Glenridge Middle Community Member
I hope that you had a restful break, full of family and things that you are thankful for. At the Kempinger house, the day started out promising as the family sat around in front of the TV watching the Macy’s Day Parade and I placed a beautiful turkey in the oven. As the house filled with the familiar smells of Thanksgiving, we were hit with a power outage. OUC sent us a helpful text telling us it would be approximately 2 hours before power was restored. Raw turkey is not exactly how I envisioned this going, especially with this being the first time anyone in the family would be hosting a holiday dinner since my mom passed away earlier this year. After some quick thinking, I covered the bird in foil and threw it on the charcoal grill while we waited for power to be restored. Sure, it came out a little smokier than our usual turkey, but this mayhem was exactly what my family needed as we dealt with gathering around the table missing my mom, and I have no doubt that she had a little to do with our power going out on Thanksgiving Day.
When we arrive back tomorrow, we will be finishing up with our Volleyball playoffs (still waiting on an official schedule). We also have just 3 short weeks left in the first semester. Before we left for break, we officially brought on three new Lions: Mrs. Colon, Mr. Siljestrom, and Mr. Hames. Mrs. Colon is returning to Glenridge after working in the private sector for two years. She is going to serve as a grade-level clerk for our deans and guidance counselors. Mr. Siljestrom is taking over the orchestra classroom and has already hit the ground running. Mr. Hames will be our Assistant Principal of Instruction. He has been an assistant principal in the high school division of OCPS for several years, and we worked together as curriculum coaches for the district as we both pursued school-based leadership positions. I am excited to have such great people coming to Glenridge. It really is a testament to our reputation as a school to have quality candidates looking to transfer and return to us.
Thank you for reading.
In Lion Pride,
Mr. Kempinger
Proud Principal
Glenridge Middle School