Epilogue

 Epilogue 

I was asked by a couple of people to write a follow-up to the trip. 

The good, bad, ugly. 

We generally try and rent a car made to hug roads in Britain. They are super narrow and even many of the major highways in places are built for only one vehicle. Goes back to the days when they were built for horses and carts. 

It's why I drive a 12 year old Honda, so we can " step-up" and rent a German car. 

In the past, we have driven Audi's, BMW's, even a top of the line Volkswagen. 

We had a Mercedes-Benz. 

 

It was the biggest POS I have ever been in. One of the most miserable cars I have ever ridden in. Even the navigation system was trash. We wound up using the GPS on my cell phone. We knew it was bad when it took us over a mountain that wasn't really for normal passage and down the National Bike Path in Wales. 

No fooling, Bryant Long knows what he is doing. Get the BMW. Great for handling. 

We hated the following places.....The Lake District.....Devon......Cornwall....I wish we had never wasted our time. I wish we would have stayed longer in Wales. 

We loved Wales and the Yorkshire Dales( Think " All Creatures Great and Small.") and York....

The people of York and Wales, were, just great. 

In the pub in York and man sitting beside us just struck up a conversation, nice as he could be. Made suggestions for food, and drink. He was 'dead-on" for both. Come to find out he worked at the Nestle Chocolate factory there in York. He's been making Kitkats for the last 8 years. 

 

Likewise an older couple and his brother just sat down by me in an adjoining table in the hotel and just talked. From town, came in for lunch. I was having tea. 

 

Same in Wales, in the village we stayed in, you couldn't meet friendlier people.....Again, my philosophy, " Folks is folks....   "

We got so lost in the Midlands trying to avoid a wreck on the major highway, we went through villages you know no American has visited in years. All had pubs you wish you had time to visit.....Places with names...' The Green Dragon' ' The old White Swan' and next to the school, ' The Robe and Chalk.' ( I wondered how many teachers went into that pub after classes to have a pint or 4? )

People the food there is actually pretty good. And they fry potatoes and fish better than anyone in America. Somehow this country can only turn out old, or mushy, or cold, or just bad fried potatoes. 

 

The British countryside is lovely. hills, lots of green, lots of sheep. As you can tell from our posts. 

 

Lots of history, and typical of the British, the Germans bombed in in WW2 and well, we rebuilt it like it was in 1550. 

 

I pretty much am writing this to avoid writing on the "Trans" subject, and may do so, I see a lot of stupidity  on BOTH side of the argument. Again, no one happy. We are just looking for something to complain about.....Or the Texas Legislature. 

Anyway, if you have the opportunity, visit Britain.

Well Buna ISD Patrons, That Blew Up.....

 Larger reads during the evening hours than I expected last night. Again, thanks for reading.

I am also shocked at the messages I am receiving from people concerning the Buna ISD. Just folks who have had it. Several came in overnight. I am sure I will receive more today.

Somehow some of of you think I hate the Buna Schools. No, I actually don't. I'd love for the Buna Schools to be the best in the area. Heck, I saw on KOGT.com Orangefield High did rather well in UIL Academics this past week. They're back in the same district with Buna. All I could think was, "I sort of wish I was competing against those pukes."

But those days are done.

Become involved folks. Fight for your kids. 

If you feel you need to homeschool, private school, or just move school districts with your kids, then do so. 

At one time I recommended other school districts. I still think LCM, Bridge City are the best, but even there, I wouldn't necessarily expect perfection. And like everything else, they are going to have their problems too. 

I am going to back off Buna ISD here for a couple of weeks. We'll be out of pocket. That said, if something really big blows, I will try and write something from York, England...Or Cardiff, Wales. Gotta visit me people.....

Parents Pulling Kids from Buna ISD? I QUIT! As one told me.

 I have heard from another of people over the last few days seriously looking at either home schooling, or private school, or putting their kids in one of the following....LCM ISD, Bridge City ISD, Evadale ISD or in one case they even mentioned Vidor ISD....

I told them, "You're not that desperate to put your children in Vidor Schools."

One that I spoke to asked all sorts of questions about LCM Schools, and we were pleased with our son's time there, but he graduated in 2006, so, I don't really know how much the district has changed. 

And the terms that kept coming up concerning Buna ISD were "Instability" and " Uncertainly." 

These people know there is a faculty turn-over coming, and that is just part of the problem they see coming.

One even said " The damn school is now Woke."

One of the people who I spoke to, I always thought they bled the Buna blue and white, both he and his wife, and they've had it with the district. 

Speaking to them let me know how bad it is. 

Morale in the district is low folks, be it teachers.....Or patrons of the ISD.

And here is the scary part folks, I look for it to get worse, before it gets better. 

When we get back from Britain, I seriously might start my own podcast, can imagine what my first few casts might be about?

More Buna ISD Rumors

 I know, rumors, innuendo, opinions......

That said, let me remind you, that the non-scientific poll for a 4 day week is still open on Facebook. I will try and give the numbers before we leave the country on Friday...

No, the story now coming from the Buna ISD is that so many teachers are unhappy that the district has a large number of teachers already resigned here in March. Generally, this does not happen until May. 

Here is the rumor part......The district is a bit afraid to release board minutes because, " So many teachers have resigned." I've now heard this from 3 sources. 

