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Seriously?

I can't believe I haven't included this in the blog before! This is one of my favorite stories about the district. I thought I had written it but I just searched the blog...

When I started in my district, the schools had just been converted from K-6 elementary schools and 7-8 junior high schools. The elementary schools were overcrowded, so they became K-5, and the junior high schools were changed to middle schools, 6th-8th grade.

A junior high school next to the school I worked at was one of these. Let's say it was called "Gecko" Junior High School. Well, this district, always willing and able to do a bad job of things, decided to save money and not replace all the metal letters. Instead, they made a sign that said "Middle School" and nailed it up over the "Junior High" portion of the sign. So, now you have a sign that is partly in old metal capital letters and partly in a newer wooden or something sign, reading:

GECKO Middle School SCHOOL

Awesome. The best was that no one noticed - or more likely, no one cared. This sign stayed up for years and bothered me every time I drove by. It's already a bad school - dangerous, bad reputation, in a violent area - do they need to look like idiots also? I mean, if you have so few reasons to be proud of your school already, you don't need this kind of thing.

Finally, Lindsay, who was no longer working in the district, submitted it to Chronicle Watch, which checks on things that are supposed to get fixed. Apparently, they thought it was as ridiculous as we did, because they published it, and it was eventually fixed. Sort of. At least, the last "SCHOOL" was removed, although the fastenings for the letters are still there, so now it kind of looks like this:

GECKO Middle School ------

There really is nothing like high standards in education, is there?

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