Life of a Superintendent

There are no bigger fans of our superintendent than the four Heinisch children.  Brett calls him, "Doc!" and debates public education with him.  Cal challenges him to high stakes ping pong matches where the winner calls the next two hour delay day.   Meg truly believes that outside of his own children and grandchildren that there is no one other child in the world that he likes more than her.  Finally, Cameron spends any chance that he gets trying to talk our superintendent into a delay or cancellation.  "Doc" listens to them, jokes with them, encourages them in their many activities and gives them great advice.  They all look up to them and I enjoy watching them interact with him.

Doug and I share their opinion.  Our superintendent has seen the school change drastically over the past five years he has been in charge.  The downturn in the economy hit our area hard.  Families have left our community in search of jobs.  The percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunches has almost tripled.  Teachers must now be evaluated with the talk of merit pay to be added to their contracts.  Through all of this our superintendent has remained positive.  He continues his hands on approach.  He attends sports functions, academic activities, the plays, drops in on classes, has a lunch buddy, is a science fair judge, and a spelling bee bell ringer.  He continually works with the principals of our district to keep students involved and in school.

Cal did win the ping pong match.  Although, he never really called a delay for Cal, the next time there was one he let all of the 7th graders know it was because of Cal's ping pong abilities.  Each of my children have had a delay on or close to their birthday.  It was for snow or fog, but when they pointed it out he let them know it was in honor of their big day.  I know one of the hardest things he had to do was ring the bell when Meg missed a word in the spelling bee.  She was in shock, but it didn't change her opinion of him.  Yesterday at the Knights' St. Patrick Day Party, Cameron tried talking him into at least a "one minute delay."  So, today while my children debate for which one of them he called the snow day for, I smile.  I realize that he called it because of the ice, but I love that they believe that he
cares that much about them.   I know that he cares that much about all of the children of our corporation.