Enjoy the great students, being in beautiful, downtown Port Townsend, but be aware that enrollment and salary fluctuate significantly.

The most stressful day was last Memorial Day. I was working on report cards, and my head of school came in, closed the door, and said, "I have difficult news. Enrollment is so low that I can't afford to hire you next year as the middle school teacher. Now I'm feeling positive and grateful to have had such a good ride for five years. Having the option of teaching online also helps a lot. I just ordered a new (to me) refurbished Mac with enough intell core to do it.

Supportive head of school who matched my skills, talents, and passions well with roles, e.g. learning specialist as well as m.s. humanities teaching. It was a dream job because I had language arts and social studies integrated and crafted it over 5 years. I love all the warm, fun students and their supportive families. I even was paid for half my continuing ed to renew my WA certificate. I may still remain as the learning coach if the enrollment and budget will allow for it. My head is trying to do that but we have gone from 34 students to 12 definitely returning next Fall. We hoped for more international students from China than we actually got too.