I have no sunglasses - I can't stand 'em. I always feel like as I'm walking down the street a big dog could run in front of me and I'd fall over it because I have sunglasses on. I know blue-eyed people are especially sensitive..I just don't have the moulah for prescription and no desire to do the clip thing - I have a tendency to misplace such items. Although, coup of coups - yesterday I was actually able to retrace our steps and find, in a pothole, my daughter's (actually son's but she was playing with it - violation) little Lego axle for two tiny tires in front of Atwater School. Phew. That was lucky.
I'm also a little slow today - apparently it is possible to od on caffeine, and I have done it. So I'm detoxing, which just means removing the word "shot" from my vocabulary.
Speaking of the freaky armed robbery attempt at Cramer and Beverly this week, has anyone noticed there are no Street Name Signs along Oakland from Edgewood on up to where they are with the streetlights? Could that add to safety - putting the signs back? I was marvelling about that while on the 15 bus yesterday looking for the names that mark the stops..and they were missing. I have a friend who complains bitterly about Chicago because it's impossible to find anything because the streets aren't marked. Aha - and now we have a little bit of Chicago right in Shorewood. I trust the signs are coming back?
And so now it's Spring. The ladies of Shorewood have a fresh coat of blonde and brown (and reddish blonde, ahem) and nary a gray hair in sight despite the late breeding of so many of us. The faint clink and clatter of golf clubs and tennis raquets is audible from the mud rooms..meanwhile I have some kind of liver-overload from all the caffeine I've been consuming to stay on top of the most regular of things. Lifestyles of the rich and famous may be happening near me, but I'm one to bring the average down to manageable. I'm like the mystery cheap gas that brings the national average down below what it is here per gallon. That number always insenses me, and I wonder, are realtors in those areas working that angle? It would attract me.
So, the Big News in Our Town is that the school referendum passed! But...the lead Shorewood article in the NOW today is about the Intermediate School possibly closing. Um. I wish that there could be more happy joy about the 9.6 million being approved, just for a moment. And I wish the article in the Now had been more articulate in describing that the just-passed referendum had nothing to do with the Intermediate School, but with high school issues that will exist hopefully ad infinitum. Then we could address the seemingly urgent/not urgent (like do I have a will? Ooh, I should, but I won't today) issue of pending low enrollment. I will offer my two cents, which is probably going to get me in hot water but with the state of the basement heater that desperately needs a drain, perhaps I can enjoy a nice long shower with it.
The enrollment issue is one I remember from a college class that was literally titled "How to Lie with Statistics" (ahhh, Oberlin, I miss you) I know there are kids, and kids go to school. And if there aren't enough kids in the classroom, there are ways to "tweak" it and get more kids, like opening up more 220 offerings and rolling in the open enrollment from other districts. Those are the numbers we track and calculate. However, we don't calculate the number of kids within Shorewood who do not attend Shorewood Public Schools. At least, I've never seen that figure in the table. Is student enrollment down but student population up or the same? How does the Public vs. Private mix number look? Do we have that statistic?
I know from sales that it's easier to get an existing customer to upgrade than to find a new one. I think this applies to people who have moved to Shorewood who perhaps need a hand to realize how significant their decision is to join the school district as well. I would think, and there is understanding and contemplation afoot to do this, to take more responsibility as villagers that we should not only track these numbers but bring those kids back "home" to the district. I'm not sure that Shorewood parents of St. Robert's students, for example, particularly feel that they are exhibiting any kind of community disregard or personal aggregiousness to the district. It is time, however, to ease up on the people who raised their kids here, put them through Shorewood Schools, and who are pillars of the community and have worked all their lives, some, to create our golden village, who do not have kids in school at the moment, and refocus on people who do have children who are not attending Shorewood Schools. Is enrollment down but population up? I have heard too many times recently (some even friends who unwittingly exhibit blatant ageism) flip comments about wanting to "free up the housing stock for young families"...but why don't we look at the customers we're missing? It reminds me of the island that brought in cats to eat the mice - one can't know that bringing in new families wouldn't swell the ranks of St. Robert's instead.
We need to embrace all the children in Shorewood, bring them into the fold, and let the ones who are not attending Shorewood schools really see the legacy that could be theirs, and could be woven into their community experience.
I think sharing more alumni voices who credit their Shorewood experiences for their preparation and jump-start into the world is one way to do this. I'll get right on that. As soon as this bland decaf tea kicks in. Hah.
