I wanted to take a moment to thank all the students, Eaton staff, and parents who were so understanding and cooperative during the cold days last week without heat in our cafeteria.  The vast majority of comments were positive and showed a great willingness to adjust to the situation.  Students wore jackets to lunch a couple days (while many said it didn’t seem cold to them), and on the single digit temperature days, kids ate lunch in their classrooms. Even then, the temperature in the cafeteria never dipped below 62 degrees, so we feel blessed things went so well.  One child, upon hearing Friday he would get to eat in his classroom again, said, “I feel like I’ve won the lottery.”  All the teachers worked together to make this a fun time for the students with many featuring “dinner with a movie” themes. 

As many of you know, two local news crews were notified by parents of the situation and showed up to do stories.  Interestingly, they took two very different approaches in their reporting.  The WBIR story showed the students and teachers making the best of the situation and even enjoying the change of routine.  The WATE story, however, implied that I was somehow negligent by not notifying all parents of the situation.  Had I thought for even an instant that children were in harm’s way, I certainly would have notified parents.  This was not the case.  We had a great week of learning with no interruption to classroom instruction.  Given the days off this week for snow, I am grateful for those days.  I want to assure our families they most definitely will be notified if or when we have situations that place the students at risk. 

I’m happy to report that our cafeteria is now toasty warm and all is back to normal.  I am so grateful to our parents who take these kinds of issues and handle them with good common sense and cooperation.  I only had one parent personally address the situation with me, and his main concern was with the classroom temperature — not the cafeteria.  In this era where parents seem to contact the media over the slightest problem, it is easy for educators to become discouraged.  We work diligently at Eaton to make sure our children are well cared for, safe, and given the best education possible.  It is heart warming to us when you take the time to acknowledge the good things taking place on our campus. 

I want to remind everyone that Mrs. Amburn and I are very accessible to you when there are concerns.  Please pick up the phone or come by the school and address any concerns directly with us.  We know you join with us in wanting to protect the reputation of our school and ALWAYS do what is in the best interest of our students.