I sat at a back table in our school cafeteria yesterday listening to chatter.  The tables were ringed by teachers and support staff and custodians and administrators having lunch and talking – together.    Round cafeteria tables with attached benches put everyone knee-to-knee facing into the table group.  Veteran teachers in their fourth decade of work in our school sat and ate with newbies – our first-year teachers.  The boisterous conversation sounded like the room was full of kids on a school day.  Nobody stood to shush the loudness; nobody was bothered.  This was great!

We are back.  Not just back for the start for a school year, but back in the regaining of a sense of school that evaded us for the past several years.  We are back to being a school.  These words do not dis our school and our recent work.  They recognize a change in our being a school.

I read stories about schooling and education daily.  Writers of school news this summer have focused on the many issues that trouble public education in 2022.  Reinforced by contacts around the state, we know there are too many schools without a teacher for every classroom.  Educators and parents worry about the mental health of children and, rightfully, about the wellness of school staff.  Words like burn out and fatigue abound even before the first lesson of the school year is taught.  Our school is not immune from these.  They will haunt us and our work for some time to come. 

On this Tuesday, the second day of teacher work before school starts next week, it did not appear that the “news” paints our work.  Strolling the hallways and looking in different classroom doors, I saw and heard high school English teachers talking with our tech director about “set ups”, a math teacher talking with a special education aide about students who will need assistance, and our counselor “checking with people”.  Grade level teachers in the elementary wing had children in school last week for a “smart start” for our youngest students, several school warm-up days, and they were talking about what they learned from those children.

A large group of new and veteran staff met in the gym for training in non-violent intervention.  This Friday all school employees will be trained in trauma sensitivity.  The schoolhouse feels like long ago college life in the days before classes started with everyone “moving in”.  There is an air of casual busy-ness, an informal professionalism, and a common focus. 

Covid stressed us beyond our fears for personal health.  It attacked every aspect of public education and how school treats with children, parents, and the community.  It also attacked personal and professional relationships inside the school.  In addressing many of these pandemic-related challenges, we exposed and surfaced organizational issues and tensions that troubled our school.  Things known but not talked about need airing out.  Without detailing the work, we are engaged in repairing these injuries.

At an after-school meeting of a school board committee yesterday, teachers, coaches, and a school parent sat with the superintendent, a principal and three board members to talk about campus issues – the softball field, gym scoreboards, and available space.  Each person contributed experience, perspective, needs, and possibilities.  They will recommend action to the board, money will be spent, and improvements achieved.  And, they will continue to meet because they have work to do. Collegiality prevails.

The all-staff lunch caused me to remember the best of before-school-starts experiences from years past and I saw that positiveness alive in our cafe.  A single aspect of positive-plus was that our school board members grilled the hamburgers and veggie burgers for the all-school lunch.  They smelled of charcoal smoke and charred meat when they joined the staff at the tables.  They were applauded.

We have a feeling of deja camaraderie and it is welcome.  We are back!