I’d been to the country club to play golf and for business meetings, but none as important as this. Mr. Herrick had a reputation for his generosity as well as his straightforwardness. This turned out to be our only face to face encounter. Gene Cooley was the superintendent in Tecumseh when I arrived in Britton. …
Author: Robert
The Phone Call
By 2003 I was well into my superintendency in Britton-Macon. It was the right place at the right time for me. When I was hired twelve years prior, the Board wanted me to move into the district within the first year. That move never took place. The Board said my oldest son, David, could continue …
Balls and Books
My second year in Britton, Britton’s MEAP (Michigan Education Assessment Program) scores ranked highest in the county in eight of the nine reported areas. The scores covered a multitude of grades in a variety of subjects. Reporters wanted to know our secret. How had I led such a change in such a short amount of …
Friday Night
I believe the biggest reason school districts avoid consolidation is Friday night. Community members, young and old, enjoy going to school for “the game”. While we wish to win, routing for the home team is most important. It’s a point of pride. When I arrived in Britton not a week went by without someone speaking …
The Importance of History
Each day we are given opportunities to interact with people. We take advantage or we don’t. Seemingly unrelated acts often pay big dividends. When I arrived in Britton in November of 1991 I spent a lot of time reading hundreds of pieces of mail that the interim superintendent saved for me. I perused the trivial …
IMO
This cartoon appeared in the paper several weeks ago. The message is directed at the global pandemic and its ramifications for us all. It’s intent is clear, why can’t we work together? Since its publication we’ve seen national attention brought to the movement, Black Lives Matter. Some have countered with All Lives Matter or …
The Big Two-Hearted River
During my teaching years several of my teaching friends and I went on “adventures”. Most were not well thought out. We got an idea and put it into play without considering the consequences of our actions and the difficulties that might present themselves. One adventure involved two poker friends and the reading of a short …
Staying with the Kids
David and Lindsay were scheduled to go to California to stay with the hippies, Elizabeth and Sutton, for a few days, but things fell through when the governor of California tightened things up again because of the coronavirus. Lindsay was going to sing two “gigs” with them. Her peeps are disappointed. The entire San Diego …
I Should’ve Been a Cowboy
The kids in the neighborhood played cowboys and Indians. Sometimes we were just cowboys, and if we played that way, there were good and bad guys. Good guys protected damsels in distress, guarded the cattle from rustlers, warded off swindlers, and made sure the stage with the strong box got through. When we played …
Thirteen Pages
This is my forty-fifth Father’s Day. I celebrated fifty-two such days as a son. My first memory of my father dates back to our unpaved driveway at 500 N. Edgeworth. Dad decided to pave the driveway of his new home when I was about four. Prior to the paving he used the dirt drive to …