Eickhaus

an experiment in communication....for family and friends of our blog to "keep in touch" and provide pictures and information about the latest and greatest adventures of Eickhaus. Also see http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?tid=831833&pid=-2042210641&pg=0

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Changes, changes

It never fails that change happens. Of course, like most people, I prefer when I have chosen it, instead of it choosing me!

This past week, it was announced that the Cheyenne Mountain Blue Ribbon Panel is recommending closure for Canon Elementary, my school, where I have taught for 14 years. To matters even more personal, it is also the school my children have attending al their lives so far. They want to replace it with a parking lot and increased athletic space for the junior high, which sits across the street. The panel cites dropping district elementary enrollment ( although Canon's is up!), the age of the building 54 years ( anyone insulted?), asbestos in the walls, (been there all along!) and the fact that it sits beside Cheyenne Creek in an area labeled as a floodplain.

Needless to say, the news was heartbreaking. Canon is such a special place that we have several parents of children we teach who also attended there years ago. In fact, I currently have a child in my class who's grandmother was one of the first teachers. Besdies that, my teaching temamate, the other fifth grade teacher, attended Canon, nad was a third grader in the class where she now teaches everyday. It is a beautiful campus, dotted with ponderosa pine, scrub oak, and willows and cottonwoods in the riparian zone along the creek at the back of the school. Coming to the school in the fall and spring is like being at camp or in the mountains.

Besides 14 years as a teacher at this special place, I have spent the last 12 leading a group of 10, 11 and 12 year-old environmental scvience volunteers who form the Cheyenne Creek Conservation Club. It has been my greatest joy to watch kids learn about the creek and surrounding habitat, and learn about how this little stream's water connects them to the rest of the world!

So, you can see the ties are deep. I am simply not going to quietly allow this land to become a parking lot. There are so many things at stake! Please pray for us as we go to more board meetings on this subject. The next one is Wednesday, Feb. 20. A final decision is expected on March 31. Although they do not expect to close the school before 2010, this recommendation is already casuing a lot anxiety in kids, parents and teachers. Please pray also for us to have peace, and to keep doing what we do best.

I todl several parents this past week we can all either hold hands and go through this painful experience together, making the msot of the time we have left at Canon, or run away screaming. Which do you think will teach children a better lesson?

No, my job is not at stake. But my way of teaching and my son's educational future as I had envisioned it in a local neighborhood school may be.

And, if this change must come, I want to have a say in the future use and designs of this land, as well as the future for my children, my students, and others who will come our way for educational experiences in the future.