All Hands on Deck

The image above was one I pasted into the front of my assignment book in 1988, my first full year at the Courier News. I was juggling a lot of responsibilities and such things reminded me to have courage.

When Interim Superintendent Peter E. Carter spoke to the community one evening, he compared the district to a listing ship when he arrived and saw his task as righting it. His comment reminded me of my 1988 watchword and I got out my old book to have another look.

Unfortunately, circumstances have brought on heavy seas and the district is again looking more like a shipwreck. But now the Parents Empowering Parents group is using a nautical rallying cry for its upcoming meeting: "All Hands on Deck!" The meeting is from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday (Nov. 30, 2007) at Washington Community School on Darrow Avenue. Questions from residents on the state monitoring report, the searches for new administrators and other topics will be addressed to panelists from the district, municpal government, clergy, teachers, local business owners and state government representatives.

At the bottom of the district web site, there is a list of other upcoming events that include a special meeting at 9 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 1, 2007) , a work-and-study meeting on Dec. 11 and a business meeting on Dec. 18. However, no further details are included, such as the locations. Clicking on the link next to meeting dates only brings up the November schedule.

At least it's a little heads-up. Maybe the board schedule grid can only do one month at a time. If so, the December schedule would only show up the day of the unusual Dec. 1 special meeting.

Kinda reminds me of a Friday night in June ...

--Bernice Paglia