News and Happenings

Student loan defaulters

College Prep, Communication, Family, Job Search, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Social Media /

Bank withdrawalI just watched a podcast showing numerous student loan defaulters who consider themselves “under-employed” and carrying “unsustainable loans”, complaining about the prospect of having to pay them back after years of covid and other reasons for repayment pauses.

I responded. Hard-hearted? Or real? Tell me what you think (nicely, please).

“I went to a state university because I couldn’t afford a top-tier private school. I had some scholarships, but also worked at least one job every semester and accepted financial aid via work-study and loans. With my degree, I got the job I studied for, struggled a few early years to repay my loan, and continued with life.

Current trends are to borrow immoderate amounts for over-priced private, name-brand schools, bypassing the more moderately priced options, to get a useless degree or one that offers low potential for justifying the price or the loan incurred.

With an attitude and degree no business wants to pay for, they accept lower wage jobs and spend what they should be setting aside for their loan obligation to get tatted, buy the fancy new car, best phone, gaming, credit card debt and party life. And then they want ME to subsidize their lifestyle so they don’t have to pay their debt. All four of my family went to college. Three involved loans. All paid back. Pardon my insensitivity.”

Increasingly, hs graduates are opting to learn high-paying trades or going into the military, which offers opportunities to learn, study, and gain financially — with stability. Those are wise decisions in the current environment.

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Are public schools receiving less in Indiana due to SB1

College Prep, Family, High Schools, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Social Media, Teaching /
With all the publicity of public schools receiving less due to Indiana SB1, I started doing a non-scientific comparison between 2000 (one of my sons graduated in 1999 and the other in 2001) and current. Some lists show current as 2023, 2024 or projected 2025. I did not cite each of these numbers as they come from multiple sources and, in some cases, sources differ on exact numbers. ALSO, I emailed questions to my state Representative and state Senator. I have heard back from one of them. Once I hear from both, I’ll share.
Originally for my own information, I compared some of the local and state data I was finding with the near west-coast school (K-12) my grandkids attend (I will refer to as Private School A) and an east-coast boarding school (9-12) where one of my sons is a teacher, coach and admin (Private School B).

No fancy graphs or editorials ….just FYI. Some numbers don’t seem to “add up”, so feel free to note or correct discrepancies.

HUNTINGTON COUNTY POPULATION

2000 – 38079
2023 – 36781
Decrease 1298 or 3.4%

HCCSC

2000 – 6548 students
2025 – 4916 students
Decrease of 1632 or 25%

HNHS POPULATION

2000 – @2000 students
2025 – @1400 students
Decrease of 600 or 30%
Size of administration increases (?) – below

SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN HUNTINGTON COUNTY

2000 – 8885 (6548 in HCCSC = 73%)
2025 – 8000 (4916 in HCCSC = 61%)
Decrease in student population 885
Decrease in HCCSC participation 1632 or 12%
According to HCCSC published material, 15% of students within our boundaries (@1200) choose alternate options. This compares favorably with other systems in our area. Alternate options would be schools outside our boundaries, online education, home schooling, private schools inside or outside our boundaries, and others.
Class Size 15:1 – favorable, comparable to most data I found in a variety of school types
Govt money per student = $9876 x 4916 (student population) = $48,550,416

GRADUATION

2021 – 471 students
2024 – 307 students
Decrease of 164 graduates
HN Graduation 89%. State average – 88%
Private School A – no data.
Private School B – “nearly 100%”

SAT SCORES

HNHS – 1140 (better than national and state averages)
National – 1040
Indiana – 971
Private School A – 1270 (1081 state avg)
Private School B – 1446 (1112 state avg)
Duke University & UPenn (Son #2 attended) – 1550 & 1540
IU – 1310
Purdue – 1330
Notre Dame – 1500
Ball State – 1177
PFW – 1080

HUNTINGTON NORTH HIGH SCHOOL

1 – Principal
4 – Assistant Principals
1 – Dean
1 – Athletic Director
1 – CTE (Career & Technical Education) Director
5 – Guidance Counselors
? – Administrative Assistants (one source said 9)
1 – Resource Officer (Total of 3? in the corporation)

HCCSC ADMINISTRATION (aka Corporation Office)

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT
Superintendent
Executive Secretary
CFO
COO
INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES
Director of Elementary Education
Director of Secondary Education
Administrative Assistant for Secondary Education
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Assistant to Executive Secretary / Receptionist
Deputy Treasurer & Grants Specialist
Corporation Treasurer
Accounts Payable / Receivable
Payroll Specialist
HUMAN RESOURCES
Director of Human Resources, Payroll / Human Resources
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Principal High Ability Coordinator
Professional Development Coordinator
Assistant Principal Professional Development Coordinator
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Director of Special Education
Assistant Director of Special Education
Administrative Assistant for Special Education
Interpreter
2 – Speech Language Pathologist
Occupational Therapist
Early Childhood Coordinator
Consulting Teacher for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Director of Marketing & Communications

