Be Prepared

On Tuesday of Spring Break, I biked the Delta Heritage Trail for the first time. Started the ride in Lexa, Arkansas, located near Helena, not far from the Mississippi River. The plan was to ride to Elaine, AR and back to Lexa for a total riding distance of 41 miles. This was supposed to be another of my many fun and carefree rides. I actually came up with the idea of making this ride the night before, and wanted it to be a great day of riding. How quickly I discovered that I was not prepared at all for this ride.

Unlike the trails I have been riding such as the Greenline and Gulf State Park, this was a gravel trail with lots of rocks and sand. There is a paved section of this trail, but that section is a short one. The trail blew out both my tires, but not until I was 18 miles into the ride. That's when the rear tire started leaking. Somehow, my patch kit wasn’t in my bike pouch. I have no idea where I had placed the kit. I decided to continue the ride to Elaine to see if maybe there was a store there where I could get some help to repair the tire. No such luck.

I had to pump up the rear tire every 2 miles. At the 28-mile mark, had to now pump up the rear tire every mile. Extremely difficult to pedal through gravel, sand, and rocks on deflated tires. At about the 39-mile mark of my ride, the rear tire finally gave out completely and the front tire started leaking air. Had to walk the bike the last mile and a half. There was no more riding and my ride became a walk.

I have a hybrid bike. It is a cross between a road and touring bike with thinner, smoother tires. The tires are not meant for rough trails. I needed better trail tires to make this ride. It is also a lighter bike than a trail bike. So, the bike gets beat up riding a rocky trail as does the rider.

Because this went from a 3-hour bike ride to an over 5-hour bike ride, I didn’t have enough water to make it to the end. The temperature was 85 degrees, which required even more water. I rode 41 miles, saw no one on the trail, and there was nowhere to stop for help. My one choice was to suck it up and ride. That's what I did.

What did I learn from this ride? Be prepared! I need to be better prepared especially in dealing with the unknown.

I should have learned from our planning for the reopening of the school during this pandemic. We were so ready and so prepared for the unknown that nothing was going to go wrong. Nothing! And, nothing did go wrong. Everything went better than expected. 

I am so proud of everyone who helped plan for the 2020-21 school year. They were all a Godsend with positive, problem-solving attitudes. No one sat back and waited for others to plan. Everyone stepping up and joined-in to make this school year happen. Because of these forward thinking and acting folks, we were ready and prepared. This has turned out to be a fantastic school year. When you think of all that has taken place, I think this has been the best school year of my 31-years as an educator.

In the words of Paul Harvey: "Now for the rest of the story." If you are too young to know Paul Harvey, look him up. He was one of the greatest news personalities this country has ever seen.

At the 12-mile mark is the city of Lake View. There is a nice trail rest stop in Lake View. That's where I was when I received a text from Andrew Post, Layla Post's husband, notifying me of the birth of their son, Andrew Cyrus Post. I took a short break from riding to forward his text to the St. Ann staff members because we had all been awaiting the news. The birth announcement was one of the highlights of the ride.

The other highlight happened just before the 18-mile mark. That's when I started my prayers. I like to pray when I ride. I apologized to God for not praying as often as I should. That's when I felt the rear tire starting to go flat. If you pray, this next part makes sense. In feeling the rear tire going flat, I didn't question, I didn't complain. I just said, "I get it." For the rest of the long and painful bike ride, I thanked God for giving us this opportunity and extra time to spend together in prayer. So, instead of being upset about not preparing properly for this ride, I recognized my need to spend more time in prayer. So, I used this time to pray. What turned out to be one of the most physically demanding and painful things I have ever done also turned out to be a blessing in allowing me time to pray.

My lack of preparation turned into something good and great. On that ride, I learned about the arrival of the newest member to our St. Ann family, and I spent several hours of uninterrupted prayer time. Even though it took me several days to recover physically, I'm glad my Delta Heritage Trail ride took place. On the ride, God used that time to remind me the importance of and the need to appreciate both life and prayer.

Congratulations to Andrew and Layla Post on the arrival of their son. And, thank you God for your many blessings.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School

Previous Blog: https://didieraur.blogspot.com/2021/03/is-that-light-we-are-seeing.html

Honey in My Lemonade

Setting Up The 1st Grade Classroom

My apologies for not blogging for the past couple few weeks. My time has been spent figuring out and planning how we are going to open school on August 11th. Along with my team at St. Ann, I've actually enjoyed putting this huge unpredictable puzzle together only to dismantle sections of the puzzle and start again. The way I see things, I can either be frustrated and negative by our circumstances or as Stephanie Nichols said, "make lemonade" with the lemons we've been given. My reaction to this situation is to add a little honey in my lemonade.

I know many of you are scared and filled with anxieties. I understand. I really do. I've never put in so much of my life into my work as I have since the middle of March. Life is tough, but it is still great. I have had many conversations with many parents who are super-concerned about the 2020-21 school year. Please remember that I am here to help you. I don't have all the answers, but I do have some. I will do my best to answer your questions. And, if I don't know, I'll tell you that I don't know and do my best to figure out the right answer. Unfortunately, the way things are changing, the right answer now maybe something completely different next week. Crazy stuff.

