This is the first day of school for many districts, including Austin ISD where my grandchildren attend. So The Dawg hereby declares this NEW YEARS DAY!! So we wish all of you well as you begin another lap around the track, so to speak.

What will happen this year? A child in the Panhandle will discover that the letters on the page form words that the child can say out loud. She is reading! A 22-year old teacher in the Valley will find out just how hard this business is. But by next May, he will have developed a better set of classroom management skills, and will be thinking….maybe I can do this. A brand new assistant principal behind the Pine Cone Curtain in East Texas will handle her first student discipline matter, her first angry parent phone call, her first classroom observation. A senior, somewhere in the Hill Country, will shed tears while playing the tuba as the band performs at the final home football game. A brand new superintendent in West Texas will deal with some ugly public comment at the board meeting, and then frantically reach out to her mentor to ask: “How do you handle this???”

Teacher lounges all over the state will witness the full range of human emotions—the weeping and gnashing of teeth; out of control laughter; exuberant joy. Some football teams will win state championships. Some coaches will be fired.

As citizens, we will choose new leaders in November. In January, they will come together in Austin. By next May they will pass new laws, some of which we will like, some of which we will not.

At Walsh Gallegos Trevino Russo & Kyle, we will have your backs. We’re ready—at the telephone, at the board meeting, at the inservice, in the courtroom. Let’s work together to make this a good year.

DAWG BONE: READY OR NOT: HERE WE GO!

Tomorrow: Toolbox Tuesday visits an alternative school.