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The Beast at Daytona

News and Happenings, Personal experience, Teaching /
A few years ago, I made a post expressing pride in the success of many of the students from my first teaching position in a small rural school in southern Indiana. I think I said something about being humbled to have been (maybe) a small part of their success.
Cadillac at Daytona 500 Trump at Daytona
I got a really nice note from one of those students who shared a story about something he learned from me that has influenced his life lessons in management. He is now a Senior VP at General Motors.
He posted pics from celebrating the Cadillac racecar … and also the Cadillac Beast, which took a couple laps. I’m including a video (not from him) that shows the lap. Part is boring, but you can hear crowd noise, see two flyovers and how the racecars lined up behind The Beast (and the SS entourage, of course).
Great publicity.

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Be a Gold digger.

Assistant Directing, College Prep, High Schools, Music Performance, News and Happenings, Solo Prep, Teaching, Teaching Music /

Solo/Ensemble season is here. Vocal is local and starts tomorrow. Instrumental for local musicians starts next Saturday. If you get District GOLD, you qualify for STATE.

Every participant is a winner. What other activity (maybe shooting free throws in a ball game) requires someone to stand in front of a person with the job of (usually) finding their every mistake?

Be GOLD diggers.

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Fanfare for the Common Man

Guest Post, News and Happenings, Personal experience /

Fanfare for the Common Man

From

Enquirer – Cincinnati and Kentucky

Born in Cincinnati, celebrated around the world:

You’ve heard it before. We promise. But you probably didn’t know it was written for Cincinnati. In the midst of an election that has divided us, we present to you the story behind this iconic song that was written 74 years ago, specifically to unite. Video by Carrie Cochran, Photojournalist and Meg Vogel. MORE: http://cin.ci/2frupXR

 

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Stop with the Fascist Hitler comparisons

News and Happenings /
pic is a screenshot from a Fox News report
What is this fascination with calling politicians Fascist or Hitler? I find it grossly sickening, personally offensive to the extreme, and worthy of an immediate block of anyone I know who states that on my page. Oppose the candidate….that is fair. Criticize some of the things he has done. That is fair. I have too.
But this Hitler stuff has gotta stop — before somebody really DOES get killed.
Hitler is reported to have killed 11 to 17 MILLION people (NOT including the 20 million that the U.S.S.R. lost via his invasion), including approximately 6 million Jewish people in medical experiments (like tying together women’s legs as they are about to give birth), shootings, hangings, decapitations, mass poisonings, forcing mothers to choose between multiple children, starving, work camps and burning in ovens. How many died in boxcars en route to extermination camps? Do we have any extermination camps like that?
How many people has the current candidate killed? Compare that to the many stories of former workers or critics of former presidents who mysteriously suicided or otherwise accidentally died or disappeared.
Hitler imprisoned/killed”Gypsies” (Roma and Sinti), Homosexuals, people with mental and physical disabilities (my polio-inflicted mother would have been in that group), some religious groups, political opponents (wait! Who is doing that?), and black people living in Germany. Compare what he sanctioned in the ghettos of Warsaw with any of the genuine injustices in this country. Think Anne Frank and what she went through hiding in an attic for years before succumbing to disease in a Nazi death camp — along with her sister and mother.
He established the Einsatzgruppen, which were tasked with carrying out mass killings. They massacred entire villages with machine gunning and even filled village churches with women and children and then setting them ablaze. Did anything comparable happen when the current candidate was actually the POTUS?
Fascist Hitler executed over 80 of his own generals (that is worse than firing or being on the receiving end of a “mean tweet”, btw). Remember Field Marshall Rommel, his incredibly successful “Desert Fox” commander? Because he eventually recognized the evil, Hitler sent executioners to his home and offered him the choice of suicide by poison or public humiliation and trials. He did get a fake hero burial and his family was taken care of… because that helped the Hitler image.
He refused to recognize the accomplishments of non-Germans, and especially black Americans who won medals in the Berlin Olympics.
Is this the man desperatos are comparing to a presidential candidate?
Imagine Hitler serving fries at McDonald’s. Photo opp that it was, just visualize THAT comparison.

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Told to lie to parents

Communication, News and Happenings, Public Schools, Social Media, Teaching /
Showed up on my Igram today. She was a teacher, a Christian, fired by her district…..but in the end, she won. Teachers should listen. PARENTS…. listen to her tell of direct instruction to lie to parents. Scary.
California’s Jurupa Unified School District has agreed to pay $360,000 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit after public school teacher Jessica Tapia claimed the district violated her First Amendment rights when it fired her for not adhering to gender-affirming school policies. May 20, 2024

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