Transition Camp

Rob Bobling is missing his own high school class reunion. Instead he is leading the Transition Camp for students who will be frosh in Periwinkle County high schools this fall. It's the last time they'll have Transition Camp, he's sure. The budget just won't allow for "frills" anymore, like things that help kids get their lives in order so that they can learn. Rob is the supt. of schools, but he's running the camp by himself, with help from his wife, Virginia. They can't afford any paid help.

Rob didn't want to be supt. of PC schools. Again. He retired 5 years ago. The board set the salary so low, though, that nobody else would take the job, so he walked off the golf course and back into the perpetual budget crisis. His first act as supt. was to cut his own salary even more. That's how bad the budget is. The teachers have foregone raises for two years now. The voters seem to think that is not enough, that the teachers should actually take salary cuts, too. The voters don't want to share in the sacrifices to educate their children, though. They want the school personnel to do that alone. They haven't approved a tax increase for the schools for over 30 years. When did "no taxes" become a greater good than educated children, Rob wonders.

But now he has an idea. The Class of 1955, his class, is having its reunion at The Gramps & Grumps Inn, right next door to Camp Wathehel. What better group to run Transition Camp? They know all about transitions. They've been through them all and are now just circling the drain, getting ready for that final transition.

Besides, kids and old people have so much in common--that enemy in the middle. He's going to tell them what he tells every old person: the first thing you should ask when you wake up in the morning is, "What can I do today to help a child?"

So he's leaving Virginia in charge and heading over to Gramps and Grumps...