Kimberly Moritz BlogPosts

I taught at Pine Valley Central for ten years from 1990-2000. During that time I had the privilege of teaching 1000+ fantastic students, most of whom now have families of their own. As is always the case, different students connect with different teachers. It is a distinct pleasure for me when I hear from one of those students.

I’m hoping you’ll take the time to check out Here we go again, a blog by Jason Reynolds. Jason is a PVCS graduate who I was particularly fond of who happened to marry Geri Maynard, another PVCS grad who I thought was pretty terrific. They’re living in Colorado with three kids of their own now. Jason is currently stationed in Afghanistan for the US Army and he blogs about his experiences and his faith.

I am intrigued by his blog for many reasons but most of all because I remember the boy who he was at Pine Valley. To have the opportunity to see into his thinking and his faith through his blog posts from the war zone is remarkable and inspiring to me. Thought you might enjoy reading him too. He’s a Pine Valley boy, but in more ways than one the only difference between a Pine Valley boy and a Randolph boy is purple or red. I hope you’ll consider leaving him a comment too as the contact will probably be much appreciated.

Practically every time my son or nephew drive somewhere, I can be heard reciting my mantra, “be careful, don’t speed, pay attention”. I’m sure they don’t even hear me anymore. I also want to know specifically where they are at all times. I’m sure there are times when they resent it and think it’s because we don’t trust them, but I wish they could realize they’re doing this for me, for my sanity, my sense of well being. Why? Because the biggest fear I have as a parent is that one of them won’t think, won’t be careful enough, or will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s little I can do to control the situation and keep them safe so I become maniacal about reminding them to be vigilant themselves. If you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with our closest friends, Tina and Ed, at ECMC as their son Jacob was in critical care ICU. Same thing as above, Tina knew where he was and where he was going, and instead of the text from Jacob that he had arrived at Hallie’s, she received the phone call from a classmate that there had been an accident. Jake dumped his motorcycle, landed on his chest, collapsed his lungs and broke a couple of ribs. Our dearest friends got to see their boy on the side of the road and then wait for Star Flight to take him to ECMC. No control, nothing they could do to make it better, nothing they could have done differently to keep him safe short of locking him in the house and preventing all freedom (which doesn’t work either). Just watch their son suffer. Luckily Jacob will survive this. He will go through many hours, days and weeks of recovery but thank God, will survive.

This is what we most fear when our kids leave each time. I wish every teenager could see the anguish that Tina and Ed have to endure. And I wish they would think of it every time they leave the house, take a risk and feel invincible. The reason we’re so terrified as parents is because we know you’re NOT invincible and we remember thinking we were too. And we’re old enough to have helped friends and family through the pain of losing someone so precious.

Jacob wasn’t the only one to crash this past week. Our own Mary Rockey’s son was in a similar accident last weekend, complete with helicopter ride. In both cases, the boys will recover. But read Mary’s words she sent in an email to me (repeated with her permission) and then read this to your teenagers to help them understand–they are everything to us and even when they think they’re invincible, remind them that we’re not and it’s more than any parent should have to endure.

Mary writes of her son Michael after his accident,

Thank you for your understanding. I certainly hope we never go through anything like this again. He is like glue at my side, his choice as well as mine. He sat most of today with his head in my lap watching the boob tube. His brother is being so kind and loving that all of my concerns about them killing each other has passed

Later we rode up to see the spot of the accident, found one of his shoes and some clothes in the ditch and a few pieces of car. We also found his IPOD in a large puddle of gas and oil. It still works. The phone is gone so I will get him a new one.

Then we went to see the car. He had gotten some presents from his aunt and uncle who are visiting this week (thank God my brother in law drove me to ECMC last night because I don’t know if I could have done it). He was quite happy that his Penguins Stanley Cup shirt was unscathed. We couldn’t get the glove box open. The car is totaled but its strength and his seat belt saved him. I can’t tell you what it is like watching the helicopter fly overhead and know you are over an hour away from your child, unsure of his condition, where he is injured. No one needs it. He told me last night on our way home that he felt God’s arms around him in the car as it rolled. Surely it is true.

I had a bizarre experience yesterday. When I saw my husband last night he told me about a young woman who had come to the house earlier in the day. He and my son were home and said a car pulled into the driveway and a young woman bolted up to the door. It wasn’t raining. No one was chasing her. When Derek answered the door she started talking and didn’t stop. She was selling educational materials.  

