Final goodbyes/this is it

What a night to load the moving van... I hope it doesn't get worse tomorrow, i.e. the prediction of possible freezing rain. That's the last I need.

I will miss a lot of people personally and professionally. Some people, and things, I won't miss.

I'm going down to Navasota with the most open mind I have. That said, closer friends, especially, have detected less than the hugest enthusiasm.

But, it's that, work for the Focus, which isn't a real newspaper anymore, though it was better at one time, or draw unemployment while trying to network and not be too bored. Especially when you're single, even if you've got a few dollars in the bank account, that unemployment option isn't necessarily that good.

That said, then, this has led me to reflect more seriously on a career change. I'll always be doing something with writing and communications, but that doesn't have to be as a newspaper editor.

And, if not dying, it's not necessarily the healthiest career field anymore, anyway.

I'll write more when I get settled in there, and will continue to post Lancaster news that I hear about, of course!

Smith Bros. no longer coughing in Lancaster ISD

Word is that Lancaster High health sciences teacher Nathan Smith has resigned. Would this have anything to do with his alleged arrest? Will the News run anything on this? I can’t, since this is my last full day in Lancaster, and I’m packing a U-Haul this afternoon.

Word also is that Eugene Smith, the district’s chief financial officer, has been terminated. Indeed, he wasn’t at this month’s board meeting, but that may mean nothing.

But, if true, why? Hope this gets followed up. The News is going to have to get somebody from inside top district admin, from a Level 5 meeting, to start talking.

Lancaster Minyard’s IS going Carnaval

At least on the shelves; it’s stocking Carnaval brand goods now, replacing some others.

A thought to Richard Gonzales: Saying you’re sorry would help

At the risk of sounding like I’m piling on …

I don’t have insight inside other people’s hearts and minds, so I can’t make judgment as to whether the fallout from your Colorado decertification did produce the spiritual transformation you said it did.

I’m sure other district staffers appreciate your concerns for any trouble the fallout from this knowledge becoming public has caused the district.

But, it might have been nice, in my opinion, as part of that apology, if you might also have said that you were sorry for what you actually did. There are at least three known instances, over at least two years, in different school districts, cities and states, after all.

Richard Gonzales fallout at Lancaster ISD; special and bilingual ed supervisor reassigned

Due to special education and bilingual education supervisor Richard Gonzales having been decertified due to inappropriately disciplining students elsewhere, he is now reportedly the former supervisor of these programs and is now in a finance position.

There are a couple of at least partially positive points here.

1. He won’t be working directly with children.

2. The school board did something. Of course, it had to do something, really.

That said, I am guessing the board will probably NOT further follow up on the issue not just of Gonzales’ hiring, but district hiring and board oversight in general, as I suggested it do.

The biggest problem with the Bush library at SMU

It’s the independent think tank (insert joke) Bush wants to go with the library. That would NOT be under control of the National Archives and Records Administration, but rather a private Bush foundation.

It seems clear that Bush would try to keep as many of his presidential records as possible in the think tank, thus gutting the one halfway worthwhile purpose of this and other presidential libraries/museums.

(Frankly, I think all of them are, if taxpayer-funded, a waste of money.)