickly figured out certain preferences by the consultants would make it into the recommendations, no matter what the survey responses might be. For example, residents said "no" to multi-storied multi-family residential development in the Dunwoody Village area. Behold, the mixed use concept advocated by the consultants in the concept stage looks like a done deal in the final recommendations. (My favorite argument: that residences should be part of the "city center." The city center is surrounded by residential neighborhoods.)

3. Consultants have told the DeKalb School Board that redistricting should include carving some neighborhoods within the city limits of Dunwoody and sending those children to schools in Chamblee. While the expected fire storm rages among elementary school parents who care much more about their children's K-5 experience than the high school that is FAR more important, this particular recommendation is just wrong. Hopefully, the Dunwoody Cluster Charter Schools effort will bring those neighborhoods back into the fold.

Strategic planning is an exhausting, somewhat surreal, and often ineffective process. Wading through everyone's opinions, trying to find consensus, putting a human face on statistics, denying facts because they don't fit someone's goals, trying to discern longrange implications of each decision, and often dismissing the resulting plan because a key decision maker decides it isn't the right direction: if you've ever been part of a strategic planning committee, you know how deeply frustrating the work can be. So I have a lot of empathy for the Dunwoody City Council, the DeKalb School Board, the Dunwoody Charter Cluster committee, and all the civic organizations I've served through the years.

There are so many strategic plans in the air right now it's hard to focus on the essentials, but focusing is imperative. Do we want multi-storied buildings looming over residential neighborhoods? Should parts of Dunwoody see their kids traveling to Chamblee for school? Will local schools actually use the freedoms and opportunities of a charter document or bow to the neverending pressure of the county administration to use its preferred curricula, textbooks, class structure, etc.? Can we get rid of Georgia's failing New Math curriculum like Fulton County and other school systems have already done? Which college (or this?) will my son choose and will he finish all of his scholarship applications in time? (Okay, that's a Knitternall family strategic plan.) How effective is a plan if there's no money to make it happen? And on and on and on.

I am grateful for people who tirelessly dig into the strategic planning process because it is an essential step in preparing for change of any kind. And I've worked with consultants who have been highly effective in guiding committees from free-for-all brainstorming to solid, well grounded goals and strategies.

Ten years from now, the political, commercial, residential, educational, and social landscape in Dunwoody will be dramatically different from what it is today.  All this strategic pain will be a memory, and new residents will have no clue how much work went into the quality of life we all enjoy.

At least, that's what I hope.

Dunwoody Music Festival

What do John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Pat Metheny, and a bunch of middle school students have in common?

Jazz.

Many of today's top jazz musicians played their first notes in school bands and orchestras.

Saturday morning, at 10:00 am on the Brook Run Stage, Peachtree Charter Middle School's Blue Shadow jazz band and percussion ensemble will perform in two separate sets. The kids have been practicing many  new pieces, including improv parts by several soloists, and their new shirts look spiffy.

It's going to be another great day in Dunwoody ... and another reason I'm so glad to call this wonderful town "home."

Constant Contact Is Giving Me a Constant Headache.

I know just enough about email template programs to know that the background html code can be a pain in the watoosie. My current battle with Peachtree Middle School's enews has me pulling my hair and grinding my teeth. The input, preview, and test email all look PERFECT. Then, when it hits the e-waves to the 950 or so school subscribers, the copy is BLUE.

CAROLINA blue!

Constant Contact is a constant pain. The blue copy is just part of it. CC no longer likes my preferred Firefox browser, so I have to use Internet Explorer, and the page jiggles maniacally every time I enter something in the main copy block.

I thought technology was supposed to make us work faster, smarter, better. Not. Instead of technology serving us, we are serving technology. We have to contort our brains and work patterns to fit the paradigm of whatever technology we're using.

Need to pay the government a quarterly tax? Maybe QuickBooks will be right. Or maybe you'll pay a penalty to the IRS because the report QuickBooks prepared and you sent with your check is a few dollars off, despite faithfully downloading and reviewing every update.

Want to work on an Excel spreadsheet after MicroSoft's latest update? Good luck finding all the drop-downs you had memorized over the past couple of years since the last update.

Trying to copy and paste some text from an email into a web page? Don't forget to use that handy-dandy eraser icon for deleting the formatting because there's a lot of hidden stuff that's going to blow things up as soon as you upload your website.

Prompted to change a password? The security protocol says you have to use a number, symbol, upper and lower case letters, and snap your fingers in quarter time to hit the magic "strong" marker. 