Now in fairness to my husband, he can’t keep track of all of the students I’ve had over the years and he figured she was one of my former students. He said she seemed like a real “go-getter” but he was vague in how he got her to leave. When she showed up at our door at about 7:30 pm, I knew. He told her to come back later when his wife was home!

Short of strangling my husband, I went to the door and met this young woman. No, I didn’t invite her in. No, I didn’t know her. We live in the middle of nowhere and seldom does someone come to the door. Yes,  I was somewhat rude. She started talking and didn’t stop and I have to tell you I found it down right creepy. She kept referencing all of these other families in Gowanda that we know, knew all of our names and thought I was the principal. Said she was selling educational materials. When I pointed out that my 21 year old daughter lives on her own and my son is about to be a senior, she just gained steam.

Now what materials could she possibly offer us? And what the heck is a young woman doing going door to door alone? If I wasn’t so annoyed I would have feared for her safety. She launched into something about SAT materials and when I said “NO thank you. My son just took the SAT”, I barely finished the sentence when she said, “I know, just like Taylor Anderson.” Her constant use of our neighbors’ and friends’ names was truly unsettling.

Listen folks:  when she shows up on your doorstep don’t give her any more information about any of us! I figure it’s a matter of time before she’s here in Randolph because she’s already been to our principal’s house in Cattaraugus. Honestly, if some one’s coming to my door they better be up front in the first 30 seconds about the purpose. After all, this woman came to my door uninvited for the sole purpose of selling me something I surely don’t need or want–how polite am I expected to be? Does anyone ever buy anything from her? Who else has had this experience?

I’ve written here frequently about Thoughtful Classroom and the instructional strategies I’ve learned.  I’m extremely excited about the 30 teachers who have signed on for our Randolph Learning Clubs! Teams of two teachers will lead learning clubs for two hours per month after school in which other teachers participate. The teachers in the Learning Clubs will be learning new strategies, trying them out, observing and helping one another to implement best practice. We will be building capacity within our own staff in an on-going meaningful way, not just one stop workshops that may or may not take hold in the classroom.

Investing in our collective knowledge as educators, talking about what’s working and asking for suggestions with what’s not–we’re so much better together than apart. And  I’m delighted that 30 of our 82 teachers signed on for this learning opportunity. That’s a great response right out of the gate. It’s not the way teachers have typically done business with one another. There’s a risk in sticking your neck out and saying “hey, I did this and it was wonderful” and an even bigger risk in saying, “this lesson totally bombed, how could I have made it better?” and I’m loving that 30 RCS teachers are on board. Thank you Randolph faculty, I can’t wait to see what you learn together and from each other.

P.S. –thanks to our dynamic curriculum coordinator, Tiffany Giannicchi, for helping to put it all together and working with our Teacher Leaders to make it happen. Thanks in advance to our Teacher Leaders for your willingness to learn and share–you inspire me to keep implementing new ways of learning here.

In my twenty years in education, I’ve had to say goodbye to treasured colleagues more than once. Either because someone took another job or because I was moving to a new district, it’s always bittersweet. While I wish the person well, I often miss our daily contact. If you think about it, we often spend more time with our work colleagues than we do with our own family members. Friendships are formed through the difficult decisions, challenges, and laughs that we share together.

So here I am saying goodbye again this week. Our middle school principal, Bill Caldwell, has been selected to lead an outstanding elementary school in a neighboring district. He’s an excellent selection for them; he’s outgoing, positive, wonderful with children, and enthusiastic. It’s a great move for him personally and professionally. I truly believe that a move to a new district can be an incredible opportunity for administrators as we learn new ways of doing things and face new challenges. I absolutely know that this is the best move for Mr. Caldwell.

And yet today, I’m very sad to see him go. Bill and I have known each other since our days as teachers at Pine Valley Central School. I remember when he would come into my classroom as a special ed teacher to help my business students better understand disabilities. He was warm and funny and really reached my kids, helping them to gain understanding and compassion. I also remember chaperoning a senior class trip together to NYC. Bill was the one I had to turn to at dinner and say, “Um, Bill, we just let the bus go and I didn’t make arrangements to get these 54 kids from here to the broadway show we booked.” Bill calmly (as always) pointed out that he and I had better skip dinner and walk to a pay phone (days before cell phones, if you can believe it) to arrange the transportation. Problem solved.