The most important people in my life besides my family are my students and staff members who are entrusted to my care. The last thing I want is for anything negative to happen to my babies from PK3 up to the most senior members of the St. Ann staff. They are all my babies and my job is to take care of each one of them. That's why we are planning and re-planning every step of re-opening. You can only imagine how many times I've played the re-opening in my head. I think everyone at St. Ann has been doing the same. Every time I think I have most things figured out, someone comes up with a questions and my honest response is: "I haven't even thought about that." Ask Jennifer Burnett. She is usually the one asking me the questions. And, know this week's in-service is all about being ready for August 11th.

Setting Up a Middle School Classroom

As for the first week of school, I'm not concerned about the academic piece of school. I don't care if any school work is done. I'm concerned about the safety piece and making sure we get things right. Drop-off, pick-up, traffic flow in the parking lot, traffic flow in the hallways, which entrances and exits will be used, masks, social distancing, teacher rotation, student rotation, sanitizers, cleaning the classrooms, lunch, lunch clean up, temperature taking, updating Covid-19 policies...

As bad as things are right now, times have been worse before and there will be worse times in the future. Life as we know it is different and difficult but life is still great. This has been one of the best summers of my life, and I'm hoping the same for this fall. I'll be sad when this summer ends. Yet, I'm excited for the new school year.

Here is list of information we all need to share.

Prayer:
Please pray for a safe school year not only for St. Ann Catholic School but for everyone everywhere. We are going to need prayers. Hope our Guardian Angels are on full alert and our prayer warriors out there are praying for us. Few things are as comforting as folks praying for us.

Safety and Good Health:
The single most important thing we can do to keep everyone safe and healthy is for us to be honest. Sounds crazy doesn't it. But, if we are honest, there is a very small chance for transmission of Covid-19 at our school. If your child doesn't feel good, keep him/her at home. If they have been exposed, keep him/her at home. A little sniffle, cough, low-grade fever, upset stomach, body ache, and/or just not feeling good, STAY HOME! In the past, any of these symptoms were often overlooked with a "you'll get over it." That can no longer happen. Now, we are jeopardizing everyone if we are not honest about these symptoms. Schools and day cares that have followed all the rules have had no problems. All it take is one person ignoring the rules and regulations to cause a lot of damage. Whether you think we are overreacting to Covid-19 or not, when it comes to the health of our children, we all need to follow the rules. Be honest!

Online students:
Mrs. Bannister will work with the nine online students in PK and 1st grade. Mrs. Thomas will work with the five online students in 2nd and 3rd grade. Mrs. Wendenon will work with the six online students in 4th and 5th grade. There are only three middle school online students, one in each middle school grade. The five middle school teachers will work with those three students instead of having one designated teacher. The next step is to work out schedules for when those students will be online with the teachers. We will work that out during in-service. These three educators are going to follow the regular classroom lesson plans, work closely with the classroom teachers, and do their best to keep the students as close as possible educationally with the students in class. We know from past experience the online students won’t get everything they normally would if they were in the regular classroom setting. One of our goals is to include/keep connected the online students with the regular classroom. Not sure what that will look like, but we have some ideas.

Mrs. Thomas will still work with the LIFE students and Mrs. Wendenon the SPARKS students.

Lunch:

For the time being, students need to bring their lunch to school. We have worked on some lunch options for the students. That's for another time. Let's get lunch in the classrooms done properly before going there. In the past, parents and grandparents have always been welcomed to join us for lunch. For now, that will not be allowed. Hope we can welcome you back soon.

Lockers:

The 5th-8th graders will use lockers. We will have to set up a rotation system for the students to go to their lockers to make sure to follow the 6 ft social distancing. We are clearing all classrooms of extra desks, tables, and bookshelves in order to provide more space for social distancing. Students having all their books, backpacks, and lunches with them kind of defeats the purpose clearing out the extra furniture. This will be easier for the 5th graders since Mrs. Metaxas already rotates the students when they go to their lockers.

Staff Trying On Their Face Shields

Masks and Face Shields:

Will we require masks/face shields? Yes. This is an important part of the whole plan and recommendations from the CDC, AAP, and local government. I think it is very important for our students to be able to see our teachers, their facial expressions, their mouths when forming words, and be able to hear their voices. It is hard to hear someone when they are speaking while wearing a face mask. We have purchased face shields for all teachers.  There are times our teachers will use face masks and other times the face shield. It depends on the situation, teachers' comfort level, and proximity to students. The band members will use face shields when in band class.

***Suggestion from one of our parents: spend this week having your child(ren) get used to wearing the face mask for more than 10-15 minutes at a time building up the time they keep the face mask on to where they can keep it on for 30-50 minutes at a time. Keeping the face mask on for long periods of time is not easy, but it is a small sacrifice to make for everyone's well-being.

Covid-19 Room:

We are converting part of the faculty workroom to a Covid-19 room. The faculty workroom is next to the school office and has access to a bathroom. We will separate that area with curtains and place beds in that area of the room. We don't want to put the students with Covid-19 symptoms in the school clinic. And, we are going to move the bed out of the clinic and move it to the Covid-19 room. If a student feels bad enough to need a bed, they probably need to be in the Covid-19 room.

Hope some of this information helps. If you have questions, please ask. Everything we are doing is a work in progress.

God bless you,

Didier Aur, Principal

St. Ann Catholic School