This is why some people get to the point of saying "Stop. I am no longer going to be a hostage to the ever-changing whims and quick-click developments of the technology trend du jour. I am tired of doing tutorials that don't actually tutor. I am frustrated by user forums that are more snark than smart. I am going to stick with what works." Except that, a few Internet Explorer updates later, your computer no longer speaks to the internet.

I'm a writer, not an IT guru. But the virtual workplace forces me to get just enough expertise to navigate clients' websites, eLance's complicated workroom set-up, DreamWeaver and PhotoShop for the Nature Center, as well as the entire MicroSoft Office suite of headaches.

I am not at peace with my technology. I need to dig in the dirt. And do some baking. And sew the aprons I'm making for Christmas gifts. In other words, I need to use the hand skills God gave us to survive and thrive.

Thank you for reading this rant. Now go outside and enjoy this splendid day!

Are you reading this?

This year, after stepping down from Peachtree Charter Middle School's executive council, I am preparing and sending the school's weekly enews. It's amazing how much the enews has improved communications for parents. Now we don't have to rely on flyers stuffed at the bottom of backpacks, garbled translations of something heard on the PA system, and same-day "oh, yeah, I have a project/test/teacher's note to meet you today."

Interesting fact: there are approximately 962 subscribers to the PCMS E-news. Each week, I get a report that approximately 423 have opened their emails.

Perhaps some are using their email preview screen to scroll down, so their reading doesn't register as an open.

But that's a very high percentage of families who subscribe, but don't read the news.

I've been thinking about some of the enews that are in my inbox right now:

• Dunwoody High School's e-news.
• St. Luke's Highlights, our church's weekly news.
• Atlanta Knitting Guild's monthly newsletter
• Daily update from eLance, for freelance copywriting assignments
• Jim Walls' Breaking News
• Aha! Connection
• Groupon offerings
• Spruill Center art classes
• Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild classes and news

Will I read each of them fully? Okay, likely not. I just don't have the time (or desire) to sit at my computer monitor the time it would take to read everything.

Just as television news has resorted to the "bits and pieces" approach because the audience is overwhelmed by a cacophony of messages, I believe we'll see an evolution of enews as well.

If I have to scroll past the preview window, I have to be invested in the sender. If there are repeated messages, news about something too far out to worry about at the moment, I'm likely to be more dismissive.

So as an originator of electronic news and a reader, I'm of two minds about that statistic for PCMS' readership.

What can we do to make the news important enough for families to read it?

Are we giving them too much information?

It's a quandary.

It's an education, all right.

Yesterday, I trekked to the Georgia Department of Education's Charter Schools Committee meeting to receive their blessing on Peachtree Middle's charter renewal petition. I sat with several representatives from Peachtree and Kingsley Elementary School, whose charter is also up for renewal (and was approved!).

Behind the scenes, when most folks were busy with lots and lots of other stuff, Peachtree parents were wrestling with, researching, adapting, surveying, and writing a new charter for Peachtree, one with tremendous latitude for curricula, scheduling, staffing, use of designated funding, and waivers from state and county restrictions.

The committee praised Peachtree for its academic rigor and the fact that the innovations in our last charter became standards for the entire county (seven period schedule, daily PE, world languages, et al). Then they questioned us sharply about our AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) scores in science and math with 8th graders (we're suffering the same pangs as the rest of the state thanks to the new curricula), our attendance zone (we accept every student who lives in our district, plus we have a lottery and waitlist for other students - we're too full to open any more spots), where our funding comes from (I think they forgot that as a conversion charter we're funded primarily by DeKalb County - but were really interested in the vitality of our Foundation, which funds teacher training, technology, additional curricula and materials, and capital projects such as new signage and a watering station for the track and field area).

Our 90+ document covered every single question with such clarity that the questioning lasted just a few moments. Then they agreed to submit charter to the State Board of Education. This morning. I'm watching the webcast for that final blessing.

Working on a charter is a keen balancing act between optimistic boosterism and a grounded grasp of reality. I embrace the idea that every student has value and deserves the best possible education. I also believe that Dunwoody must have superlative schools - I demand no less as a parent, a taxpayer, a homeowner, and a volunteer in the schools.

We have made major gains in recent years thanks to savvy Dunwoody parent volunteers, great teachers, and some key school administrators - and in spite of sometimes backbreaking and mindless directives from the county school system.

There is so much more we can do.

