Another School Year Begins

Ian started his second year of preschool at Newcastle on Monday. His teacher is Miss Marci. She was Connor's teacher his first year at Newcastle. We thought he might have a hard time adjusting to going to school without Connor but he's done great! Connor has his kindergarten assessment on Wednesday. He will be attending Draper Elementary School and his teacher is Miss Ipson. It's hard to believe another school year is already here.

What I Did This Week

It has been one of the busiest weeks I can remember. It has been a whirlwind ever since Monday. Monday was filled with a lot of news media interviews concerning our tax hearing on Tuesday. My staff hosted open houses at our new school district offices on Tuesday and that night we all worked at the Truth-in-Taxation hearing. Jordan District has proposed a 40% tax increase and the taxpayers came out in full force to yell at the school board. I was incredibly disappointed with the tone of the meeting. Residents were angry, rude, disrespectful, uneducated and vocal. What a sad commentary on our society. It seems we are no longer respectful when we disagree with other's decisions or opinions. Wednesday was filled with more news media interviews about the hearing and Thursday was the annual Administrative Leadership Conference. Whew! Here's hoping for a quiet Friday.

Discovery Gateway

We spent the afternoon at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in Salt Lake City. It seems like forever since we had been there. The boys absolutely love it. Connor is obsessed with the balls that float up through the tubes, and Ian loves the grocery store. It's such a great place and stimulates their creativity.

Pioneer Day at Snowbird

We wanted to spent the day somewhere with cooler temperatures, so we headed up the canyon to Snowbird. I'm not sure the temperature was that much cooler since we all got sunburns. Regardless, we had a great time. We (the boys) did most of the activities: bungee trampoline, alpine slide, tram ride, climbing wall and bounce castle. It was a fun way to spend Pioneer Day!

Draper Days '09

We spent the day enjoying the festivities of Draper Days 2009. We attended the parade this morning. We had great seats (in the shade) and sat by very nice boys who willingly shared their candy with Ian and Connor. It was a lot of fun and we plan to make it an annual tradition! Afterward the boys and I went to Draper Park for an hour or so. It was 100 degrees outside but they wanted to enjoy the park activities such as the bounce houses and slides. It's been a long time since I was that hot and sticky. We are staying up late to watch the fireworks. Fortunately, we have a great view from our deck and can watch them in our pajamas.

Division Complete

July 1 was the official division date for Jordan School District. It was a highly emotional day, but one I'm glad is finally past. I hope we can begin to focus again on students and try to focus on the benefits of having a smaller district (although 49,000 students isn't that small). We've unveiled our new logo, Web site and tagline and now we're gearing up for an open house next month. Here's to better times ahead!

San Fran Fun

We returned last night from a great vacation to San Francisco. I attended the National School Public Relations Conference. This is the first year the whole family came with me. We had such a great time. We stayed at the historic hotel, The Palace, just a few blocks from Union Square. the pool was Ian's favorite part of the trip. We visited the Golden Gate Bridge, toured the city on a doubledecker bus, spent the day at Fisherman's Wharf, enjoyed hot fudge sundaes at Gharadelli Square, visited the San Francisco Zoo, and bought t-shirts in China Town. Connor's favorite part was bungee-jumping on a trampoline at Fisherman's Wharf. He did it two different days he loved it so much. The weather was perfect and the boys were great tourists. Here are a few photos from our advertures.