27 months...time sure flies!

I haven't been blogging a lot lately. Maybe you've noticed. I think my reduced activity reflects the way my blog seems to have evolved, especially over the past year. When I look back to the early days of my tenure on the Board (I was elected in April 2008), my blog posts were a little more personal...they tended to focus on my feelings as a new Board of Ed member and my genuine reflections on my role, the role of the Board and the challenges facing Board members, administration, teachers and parents in our District. That was fine...my posts had a personal, "journal-y" quality, which I think was good for me and I hoped might be interesting to whomever was reading (cue the sound of chirping crickets?).

As my 27 months (so far) on the Board evolved, my blog posts evolved, too. Especially during the time of the referendum in December 2009, and then during the 2010 budget season, my posts became less personal and more news-y. I found myself wanting to communicate facts and figures, rationales and rebuttals. I answered questions and received criticisms. While I do enjoy reporting news (I'm a former newspaper reporter, after all), I've found it difficult lately to get excited about posting another news item on my blog. So the posts have become less frequent.

Which brings me to today...mid-summer 2010. Board work slows down a bit in the summer, as we meet less often and there are fewer topics for the Board to discuss or items to approve. On top of that, my workload is slow this week, too. Wow...this is a truly rare occurrence. I actually MIGHT go through the foot-high pile of BOE paperwork on my desk corner. Woohoo!

As I've been cleaning up and organizing, I started thinking about this blog and thinking I should try and write some more thoughtful posts about my Board life. The first thing that comes to mind, that I mentioned when I saw old friends at various Graduation parties last month, was that I have definitely learned a lot over the past 27 months. It's mind-boggling.

So in the coming days, I'll be sharing some of the lessons I've learned... How's that for a cliffhanger?