It's time to focus on developing a Dunwoody Charter Cluster for our schools. Dan Weber has been working at the grassroots level on this concept (and not just for Dunwoody - Chamblee is discussing the possibility, too.)
This umbrella Charter Cluster would give Dunwoody the kind of local control we need for our schools. I predict that a Charter Cluster would engage our community much the same way becoming a City did, by creating a sense of ownership and empowerment that has been lacking in the one-size-fits-all county administration system. Local businesses will be far more likely to support schools when they see a direct connection between their donations and the results in Dunwoody schools. Parents will get even more involved because their voices would not get lost in the cacophony far across the county. There are resources and talents available in the community that will impact the schools with far-reaching benefits. And accountability will be immediate and dealt with proactively - if something isn't working, it won't take a Titannic-sized tugboat to turn things around.

Yes, we'd still be subject to DCSS for funding, staffing, and transportation. But the recently enhanced Charter Schools Law gives Charter schools tremendous flexibility in spending, scheduling, curricula, obtaining outside resources, and choosing curricula and materials that are far more specific to student needs at the local level.

Just as important, a Charter Cluster allows each school within the cluster to adapt even more locally. The needs of each school, from elementary to high school, are not always the same.

So, some "what if's" for a Dunwoody Charter Cluster:

1.  What if we add a career track academy to Dunwoody High so that all students could graduate along the path that best suits their needs, whether college or skilled job placement? (DHS already has Mass Communications and Finance academies.)

2. What if we mandate balanced enrollment in our elementary schools? Convert the 4-5 school to all grades AND renovate the Shallowford School property.

3. What if we rethink the middle school model and offered parents the option of a K-8 school instead?

4. What if we operate on a balanced schedule, ie year round school with three-week breaks between sessions and a five-week summer break?

5. What if we move Dunwoody High's schedule later in the day to embrace the reality that high school students have a different inner sleep clock than the rest of us?

6. What if we establish a Cluster Foundation to pursue the millions of dollars in grants and resources available to schools? This funding would give Dunwoody tremendous flexibility in capital projects, classroom technology and materials, stipends to support teachers and administrators, and so much more.

7. What if we hve a capital campaign to build our own sports facility? (There's space - we just have to be creative in WHERE the stadium is located.)

8. What if there is a direct link between multi-family and high density zoning approval and school capacity?

9. What if parents' mindset inverts from an all-consuming focus on their elementary school to feeling part of a continuum that culminates in Dunwoody High School? The best school districts in the nation are not labeled "XYZ Elementary School" - they're identified by the HIGH SCHOOL.

10. What if each school can spend the funds allocated by the county according to their specific needs? There will be accountability, but there will also be tremendous flexibility (no more America's Choice or Springboard or other canned edu-fluff).

That's just a start.

I realize that my kids likely won't benefit directly from a Charter Cluster (one graduates next year, the other enters High School in 2011), but my family will. Because we're here in Dunwoody for the long run, and it's the right thing for our community.

Thank you for an amazing, wonderful, lifechanging Odyssey adventure.

 Dunwoody Homeowners Association's 2010 Odyssey of the Mind Middle School Team: Kendall Lowrey, Max Noto, Jack Jarrell, Will Bass, Anna Grace Nall, Sofia Gonzalo, Jennifer Kiser


From the moment the Dunwoody Homeowners Association's Odyssey of the Mind Middle School Team took second place at the State competition and discovered they had qualified for the World Finals, life took an abrupt and magical left turn.

Fundraising and practices, prop repairs and practices, paperwork and practices . . . all at the same time the kids were wrapping up classes and taking final exams.

We left for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at Michigan State University on Wednesday, May 26 and fell happily into a Looking Glass populated by 6,000 left-turn thinkers and that number again of coaches, chaperones, organizers, and other volunteers. Splendid silliness and happy camaraderie were the rule at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. NASA was there, encouraging the next generation of out-of-this-world problem-solvers to consider a universe of possibilities in their futures. There were opening and closing ceremonies with an Olympic-style parade of nations; a Creativity Festival that challenged kids even further with fun-filled problems; teams from Russia, Poland, Singapore, China, Mexico, and more; and a never-ending cavalcade of teams with costumes and props made from cardboard boxes, duct tape, pvc pipe, bubble wrap, aluminum foil, and lots and lots of materials found curbside and at the local dump.

There were 63 teams competing in Discovered Treasures Division II; the team's final scores placed them in the top third of their peers, a very satisfying result for their first time "at bat."

By Sunday, as we boarded planes homeward bound, laden with souvenir pins (which gave the security folks fits) and proudly wearing World Finals team shirts, the kids knew they had just made some powerful lifelong memories.

Now we're back in the "real world," with lessons of outside-the-box problem solving and friendly competition now ingrained in each of the team members.

For this experience and opportunity, we say to the generous people and organizations who made the trip possible: thank you.

Team Sponsor

• Dunwoody Homeowners Association

Major Donors

• Rotary Club of Dunwoody
• Griffith Engineering
• Giant Leap Consulting
• Georgia Odyssey of the Mind Association
• Dan and Kay Weber
• Terry and Pam Melton

Donors

• Sally Abele
• Jeff and Julie Ackemann
• Jane Anderson 
• Anonymous
• Laura and Joe Bona 
• Burger King of Dunwoody
• Thomas and Peggy Bynum
• Paula Caldarella
• Diane Campbell
• David and Kelly Clinch
• Charles and Sharon Conway
• Costco, Dunwoody 
• Dunwoody Arts Festival
• Richard and Su Ellis
• Robert and Sandra Evilsizer
• Dean and Lisa Foust 
• Fair and Lance Franklin
• Paula Freeman
• David and Fran Fuller
• German and Kathryn Gonzalo
• Anne Grayson
• Jack and Stacy Harris
• Claire Waggenspack Hayes
• John and Kristin Heneghan
• Laynne Holloway 
• Casey and Kate Hopkins
• Julie and Charlie Hudak
• Liz and Scott Hudson
• Jason's Deli/Dunwoody
• Janelle Johnson
• Elizabeth and Mark Julian
• Polly and Joe Keen
• Doug and Debbie Kelly
• Tim Kelly
• Jim and Ceil Kelly
• Hilary and Don Lancaster
• Kacie Lowrey
• Jim and Karen McAlarney
• Matt and Nicole McAluney
• Mill Glen Swim and Tennis Club
• Kevin and Sharon Mims
• Dan and Susan Mitchell 
• Jim and Caren Morrison
• Joe and Sue Munger
• Joe and Sande Noto
• Joe and Sherry Noto 
• Kate and Steve Plumb
• Robin and Jeff Powell
• Melanie and Richard Rohrbach
• Cathy and Pat Sadler
• Lori and Jay Schultz
• Valerie Scott
• Margaret Spalding 
• Sweet Tomatoes, Peachtree-Dunwoody Road
• Laurel and Michael Sybilrud
• Nancy and Rick Wamsley
• Sue Weinshenker
• Edward and Mary Wynn
• Patrons of the Car Washes, Ice Cream Social, Spaghetti Supper, and Dunwoody Arts Festival Booth

Odyssey of the Mind
is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and World level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.  Currently, a documentary is airing on PBS featuring Odyssey of the Mind -- "ReCreating America: Creativity and Learning."

Pasgetty, please.

Great things are happening this week.

1. The Odyssey of the Mind team is serving up a spaghetti dinner Saturday night from 5:30 - 7:30 at Mill Glen Clubhouse. Adults $5, kids $3. Join us for dinner and help us get the kids to World Finals at Michigan State University! We're selling tickets so we get a head count for the masses of tasty sauce we're simmering for the fundraiser. Post here if you'd like to support the team and eat hearty at the same time.  Darlin' daughter will have presold tickets at Will Call, but walk-ins are certainly welcome as long as the sauce lasts! (Thanks to Mill Glen for letting us use the clubhouse for free.)

3. The City of Dunwoody is taking ownership of our Parks. Hurray! Nothing like a little local control to improve things all around.

4. Peachtree Charter Middle School's Blue Shadow Jazz Band was stood up by DeKalb County Schools transportation department. Despite months of practice, getting dressed in their tuxedo-shirt best, packing up their instruments, and showing up at school on time for the bus . . . they weren't able to compete in the annual Georgia Music Educators Association Jazz Band Competition on Saturday morning.  Because the bus never showed up. Oh, the transportation rep said sorry, but that didn't get the kids to the competition. Huge disappointment for the kids. And I bet we don't see a reimbursement for all the fees the school and parents had to pony up for the competition. And for the 8th grade students, there's no give-back for a lost opportunity to shine.

Nonetheless, they did a stellar job as part of Peachtree's Spring Band Concert, an outdoor event held this past Saturday night. Loved the solos, the crazy clothes (the theme was That's Crazy!), the great percussion bit with trash cans, and the huge turn out by friends and family.  Dunwoody High School's band was a special performing guest, giving the middle school band students a taste of the excellence ahead. Thanks to band teachers Mr. Shores, Mr. Hickman (PCMS), and Mr. Henderson (DHS) for leading the students so capably and enthusiastically.

5. Congratulations to Seth Inman, Valedictorian, and Graham Goldberg, Salutatorian for Dunwoody High School. Side note: both are members of DHS' Mock Trial Team, an amazing group of students who put lots of time and effort into this intensive competition each year.  Yeah, they did lots of other stuff, like take a kazillion AP classes, participate in sports and student government and service organizations, and get major scholarships to impressive schools. And get really, really good grades while juggling all of the above.

6.  School's out on Friday. Summer break begins.  I'm relieved that the stresses of school will go on hiatus. But rather than head back to school on August 9, in the heat of a Southern summer with the highest power bills of the year when we're in dire straits economically, I'd love for us to have year-round school with three-week breaks between sessions. Imagine getting that nothing-planned feeling four times a year! There's a reason Europeans take a break in August from school and work. It's HOT.

7. I'm nearly finished with the neverending Nora's Sweater from Interweave Knits. Can't wait to wear it next fall. But what am I going to knit on the plane and in Michigan during the Odyssey of the Mind festivities?

That wraps up Monday's thoughts. Busy, busy, busy week ahead.

Chartering a Course for Better Education

Wednesday evening, I joined a panel presentation about a possible Charter for Chamblee Middle School. There was a large audience of parents and teachers in attendance, and they asked really, really good questions of panelists Senator Dan Weber, Georgia DOE Charter Schools Division Director Lou Erste, Sandy Spruill, who helped launch the Charter for Chamblee Magnet High School and now writes grants for Georgia Public Broadcasting, and Nicole Knighten of DeKalb Schools. I think my primary role on the panel was to a) let those parents know it's hard work but oh so worth it and b) provide a cautionary tale about how NOT to do a renewal (Establish that Charter Renewal committee as soon as the ink is dry on your approval letter!).

I had a hard time keeping quiet as the parents asked questions WE asked ourselves during Peachtree's recent Charter renewal process. (This is our third renewal, and we're on tenterhooks waiting for the DOE to say yay or nay.)

One parent asked a really good question: there are lots of good reasons to become a Charter - but what is the downside? There are two (and I actually don't consider them negatives because they engage everyone in the drive for quality education): 

• Accountability:  Georgia's Charter law puts enormous pressure on Charter schools, whether conversion or start-up, to "put up or shut up." We're required to step far beyond our local school system in terms of innovation in instruction as well as in delivering powerful results in achievement. At Peachtree, we're focusing on closing the achievement gap among disparate populations of students. We have lots of great ideas and plenty of reasons to want that for our students. We also have set ourselves some very high goals to achieve in the next five years.
• Consensus: What do parents and teachers want for their school? It's a long path from surveying everyone to get ideas and beliefs to arriving at a clear vision for the school's improvement.

Why should any school convert to Charter status? If  your County system is struggling, if one-size-fits-all curriculum and materials don't work for your student, if you're concerned about the quality of the education within the classroom, if you'd rather use designated funding for things that your students actually need rather than some overpriced, dumbed-down scripted product from the educational publisher du jour, and if you think volunteering at your kid's school is the most important contribution you can make to his or her education . . . yep, think about getting your school converted to Charter.

Then take it a step up. Convince all the schools in your "cluster" - elementary, middle, and high schools - to convert as a unit to a Charter Cluster school system. Together, you can individualize the curriculum and methodology for your school, work together to obtain grants and other funding, build continuity and excellence from K through 12th grade, take advantage of community resources and experts who are shut out of traditional school system models, and support local schools with a deserved and quantifiable reputation for quality.

Senator Weber says it's doable, it's needed, and it's the future of public education in our community.

I agree.

Farmer's Market Day

I love Wednesdays! Now that Dunwoody has our very own Farmer's Market, it's wonderful to grab a market bag, stop by the Market before work at the Nature Center, and select my weekly indulgences.

I always pick up a loaf of olive bread and some herbes de provence-infused goat cheese. The artisan bacon and sausage are in perfect portions for sampling at home with some pasta or for Saturday brunch. Today I purchased three vegetable plants, Cherokee Black tomato, ambrosia cantalope, and zebra eggplant, to add to the garden. Hey - for just $3, someone has already taken them from seed to 6+" tall greenery! I skipped the honey because I picked up some Thistle and Wildflower a week before the Great Ankle Disaster.

I wish I could time my visit a little later, when the guy with the rolling brick oven has the first batches of pizza ready. Maybe later this summer, if he is still there. Shopping at the market is a sensory pleasure - roaring fire, the sizzle of bacon and sausage for samples, and the dense scents of homemade soaps and creams wafting through the air as I cruise the single aisle through our modest little outdoor market.

I spied John Heneghen there, who had just finished Dunwoody's Walk to School Day at Dunwoody Elementary School and was soon headed to the Dunwoody-Chamblee Parents Council meeting at Peachtree Charter Middle School. (I felt a bit guilty about not attending the latter, but had already missed too much work due to the blasted ankle.) I look forward to his insights posted on his marvelous blog.

Which reminds me - I've been feeling much relieved since I learned that the DeKalb School Board was voting on a recommendation to accept Peachtree's charter revisions as presented. Hurray! I'm not counting any chickens, though, because it still has to go back to the State Department of Education for final approval.

Now, if only Dunwoody's schools would coordinate in creating a Cluster Charter. Now THAT would be a very good thing for our students.

Whoops - time for Odyssey of the Mind practice, I have a book on hold at the library, and the Rot Doc is visiting in the next hour to tend to the rotted facia and thresholds in the rear of the house.

Busy, busy, busy.

Calendar bottlenecks

The Knitternall family has officially entered the insanely busy season of end-of-year wrap-ups. The calendar is an overly full, overlapping mess. I ask myself every year, "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

Evidently, I don't learn from experience!

A headline in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution caught my attention: "Worst commuting bottlenecks?" In addition to any road around Georgia Perimeter College and Perimeter Mall, I'd have to suggest every road in Dunwoody when the garbage guys are doing their weave back-and-forth through both sides of our two-lane roads. You just have to putt-putt behind them because the driver dodges happily into oncoming traffic. (I understand why - he's covering his crew. But it's darned frustrating.) Twice a week, I get stuck behind them during the long trek from the middle school back to Dunwoody Nature Center. Chamblee-Dunwoody Road has to be the straightest, pokiest road in town. Except when people are flying 50 miles an hour down it and lean on their horns because you're driving 35. (The legal speed limit.)

ANYWAY.

The reason that headline poked me in the stream-of-consciousness is that there are bottlenecks in the calendar, too. The worst calendar bottlenecks in the Knitternall biosphere are

• the first two weeks of school, when all the things I volunteered to do somehow, magically, end up happening at the same time.
• PTO and Scout meetings scheduled on the same night. Every month.
• the perfect storm of April and May + sports teams + end of school meetings + drama productions in April and May + prom + SATs and AP Tests + . . .
• Christmas - church celebrations + parties + semester finals + getting gifts for family and friends + son's birthday + travels back home to North Carolina.
• This week, as I prep for an end-of-year meeting (with special presentations to much-valued volunteers), get a major project underway at the Nature Center, finalize the Charter revision and send it to the County Schools for their blessing before it heads back to the State Department of Education, monitor a few ongoing family projects, and the first of many, many fundraisers for Odyssey of the Mind to the calendar.

Unfortunately, there's no calendar construction project available to fix these bottlenecks. There's just me. The real culprit.

Maybe I need to learn from one of my friends. She has a two-item-per-day rule for her calendar.  And both items must be separated by at least two hours.

Would that work?

Nah.

The synergy of teens and menopausal moms.

Maybe "synergy" isn't the right word, but it's one of life's ironies that my teenagers and I are wrestling with insomnia, temperature fluctuations, and brain freeze. At the same time.

Sigh.

The night before last, I was up at 3 and stayed that way until dawn. My teens were up well past midnight because they couldn't fall asleep. By last evening, we were all stumbling around, snarling at each other, and wanting nothing more than to go to bed. But I'm working on Peachtree's charter petition rewrite every moment I'm not at work or sleeping, the kids had essays and an Analysis test to prep for, there were no clean jeans in the house so the washing machine needed to be fed, and . . .

At 8:00, my son gave up. He couldn't focus enough to eat the very late dinner I prepared (having realized at 7 that I hadn't even begun cooking). So I sent him to bed.

Then I gave up. I moved some data from one section of the charter to another, realized I was going to start making mistakes, shut down the computer and headed to bed.

Then my daughter gave up. She printed out her essay and crawled into her own bed.

The only person still vertical after 8:30 was my husband, who was working on several volunteer projects.

I understand that parents who have their kids when they're in their early 20's don't hit the crazies at the same time. But my generation postponed having children for the sake of careers and wanting to do it at the "perfect time" whatever that is. So I'm in good company.

