Selena's School

Hi, So I am sorry for the confusion. Selena is back teaching but her school had to be combined with the other middle school in the city, Weiss. This year they had 'integrated' the schools again and so Weiss, the all White middle school, became 5th and 6th grade and Central Middle School, the Black and Hispanic Middle School (really for lack of a better term the ghetto school) became the 7th and 8th grade school. Central actually used to be the Black High School years ago. It has VERY strong ties to the Black community.

They bused kids to opposite sides of the island when school started. There was a big stink about it last year but the federal and state governments mandated it. When Hurricane IKE came along and flooded Selena's Central Middle School they put all the middle school kids together at Weiss. It has been crowded but it has worked OK. It is a little strange to see little 5th graders in school with the huge 8th graders.

Selena and I went up to Central on Friday and got some of her stuff out of her classroom. She did not stay in the school very long because the mold in the school is unbelievable. They did not clean the school out properly when it was first flooded and it smells worse than it did two weeks after the storm. I went in the school to get her cell phone right after the was opened and was it was not really that bad. Now there is mold growing all over the place and it smells terrible. Selena's room has been spared any type of damage but the halls and stairwells are terrible. The work in her room tired Selena out and she was only able to work a half day on Friday. I think she did really well and I am really proud of her. She worked four and half days after being off of chemo only one week.

Let's hope she can work all of this week. The GISD plan is to lay off 150 teachers because so many children did not return after the storm. I really hope she does not have to start looking for a new job. She will have her job until May or June I think if she is laid off. It will just be a pain to look for work again especially work that is so close to home. I hate for her to have to drive off the island because I fully expect gas prices to go up again soon. Gas isn't going to stay at $1.40 for too long.