#the superintendent

Merry Christmas and Happy HOLO-days ❄️☃️

Today is its -487th birthday!

The Superintendent was a "dumb" AI construct used to run and monitor New Mombasa's municipal systems. Dr. Daniel Endesha was a scientist primarily tasked with its management. He created Virgil, a subroutine programmed into the Superintendent that was designed to look after his daughter, Sadie. Using its widespread access to New Mombasa's cameras, microphones, and machines, Virgil was able to monitor Sadie and make decisions based on her best interest. For example, when Sadie attempted to join the UNSC, Virgil used its access to New Mombasa's train system to prevent her from going to the recruiting office. When New Mombasa was attacked by the Covenant, it similarly commandeered vehicles to guide her to safety.

The Superintendent became of interest to the Covenant when it performed a seismic scan that detected the portal at Voi. Interested, the Covenant conducted a search for its data center, which ONI sent Captain Veronica Dare and ODST squad Alpha-Nine to prevent. The Superintendent assisted Alpha-Nine by guiding them through the city using its municipal functions, such as signs, lights, and voice prompts. When Dare reached the data center, she discovered that a Covenant Huragok accessed the damaged Superintendent, absorbing both it and the sub-routine Virgil. This Huragok, Quick-to-Adjust, essentially became what is left of the Superintendent. Because it absorbed Virgil's data, Quick-to-Adjust became attached to Sadie, often refusing to cooperate without her. Thus, Sadie became the Huragok's handler.

AND WE’RE BACK! I mean, The Principal’s stuck in Covid quarantine for one more day (oops), but details, details! The rest of us are back, and we’re ready to put the past three years behind us and kick some ass. Pretty much every meeting we had acknowledged the fact that we tried to do our best throughout the pandemic, but it was tough, it was traumatic, and we were all in survival mode, so we all experienced what Mr. G called “professional slippage.” Some things fell apart. Now it’s time to put them back together, rebuild our school culture, help everyone reach their full potential. 

The Superintendent welcomed back the faculty and staff of the entire district, which he was delighted to do because, obviously, we didn’t gather everyone in the auditorium like that last year or the year before. He always does this thing where he asks everyone to stand, and to sit back down when he calls out our years of experience in the district (as this is my 18th year, I was standing for quite a while- and quite a bit longer than many of my same-age colleagues, who worked elsewhere before coming here). It’s cheesy, but it’s also really cool, especially when he gets to the last few people remaining and asks why they’ve stayed. So, yeah, he did that, and then set the tone for the year: vision, goals, all that. 

After that, the middle and elementary school folks left, and we had a high school-specific meeting. Our admin team has been restructured so that there’s not a vice principal anymore, but two Deans of Students (9th/10th and 11th/12th), one of whom is brand new to the district (and fresh off a decade in South Korea, so he’s very amused that my brain is full of kpop). Our schedule has also been revised to build in a more formal advisory program, so that was discussed, and we got instructions for completing state-mandated suicide prevention training online. We were sent off to do that, work in our classrooms, etc, etc... 

If you’re a longtime reader, and you’re wondering if I was playing Bingo at those meetings: yes, I was, and, yes, I got Bingo. Ms. H and Mr. F both got it before me, though, so they win. Note: I got six or seven people to play, and more to look on, because I’m a terrible influence and also an excellent one. Heh. 

What else? It was good to see my cacophonous friends again, and to get excited about the year with them. And we are all excited because there’s a real determination to move forward in a positive way, lift morale, foster school pride, all the stuff that’s been so hard to do lately. And we all believe we can do it.

Skinner and the Superintendent (Short) Aesthetic

for @ataeaf

I taught my last classes today. 

My World students had one last chance to finish their work, make revisions, etc... while we ate donuts and cookies. Then I thanked them for the year, and that was that. 

I spent an hour or so after lunch cleaning up my room, and helping Mr. W pack his (because he’s leaving teaching to become a therapist, which is a loss for us but a gain for everyone else). Then Mr. B and I, in our capacity as union president and building rep, respectively, had a meeting with The Principal to discuss some proposed changes to the school day schedule, and make sure they’re in line with our contracts, etc... 

And then I got in the car and drove south to my dad’s house, where my brother and his family have been for the last couple days. Longtime readers know he’s in the army, and between that and the pandemic, we hadn’t seen each other since Christmas 2018. We typically aren’t allowed to take personal days after Memorial Day, but The Superintendent let me take mine, given the circumstances (and the fact that the blocks scheduled for the next two days are the ones when I had seniors, so I wouldn’t have been teaching anyhow).