That said, in this day of teachers shortages and every district looking for teachers, why stay someplace you are unhappy????

That said, there will be more resignations. 

I wonder how many teachers Buna ISD will be short in 23-24? And don't look at me, I ain't coming back.

New Buna ISD 2023-2024 Calendar

 So, I look at the new Buna ISD Calendar for 23-24. 

Ain't nuthin' good about it. 

Teachers start Aug. 1st.

Kids start Aug. 10th.

The kids will be in school 3,150 minutes more than the state requires. That is 7 more days. And trust me, the faculty won't be getting extra salary for those days. If there is, I've not heard about it....

I seriously wonder if the kids will actually learn anything in those extra days? In truth, I seriously doubt it. Not in this day and age. 

The trend is going to be for 4 day weeks.  At first I was against it, but the more I think about it, the more I say, " Why the hell not?"

Anyway, just my .02 on my continuing coverage of the Buna Schools.

Right Now, Buna ISD, Like It Always Does, Will Be The Last to do It-

 So, I read on Woodville ISD that they are looking seriously at going to a 4 day school week.

The state has changed the rules from going a set number of days a school year, to going a set number of minutes each school year. ( It is 75,600 minutes)

That means most school districts can now seriously look at 4 day weeks. 

Lumberton, Jasper, Devers, Liberty ISDs all have 4 day school week now. ( Or some form thereof)

As I have said in the past, Senior Government went from a full year to half a year course. This is because the state decided high school seniors needed a half-credit class in economics. 

Neither half a year of government, nor half a year of economics does either course enough good to do the subject justice. I remember for a while they had a difficult time finding people qualified to teach economics, and the state knowing this, allowed non-qualified people to teach economics for a set time period. ( There were a ton of people with a government certification, but it was for a while hard to find people with either a Social Studies Composite or an Economics  certificate...and those with the Social Studies Composite often did not want to teach economics. Economics is a horrible class to try and teach to high school students.)

But again, I digress.

Watch and see.....If it becomes standard, Buna will become one of the last local districts to change. 

And it is my understanding, Buna is wanting to add school days. Again, it is minutes, not days. Buna is not going to pay faculty more and if they do, it is not significantly enough to stay.

And if you are a STEM teacher, why stay? Heck, I was looking at job openings in other schools and there are 'Core Subject' openings all over the area. Heck, all over Texas. Heck, if you are a STEM person, private industry and business will pay more and you do not have to put-up with "Karens"  telling teachers and principals " Little Rogue or Little Shady who choked to death the classroom hamster, or set your room on fire, they are angels and you should be honored to have this little thug in you class."

My understanding is people are already putting out applications, sending out CV's, resumes....And can you blame them? Heck, if I was a STEM person, I'd be looking at industry too....

Heck there are people calling teacher retirement to see if they can retire?

Don't be shocked if there are a large number of new faces, or heck, they might not be able to find faculty. 

It's going to be interesting between now and the start of the 23-24 year....

Should I Bury My Money in Jars in the Backyard?

 So, if you did not know, or what not paying attention, one of the largest banks in the US basically failed. 

The Silicon Valley Bank out on the West Coast.

It was a bank heavily involved in the tech start up world. It also was THE bank in the wine country of the Napa Valley. 

It cause a run on the bank's branches with people trying to pull out their cash. And caused another run on a West Coast bank also involved in the tech world, First Republic. As of this morning, at 6AM shares of stock in First Republic were down 70%. 

Simply, these banks go used to what is termed as " Free Money" in other words, the money they were able to acquire had next to no interest rates and to pay it back to the bank by the consumer, it was really low. Folks, I remember when car loans for the best risks were around 15-17% in the 1970s-1980s. 

The West Coast banks simply grew too fast with loans....They were saying they had grown 400% in the last few years, and when the Fed upped the interest rates, well, their economics failed. And people stopped taking out or couldn't afford to take out loans.

Part of this is the bond portfolio being upside down. Again, interest rates.

Of course, deposits are insured up to $250,000 by the government. 

Yesterday morning Sec. of the Treasury Janet Yellen was saying on the talking head shows that the government was not going to bail out depositors over $250,000. 

By 8pm yesterday, both Yellen and the Federal Reserve had stepped in implying that the government was going to step in and insure all deposits, no matter the amount. 

The trouble is, so many of these tech companies and wine companies are looking at payday on Weds. of this week. ( The 1st and 15th in many business situations are paydays. I even taught in a school district that paid on the 1st and 15th......unlike the Buna ISD, which pays on the arbitrary date of the 20th, once a month....Most government entities pay on the last day or first day of the month,)

Will these banks be able to come up with enough cash for these businesses to make payroll. And I know some of you are thinking just how much is payroll? I imagine places like even STI's payroll each pay period is in the millions of dollars. I can't even fathom what payroll accounts look like for places like Exxon-Mobil or even St. E.  

So, Mr. Thomas......What do I do?

If you have less than $250,000 in your account, well, I'd do nothing. It is insured. 

If you have more in an account, well, I might move some around.( Once again, I am NOT a CFA, I don't play one on TV like Tom Keen.)

You might think about keeping a little cash on hand. 

Not much, but maybe enough to keep you going for a a week or two. 

At this point, what can you do? 

It disturbs everyone, and if all the banks fail, well, we're all in the same boat together anyway.