It's a rather quiet Friday in the Admin Building, but we are getting LOADS of work done. We're often asked if we get the summer off like students and teachers. Now that I've been in this position a little over a year, I have a whole new perspective on "summer!"
First of all, our teachers don't really "get the summer off." They have work days, voluntary work days, conferences, workshops, and many other tasks and projects that they fit in while making the most of the summer days. And the principals? They work nearly all summer, spending a few weeks finishing up paperwork and projects from the year just ended, then shifting to preparations for the year just around the corner.
In the Admin offices, summer months (both of them - ha) are almost busier than the months when the schools are filled with the sounds of learning. Paperwork, planning, goal-setting, paperwork, planning, new websites, paperwork, planning, newsletters, paperwork ... do you get the picture?
Our friends in the Technology department are like the Energizer bunnies. They never stop and their summer workload is rather intimidating. Preparing all new devices for the high school students, setting up devices and accounts for new teachers and administrators, performing endless hours of system patches and upgrades, holding professional development workshops for staff, and that aforementioned new website.
When students return on August 2nd, those going to Central will see a bright, cheerful and efficient update throughout the building. In the Admin Building, we'll soon have a board room large enough to house our guests during Board meetings and student recognitions, and our Food Services department will get to join us so we're all under one roof. Many of the file storage issues we've been facing will be relieved by added file rooms (education records haven't quite gone all digital yet!).
So if you've ever wondered what in the world we could do during the summer months, that's just a snippet of our activities. We do work in some vacation time, don't get me wrong! But we pack a lot of projects into this short span of time, and we ALL look forward to the return of teachers and students!