Out With The Old - In With The New

Yesterday’s voicemail brought the news that my new picnic table was ready for pickup.

This morning I went over to the high school where a bunch of freshly assembled picnic tables were waiting at Door 15 and the kids loaded one into the back of the pickup. 

 

The gnarly, 31 year old table in the background, is gonna return to the campsite where it originally lived. 

New table set me back $200.  Solid construction too.  Southern Door industrial arts program rocks!

Cavalry to the Rescue

Donald Trump has called for the reopening of schools this fall.   I happen to agree with him.  This is congruent with the assessment and conclusions of clinical psychologists, pediatricians and parents who need to return to work.  Nevertheless, there are caveats.  

The first is that the president cannot have it both ways.  By that, I mean, if he has already abrogated all responsibility to the governors to manage the pandemic, he has no expectation of authority to order anybody back to school. He has zero standing to demand a student, classroom teacher, administrator, custodian, aide or lunchroom lady return.  This is a matter that is rightfully left to the states and better yet to individual communities where governance of public schools is left to local boards of education.          

The second caveat is that as a consequence of the president's lazy and haphazard lack of leadership the pandemic is surging. Again. Thusly, reopening schools safely is going to be costly. Very, very costly.  And with Wisconsin school districts already constrained by state curriculum and budget mandates – they are going to be clobbered by these added costs.  

The federal cavalry should be thundering to the rescue.       

Back in March, federal aid passed into law provided for $13.5 billion to K-12 education - less than one percent of the total stimulus.  Seems to me that Washington needs to step-up and do more as the states certainly don’t have the means.  Their budgets have been bled-dry by the economic impact of coronavirus and the Trump recession.
        

Consider this – if the feds can provide bailout funding to cover the payrolls of restaurants, bars and law firms - or funding to keep banks, cruise lines, movie theaters and airlines afloat - they should add school districts to the list.  

It is a known truth that a critical key to a return to normalcy is getting our school-age children back in school.

Safely.

If I had the ear of the president as an advisor I'd encourage him to step-it-up and call for a cavalry charge - seems like a good strategy for reelection after-all. 

Of course nobody listens to me....... 

FFA Toy Tractor Show

There is a first time for everything and today was a first.  We paid a visit to the 11th annual FFA Alumni Toy Tractor Show.  

FFA is the premier youth organization preparing members for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture.   And today's show was held from 9 am to 2 pm at Southern Door High School,

click on images for a closer look

 

 

There were all sorts of toy vendors and collectors and an opportunity to buy, sell or swap toy tractors, NASCAR models, ball cards, Packer stuff, craft goods and vote on the best model farm layouts (think - model railroading).  

 Included was a silent auction, door prizes and raffles. Lunch too.  Admission was $3 -  children ages 10 and younger admitted free.