Coloring Within the Lines, 2011

Havar, fall, 2011
Principal: Ilila Peterson; Primary Teacher K & 1: Jasmine Frankson; Primary Teacher 2 & 3: Henry Mendenhall;  Primary Teacher 4-6: Rosemarie Miller

Primary Students: Breckin Grey and Esther Dawson are in 4th grade; Chase Dawson, Amyra Dawson, Jennifer Kent, Jessica Kent, Lara Grey and Matt Sweeny are in 3rd grade; Lilly Ana McMillian, Alia Shae Wilsonoff, and Udar Shazad are in 2nd grade; Ana Rayne Wilsonoff, Jeremy Kent, Lora McMillian, Indira Grey and Craig Smith are in 1st grade; Jacob Carr, Richmond Grey, Lesia McMillian, Olivia Humphrey and Christopher Smith are in kindergarten

It was the first day of school and Ilila loved the chaos and the excitement in the air. She loved watching the parents bring the little ones to the school for their first day. One day she and Brandon would be here with the twins, and hopefully another child at some point in the future. They had decided to go ahead to fertility treatments and were in the middle of their first round.

She looked over the crowd again. She loved watching each family give their final words of encouragement to thier babies.

Some parents had done it before,

yet were still affected by the magnitude of the event.

It was obvious that it was the first time for others

as they stood nervously in the corner wondering what to do and where to go.

Jasmine's class was growing larger each year and Ilila had even split the grades again to allow for less students, but it was still a large class.

Jasmine handled it with ease and Ilila made note to check the budget for a possible raise or at least a teacher's aide. Perhaps she could ask parents to volunteer their time in the classroom.

Ilila was glad that Henry and Rosemarie had finally graduated. She couldn’t wait until she could hire her interns full-time.

Rosemarie and Henry were like gifts from above.

They were creative and had great control over the children

and their subjects.

There was no way she was going to let them get away from her, 

 especially as she reviewed their evaluations.

They were top notch and highly recommended. Thankfully they had both accepted her offer for full-time positions and that helped to ease the teaching load in the school. Her next goal would be adding another classroom to split the grades again and allow each teacher to teach two grades at a time and have no more than 10 students in thier classroom.

She had managed to squeeze some extra simoleans from the budget to replace the cook with Erricson. He was Jasmine’s son and Krissy’s nephew, but the young man knew his way around a kitchen. His meals were much healthier than the previous cook’s incessant mac & cheese and burnt chili. 

Now the students enjoyed a variety of salads, healthy sandwiches, soups and of course, mac & cheese, but this time with real cheese. Unfortunately once he graduated, she would need to look for a new hire since he had shared his dreams of going into entertainment as a round table knight. He said he would work at the school as long as possible, which was great, but Ilila had to wonder where his head was. A round table knight?

She knew that she would be able to find another cook, especially since she had won a grant for the school. The extra money would help with updating the technology and adding more teachers and classrooms.

The daycare was also operating as well on a trial basis. If it was successful, then Ilila would open it up to more toddlers and it would bring in some extra income to the school. 

Currently a small room was set aside for the daycare

and so far Ilila was only accepting toddlers into the program.

There were a few kinks and that made the long-term feasibility of the program uncertain.

It wasn't as if she wasn't busy with her duties, especially thanks to little miss Olivia.

So far Olivia had gotten into two fights, both with older students.

Ilila admired the spunky little girl, she was tough.

However fighting wasn't tolerated at all in the school.

After a long meeting with the students

and a forced apology, Ilila was on the phone with Olivia's parents.

She issued a strict warning and a two simday suspension for the fighting, along with the recommendation that Olivia join the school basketball team to learn some discipline and self-control.
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Pictures are still wonky, I'm adjusting to my new computer and even though I zoom in for the photos and crop out all the headlines, they are still showing up in the snapshops.