While I can sometimes go from 0-60 faster than a Corvette ZR1, Bill  keeps it steady at just the right speed. He did it then, he was that same guy as assistant principal here when I was the principal, and he’s right there keeping the pace for me now. So this time, I’m saying goodbye to a dear and treasured friend, not just a work colleague. Someone who can look me in the eye on a bad day and when I reply as the superintendent that everything is great, he gets past that to ask what’s really wrong. He’s a great friend because he doesn’t just ask to ask, he then listens intently. I don’t take that for granted because in my job, most of my time is spent listening to others, problem solving and responding.

Bill’s also a great friend because he’s got a terrific sense of humor. My sarcasm is never lost on him, he never misinterprets me or thinks I mean something other than what I just said. His intellect allows him to remember every person he’s ever met. This is great at those times when I say, “remember that kid we had trouble with when I was here as principal? you know, the one with the funny haircut who loved Rob Zombie?” and Bill knows exactly who I mean and remembers his name. Who’s going to do that for me now? I’ll be calling him at Southwestern asking, “what was that. . . ?” The good thing is knowing that Bill will know what I’m talking about–that’s only possible with friends who go ‘way back’.

I wish you the very best my friend. I know we’ll say things like, “Derek and I will meet you and Amy for dinner some night” and that with both of our busy lives and kids we’ll never get around to it. My best hope now is that we end up working together in some capacity for the last ten years of our careers, just like we did during the first and then second ten years. Go make a difference!

As a school administrator, I’ve always attended workshops, conferences, and other staff development opportunities with my teachers. I guess I’ve just always seen it as one of my primary responsibilities to be the Instructional Leader in the building and now, in the district. For 20 years in education, I’ve continued to learn and grow each and every year–if I ever think I know all that I need to know, someone please push me out the door to retirement. I also want to know what my teachers are learning and what’s considered best practice. I like to analyze, research and discriminate what’s worth our time and energy vs. what’s wasting our time. And I write about those experiences here, on Kimberly Moritz BlogPosts.

Will Richardson talks about this very transparency in learning in “Leadership Goes Public”for District Administration. Much of my daily learning comes through my RSS feeds into bloglines, my conversations with colleagues on our blogs, and the on-line newspapers and periodicals that I read, as well as list serves that feed into my email.

In the article Will says,

I’ve often wondered what the response would be if we asked the kids in our schools to reflect on how their teachers learn. Not on how much they know or how creative they might be, but on how they learn—what their process is,what their passions are. My guess is that few if any of those teachers have made their own learning transparent to their students to any great degree.

Now turn that around a bit and ask how your teachers might answer that same question about you. Would they be able to identify what you’ve been reading of late? The questions you’ve been grappling with? The best conversations and debates you’ve been engaged in? Could they see and learn from your own efforts to move your thinking forward?

As usual when I read Will’s blog, I’m inspired to keep writing and reading, exchanging ideas and having my thinking provoked a bit. I hope my teachers and administrators get a chance to read and write this summer, to think deeply about their practice, and to read for pleasure. I hope when they stop for a well deserved break and a chance to breathe that they keep thinking and learning, returning to RCS in September refreshed and enthused. Happy Last Day of School tomorrow Randolph! Thank you for a job well done this year.

Here we go again. In November, I wrote about my son’s first amateur kickboxing fight. Since then we’ve missed one scheduled bout because he broke his hand sparring. This is the second amateur fight for Tallon and he’s trained just as hard, prepared just as much as for that last fight in November.

Why? I guess because he loves it, it’s exciting, in many ways it’s the sport of the moment across this country, and he’s good at it. He trains for at least two hours per day, every day. Monday was the last day of classes at his high school and while most of the juniors and seniors headed to the beach, Tallon went to the gym. When I asked “why? Why didn’t you just tell Dad everyone was going?”, his reply was, “because if I lose on Saturday I don’t want Dad to look at me and say ‘well, guess you shouldn’t have gone to the beach on Monday’ and I want to know I’ve done everything I can to be ready.”