It's morning, we've all slept, and now we're back to a more normal level of stress.

My son is sitting in the dark of the family room, eating a Pop Tart and studying for his Analysis test. My suggestion that he turn on a lamp was met by disdain. My daughter is cloistered in her bedroom, taking the usual inordinate amount of time to get dressed for school. And I'm running around, packing things for work, yelling at the kids to "move it or you'll be late to school!", and watching the clock.

Where's my coffee?

Writer's block. Not.

A prolonged absence from the Knitternall blog implies disinterest. Not true! So much is happening in the Knitternall world that blogging for pleasure seemed . . . well, self-indulgent.

But isn't self indulgence at the heart of blogging?

Okay, that's a conundrum I'll leave to another day's musing.

My Honda Odyssey's odometer roared past 100,000 while we were en route to Parkview High School in Lilburn for the regional Odyssey of the Mind competition. Darlin' daughter's team scored high enough for them to proceed to the State competition in Columbus during Spring Break. Awkward! Several team members had family trips that week and are now scrambling to get back in time.

The Charter for our middle school came back from the state with two pointed criticisms: not enough innovation, not enough flexibility from the county school district. Ahem. We tried in the first round to put those in, were thrwarted, and are now going back with everything we hoped for in the first place. The State Department of Education is solidly in our corner, which is a great turn of events. Actually, I think it's a blessing that the charter came back because now we can do it RIGHT.

I was following The Great Dunwoody Chicken Debate with great interest because I really, really want chickens in the back yard.

The Goddard School debacle continues in our backyard. Between Rick Callihan's jokey references to our stream as a mythological river (honestly - just not funny) and city staff working tirelessly on behalf of the private investor who bought the property and the franchisees, I feel rather put upon.

Our son's Eagle project benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta continues quite productively. We're grateful to bloggers like John Heneghan and Dunwoody area Scout troops for spreading the word. He's up to 15 systems and 72 games. He hopes to get 15 more handheld Nintendo DS's and Gameboys (no PSPs have turned up, so good thing he hasn't received any PSP games!). Hopefully all this will finish by summer since his senior year will be busy enough (and he turns 18 in December).

I'm in the midst of helping my parents move to Atlanta while they're healthy and can enjoy the vitality of this place. Not easy. But very much needed.

I love Thursdays. My little Phonics Friends join me in the clubhouse at Dunwoody Nature Center for preschool phonics instruction. Okay, I know it's instruction, but they think they're coming to play with my phonics games, listen to my crazy stories, and watch me make a complete fool of myself. Being a teacher is 7 parts pedagogy and 3 parts theater.

And yes, I'm knitting like a fool. The crazier life gets, the more I need the meditative comfort of knitting. I've worked on a baby sweater for our church's youth group intern, completed a few prayer shawls, and am at the midpoint of Nora's Sweater from Interweave Knits. I'm knitting it in a deep, rich purple that gives me joy as it winds its way off the needles.

Meanwhile, as I said to John Heneghan (I'm a total fan), I've been a bit removed from my happy place thanks to "stuff," but tomorrow has lots of hope in it. The peas are peeking through the dirt in my tidy raised bed garden, I just planted some beans and placed their teepees in anticipation of a bumper crop this summer, my son is enjoying a bit of remission from Crohn's and, right now, it's quiet in the Knitternall home.

Serenity.

Meeting-ed out.

I am meeting-ed out.

Since last week, I've had a meeting every single day and night, for work and school and church. I wanted to attend each one. I even led a few of them myself. But as of this moment, finally home after the Open House at Dunwoody High School, I am done. Over. Way past tired. So many important details to note, follow up on, and my brain is mush. Time for a to-do list.

The best part of all the busy to-ing and fro-ing has been listening to The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I love the smokey and sassy Southern accents of the narrators and the pace of the story as it builds, shifts direction from one perspective to the next, returns to a previous storyline, and takes a leisurely path to the conclusion.

Between now and next Monday, the Knitternall family will have Scout Sunday, participate in making 15,000 sandwiches with St. Luke's, enjoy a Friday night lock-in, cook supper for the Youth Group, and celebrate T's biggity birthday. (I'm not telling - we're just three weeks apart in age.)

I probably should clean the house and finish the laundry, too. Or not.

Someone stopped by the Nature Center today to register for one of the gardening classes we have scheduled and said, with great sincerity, "don't you love this slow time of year to get things done?"

Show me the slow.

And hurry.

Stakeholders

Much debate is raging within the Dunwoody High School community about schedules. At issue: block scheduling, where students take 4 classes each semester, just as in college. Some students thrive with the pace and intensity. Many do not. Some teachers utilize the expanded classroom time skillfully and productively. Many do not.

The discussion is heated, emotional, and sometimes surreal as parents deploy logic, careful respect, ballistic jolts of emotional diatribe, earnest pleas for or against a particular option, and multitudes of emails, telephone calls, and carpool chats.

Why not? Our children are the victims or beneficiaries of the decisions adults make on their behalf.

One of the more interesting discussion points has been that students are the primary stakeholders in the school. Comparing public education to a business model, proponents posit that the most important customer of the "product" is the student.

I disagree.

Any business who focuses its energies on one segment of its customer base - and one that provides no funding or time and talent for the venture - is not going to succeed.

The primary stakeholder in public education is, at the broadest level, the taxpayer. If a school can't convince taxpayers to provide basic funding as well as SPLOST and other special tax supports, then it will not thrive. The community must have trust in management and substantive belief in the quality of the end product - educational excellence.  If schools do their job right, students get to go to college or have the skills for a job straight out of high school, and function capably in day to day life.

Just as a nonprofit has to demonstrate fiscal soundness and success in mission to attract donors, a school must demonstrate measurable achievement in its educational mission as well as those all-important intangibles: parent, teacher, and student satisfaction and happiness.

Dunwoody schools are blessed by a high degree of parent involvement, a factor that research proves over and over again is the critical link in a school's ability to stay on mission and meet expectations. By and large, students do very well in Dunwoody. That fact has caused polarization within the county as the achievement gap grows from district to district. My focus is on my kids' schools. But I'm very much aware of the larger issues winnowing through the hierarchy of Board and administration oversight.

My student is not the primary stakeholder in his school.

I am.

Good news in a bad-news week.

While mildew winnows its odors throughout the house and we await the judgment of the insurance adjuster, it's good to focus on glad tidings.

Peachtree Charter Middle School made AYP. It's nice to have that federal stamp of approval while we're undergoing Charter renewal.


Dunwoody Nature Center has a delightful new sign. At long last, after struggling through bureaucratic dodgeball over the sign (design, placement, size, and ownership), a friendly new sign directs visitors to the education center within Dunwoody Park. (Kudos to the City of Dunwoody folks who helped us cut the red tape!)

I finished knitting a pair of socks for my mother, to be shipped this weekend to her in North Carolina. I love knitting socks. I love the math, the dexterity of manipulating three and four skinny little doublepointed needles, and the magical way the heel turns, the gusset slopes, and the toe grafts so tidily into place.

Preschool Phonics is flourishing in its new home at Dunwoody Nature Center. Yesterday, I held class in the Playhouse, a huge hit with the children. We worked on centers inside the playhouse, hiked to the Treehouse for a phonics game, then went on a vowel hunt in the park. It's the missing component of the program - integrating physical movement and fresh air into the curriculum.  The children arrive so eager to begin and are showing marked progress in just three short weeks.

I found canned pumpkin! After Cathy Cobbs published her easy-peasy pumpkin bread recipe in the Dunwoody Crier, there was consternation in Dunwoody because the poor pumpkin harvest last year has led to shortages of the canned goods. I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin anything, so I'm glad I could stock up for the holidays ahead. (Note to fellow seekers:  Ace Hardware in Dunwoody Village has fresh "pie pumpkins" for sale.)

The Atlanta Knitting Guild is flourishing as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.  Last evening, special guest Candace Eisner Strick had us giggling with her ribald humor and awestruck by her gorgeous designs and yarns. Seems she just put a $12,000 roof on her house and needs to sell many yarn kits. I'm happy to oblige. I wish I had time to take one of her workshops this weekend (there are a few spots still available).

Stitches South was so successful this past summer that they're doing it again in April. I am SO going to be there. I can't wait . . .

I watched a kid dart into traffic on North Peachtree in front of PCMS, crossing the road barely within the green and most definitely before traffic had stopped moving through the intersection. He was grinning maniacally and close enough to one vehicle that one more step would have put him under its wheels. Heart pounding, I leaned on the horn, glared at a group of friends laughing at his antics, and called the school to rat him out. (Yes, I knew his name.) The good news? Bonehead wasn't struck by a car. 

Fall.  The weather has cooled a bit, leaves are beginning to fall, and it's really, really hard to work at a desk when all this outside is around. Fall is my favorite season of the year.

Play the "glad game" with me. Pollyanna had it right.