Meet the Principal

The public school where Ane might go is located only a few miles from our house. But neither the Webmaster or I had ever been there before. So yesterday, we pulled into the parking lot for the first time to check out the school and have a meeting with the principal.

She is a very nice lady who greeted us and sat us down in a conference room, and then we began to discuss the kindergarten program, the class structure, and Ane herself. I even tossed some questions about Tad in for good measure, because he may end up there eventually. We simply don’t know at this point.

We liked the answers we heard, and we had plenty of questions to ask. The kindergarten classes had been on a field trip to a children’s theater that morning, so the half-day class was empty (the afternoon class having come in early for the field trip, and then left early as well), but the two full-day classes were in full swing. We got to walk through the classrooms, see the principal greet the kids (and see them greet her back) and meet the teachers. We actually had a nice chat with the half-day teacher, who I liked quite a bit. The one thing that really stunned me was how young the kindergarten teachers were. They were all younger than I am, probably only in their mid-twenties. Contrast that with the private school, where both kindergarten teachers were much older. In fact, they were both old enough to be my mother. Granted, my mother is quite young for a grandma of six (soon to be seven in June – Belle and Berry will be getting a new baby sister), but still. The age difference was striking.

There are pros and cons to young teachers. But, there are also pros and cons to older teachers. It’s really a matter of preference. We did ask if the kindergarten teachers who are there now will be there next fall, and were told by the principal that as far as she knew, yes.

After our tour, we sat back down for a couple more questions and to wrap up our little meeting. But before it was all over, the Webmaster mentioned something about the elementary school that he’d attended.

“Where?” the principal asked.

“Lewis County,” the Webmaster said, and named the school district – which is also the name of the town that he grew up in.

The principal’s jaw dropped. “You are lying to me.”

The Webmaster and I exchanged looks. “No,” I said, “that’s where he’s from.”

“Who are your parents?” the principal asked.

The Webmaster gave his parents’ names, but also added that his mother had been raised in the same small town and what her maiden name was.

The principal doubled over, her head in her hands, shaking with laughter.

I looked from her to the Webmaster. “You two are related, aren’t you,” I said.

The principal, head still in hands, nodded.

She’s a third cousin of the Webmaster. Her great-grandfather and his great-grandmother were brother and sister.

While I was laughing so hard that my face hurt, the principal chewed the Webmaster out for never coming to the family reunion picnic that’s held every summer. “You don’t have to send your daughter here, but you HAVE to go to the reunion picnic!” she scolded. She then dashed out to grab her cell phone so she could call her mother. “You’ll never believe who I have sitting in front of me,” she told her mother.

But it gets better. The principal’s mother and her husband bought the Webmaster’s parents’ old house almost five years ago. The very house that the Webmaster grew up in. My sides were starting to hurt from all the laughing.

As we finished up our meeting, the principal followed us out to the office, and told the secretary and the office manager, “Do you see this couple who came in for a conference?” She pointed to the Webmaster. “He’s my cousin.”

“Did you know that before they came in?” the secretary asked.

“No!” the principal laughed.

“We wondered what all the laughing was about back there,” the office manager commented.

As we left, the Webmaster put in a call to his parents. But the phone was busy. He finally got a hold of Papa on his cell phone, but the land line was busy because the principal’s mother, as soon as she’d hung up with the principal, had called Nana and Papa to tell them what had just happened.

We completed a phone loop in less than 30 minutes. It was a riot. I’m still laughing over it all.

Trust me when I say that when it comes to Ane and kindergarten, we now have a LOT more to think about. And we need to make this decision very soon. If you’ve got any comments or opinions, we could sure use them right about now.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 2:54 am and is filed under Children, Family, School Days.
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