I know it’s not a fair comparison, but I wish there was something in the classroom that ignited even a spark of that kind of passion and dedication from him. I pin my dreams on him finding that in college and then in his career–whatever he chooses. Maybe I’m just being a worried mom today who really hopes he finds some dream to follow that requires the use of his brains instead of his fists.

So I sit again today, trying to keep my mind occupied. Trying to stay busy. Trying not to think about the fact that we sold out the tickets we were given and that 86+ people from Gowanda have now ponied up $12 to watch my son fight tonight.  No pressure, right? That kind of support is amazing and I’m not sure you find it anywhere but a small town. Win or lose, they’ll know we’re there!

I couldn’t make it to States this weekend to support our Lady Cardinals Softball Team in the State Finals, but I may as well have changed my plans because it’s all I can think about this morning. I’m heading to the Arts and Crafts festival early and hoping to catch it on Jamestown radio station 101.9.

I wonder if all of Randolph is thinking about our girls this morning? It’s such an incredible opportunity and Randolph has had it time and time again. I’ve been to the State Finals for wrestling and it’s an amazing experience. All of their hard work and dedication carrying our athletes to the finals–just goes to show that our kids can accomplish anything. State finals, admittance to the best universities, any career they can can imagine. I hope they see at least a glimmer of their potential. That’s probably the most important thing they learn during their K-12 years. Are you helping them see that potential or squelching it? Thank you to every single member of our community that’s working hard every day to help them see it.

Play hard and have fun today Lady Cardinals!

On Monday morning I met with Gary Sandburg from Sandburg Oil Co., Inc. in regard to the safety inspection of our bus lift. I’ve written about this problem previously on this blog–this is one of the reasons we put forth our proposition to the voters on May 19 for a project to construct a two mechanics bay addition to our current bus garage. We need a bigger space with a new lift to effectively and safely complete work on our fleet. As frequent readers know, the proposition was defeated by one vote.

I spoke publicly about the problems with our current garage including the unsafe lift. It seemed prudent to meet with an expert to consider our next best option. After all, we were still using the lift daily and if I know that it’s endangering the safety of my employees, it’s my obligation to either remedy that problem or to prohibit the activity that’s unsafe.

Well the conversation didn’t take long. Gary said that he’s been telling us we shouldn’t be using it for years. I asked him if he would service a bus under this lift and his emphatic response was “NO”. He told me that we’ve been telling him for years that we just needed to keep the lift going until we could build a new bus garage or mechanics bay. Here’s what Mr. Sandburg sent me in writing to follow up on our conversation:

Subject: Safety Inspection of Bus Lift, Rotary Model #T110A (circa 1960)

It is my opinion that this lift does not meet the current safety regulations for the following reasons: 

1. Age of the lift and wear of the parts. All parts are obsolete.
2. Lift does not have incremental locking positions and can not be retrofitted.
3. Lift does not meet Automotive Lift Institute specifications (which he enclosed for me in his letter).

What choice did I have at this point? I closed down the lift and directed the mechanics to stop using it. They’ve since taken the bolts out and removed the lift that was above the ground. We have hydraulic jack stands and the mechanics will perform all possible work with the use of the jack stands but I know darn well that it’s going to take them longer to complete work on their backs than it would under an adequate lift.

I’ve also asked them to document everything that they’re doing–what work can they do without the lift? And naturally, I want to see all of the bills from work we’re now forced to send to Jamestown. And don’t forget I still need these two guys to ready and then transport the vehicles for inspections in Falconer or repairs in Jamestown. I also need them to do all routine maintenance possible without outsourcing, keep the buses that transport our 950 students safe, handle all routing, answer questions and calls from the parents, and supervise the drivers, sometimes driving when we’re short.

What still fries me about the whole issue is the fact that this is going to cost us more. Because we didn’t pass the project, which would have been state aided at 83% with the other 17% paid from our capital reserve, we will now pay more for service and repairs–at our taxpayers’ expense. I’m proud of the fact that we’re at a 0% increase to the tax levy in 2009-10, which means no increase in school taxes for our community next year. If we’ve got a chance of delivering that again in 2010-11, I already know I’ll either have to increase because this cost goes up or cut somewhere else to sustain it. I had a good solid solution to our problem with no taxpayer cost impact and now I’ve got this. Frustrating, to say the least.

Randolph Central may be in the middle of the pack for the school rankings for our elementary, middle school and high school but check this out—#3: