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The budget was adopted last night, and now goes to City Council, whom, I’m certain will not be pleased. Up until late Thursday evening, I still believed that it must be possible to meet the 4.25% growth guideline without major damage to our academic programs… but after making my way through two pages of proposed reductions (that’s two pages of nine-point type) that wouldn’t work, I felt like a complete failure.

Having rested a bit since then and looked at it with fresh eyes and mind, I’ve concluded that my only failure was in not recognizing what we were up against from the beginning. To meet the City’s guideline, we would have to not teach something that we now do. Like driver’s ed. To me, it’s unacceptable to go backwards.

Now, we go to City Council and make our case… hoping against hope that there’s an unknown revenue source, or that maybe the City would settle for providing the same pay increase to its employees (3%) that the teachers are budgeted to receive.

* * *
The Oak Ridger has taken a calm and very circumspect view of the recent staff change at Oak Ridge High School in today’s editorial; I think there’s some real truth in the title of the piece.

Without a doubt, it’s one of the most challenging — and most high profile — principalships in the state. Add in the construction, and you have a challenge in a muddy fishbowl: everyone’s watching, and everything around you is a noisy mess.

Come to think of it, there could be an idea for another one of those sick, twisted reality shows.

Thankfully, Chuck Carringer has proven capable of managing in the interim (if we don’t work the poor man to death, who already had his hands full with two jobs — now three), the school year is almost over, and we have time to settle down a bit and move forward in an appropriate fashion.

Is it Friday yet?

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