School Board Elections

We have known for a long time of the financial problems of our school district, but now we are in a position of becoming a financially stressed district. Click on the title above to go to the article from Saturday's post dispatch article on this topic. This may set us up for a state takeover like the St. Louis Public Schools. Not only will teachers not get any kind of a cost of living raise for next year, but programs and services will have to be cut. I'm wondering if busing will be on the table again for cuts, and certainly technology and basic supplies including textbooks will suffer. It is more important than ever to vote for school board candidates that understand these issues and are prepared to make child-centered decisions in this time of financial crisis. Losing excellent teachers due to pay decreases and loss of benefits is certainly not a child centered decision, but have been mentioned by some of our school board candidates. Shockingly, some have also mentioned allowing teachers and/or students to carry concealed guns and other weapons in school due to security concerns.

The school board candidates that I believe have the best grasp of the situation, and are the most interested in making child-centered decisions are: Karl Frank, Erin Weber, and Drew Frauenhoffer. Karl is running for re-election and has been a champion for increased community interaction and education about our district. He has repeatedly made child-centered decisions in his term on the board and is deserving of a second term. Erin and Drew are running for a first term, and seem to me to have the same qualities of leadership and openness, as well as a concern for making child-centered decisions as Karl Frank. Please read about our candidates and get out to vote for the sake of our children. A question and answer session has been published by the Oakville Call the past few weeks and has been very helpful in elucidating some pretty serious issues and differences between the candidates. Remember: D, E and F when you go to the polls.

Messed Up Freshmen

Found out today that we have a potato chip stealing ring at the high school. Actually, I wish that is all that was being stolen. I'm so glad that we have some security cameras now in the commons and cafe. Twelve security cameras caught 4 plus freshment breaking into the storage area for the cafeteria and stealing big boxes of food, like potato chips. Since they were caught, they've been suspended and will probably wind up at Scope. I wish we had security everywhere else, but of course we can't afford it. That way, we'd know who torched the football field and ruined the goalpost, and who set the fire in the girls bathroom this week (see my post below). It is unconsionable that we have so little security these days. I'll be posting again tomorrow about the school board election, so stay tuned. That's even more crazy and interesting than this post.

Rachel Pulido: Talk About Tuesday - Goals

Rachel Pulido: Talk About Tuesday - Goals

High School Happenings

It's already been an exciting first day back from Spring Break. As we drove into school, there was a red helicopter sitting on the baseball field. Apparently, it was there since yesterday when the pilot had to make an emergency landing due to failure in the hydraulic systems. Then, during the first lunch, the fire alarm went off. A student had set a fire in the trash can in the girls restroom on the seond floor. My friend, Christy Mathews, put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. She was very brave. We were brought back in after the fire was put out, then the alarm went off again due to the smoke. We were brought in again, only to be told to leave the building under orders of the fire chief so that the smoke could be vented from the building without making anyone ill. While we were waiting, the helicopter tried to take off. The second try, it did get off the ground, and then FLEW TOWARDS THE CROWD OF KIDS OUTSIDE, instead of moving off in another direction. Fortunately, he stayed in the air and didn't crash. It was pretty frightening.
Let me know if you hear of anyone who may have set the fire. I'd like to make sure this doesn't happen again. Also, the people who set the endzone on fire have yet to be found, so again if you hear anything, let me know.
Crazy, crazy, crazy stuff.

How I Lost Weight with "Lower" Carbs

I hate trying to lose weight, because I'm really awful at it. I've tried a bunch of goofy diet type things for the past 5 or so years, but haven't lost a thing. Then I read a review of a book by the editor of the journal Science, Gary Taubes. I was interested because he had actually done some pretty exhaustive research on weight loss, and had only looked at peer-reviewed science journal articles on weight loss, instead of the crap the weight loss companies put out. Anyway, I bought the book he wrote, (I've included a link to amazon for it below in case you want to read it) and found that the typical weight loss diet we've used for many years where we lower fat and calories only produced a long term weight loss of 3 - 6 pounds and that it was very hard to stay on this diet and keep the weight off. Instead, he found that the one diet that worked the best was to eat 60 grams of carbohydrates or less a day. This provided an easy to maintain weight loss of 15 - 20 pounds. Here's the link to the book:



Anyway, I found out that I could do this diet pretty easily. It isn't like Atkins, there is no time when you go without carbs, you just decrease them and use lower carb products like the Sara Lee diet bread I use (says 45 Calories on the package). But an even greater help has come from the cookbook I bought (again off Amazon) that has allowed me to find and use recipes that are easy, take 15 minutes or less to prepare, and my family actually likes. Here's a link to this book:



The first two weeks I tried to have only about 25 carbs a day, and it was pretty easy using the books above. Also, I have a low carb pocket book from Atkins that gives the "usable carb" counts for everything like fruits and veggies. Here's the link to this little book:



I wouldn't try this without a carb counter of some kind. Also, make sure your family is aware that you are doing this and to help you by having their carby snacks somewhere else than around you!! I hope this stuff is helpful, I feel so much better and have more energy now. My back even feels better. The only problem has been my clothes don't fit. Haha. Silly me, I had donated my old size 10's and bought all new 12's. I'm replacing stuff now from the Family Thrift Store on Lemay Ferry, so all is not lost. I just really thought I could never lose the weight and that it was a function of aging, instead of finding the right diet. I feel like such a dork.