Death of a School – But Not Its Spirit – Part 3

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In the first two parts, I looked at some of the reasons, both external and internal, as to why RCDS has struggled financially and finally had to close. I look at some more reasons in this third and final part. I also echo concerns raised by others about where the money went, but using my professional skills as a tax preparer for 30 years and a financial professional and auditor for 40 years. And for those who come to my blog to read about transgender issues, I make brief mention of a hope and dream for a new school in the same spirit, one that is geared specifically towards children with an alternative or transgender identity.

Downhill trend: RCDS went in and out of crisis mode throughout its entire history.  Someone recently posted on Facebook a column in the local newspaper by a reporter and former teacher about the school narrowly averting shutting its doors.  Based on my knowledge of that former teacher and coach who was at RCDS during my sophomore and junior year, that headline had to be at least twenty years ago.  So another generation of students was able to attend RCDS since that crisis was averted.

Certainly financial concerns lurked from the earliest days.  At least at the beginning RCDS had a group of wealthy backers, many of whom were sending their own children, interested in the school’s success.  But there were other concerns and conflicts, even as far back as the first decade of the school’s existence.  Those conflicts were over educational philosophy and direction of the school.  I’ve already discussed some of those.  One of them might be summarized as Preppie versus Hippie.  When I arrived, many of the older students fulfilled the dress codes with prep school attire.  But longer hair, particularly among the younger students, was starting to creep in and some of the older students were heading in that direction, too.  As I recall, some of the trustees and financial backers were starting to balk at the lack of discipline and counterculture attitudes that were emerging.  Freedom to explore educational opportunities in a more open manner, yes; freedom to rebel, thumb noses at authority, break rules about sexual mores, smoking (cigarettes and pot) and drinking, no.  And this schism was felt in the faculty ranks as well.  By the time I graduated, many of the teachers who were there when I started and who were among the faculty in the earliest years had left: Downs (although he returned later), Bridgio, Sandulli, Hyatt, McCurdy, and Gibson; Headmaster McClure, whose first year was my first year, stayed only three years and then left for Princeton Day.  His successor lasted only one year.

Yet the consensus is that even in these differences, whether someone stayed or left, while they were at RCDS the vast majority of them genuinely cared about the students and our success.  And after you get past the usual student griping about the pressure of tests, term papers and homework, we look back fondly on most of our teachers and the school in general.  The school had a sense of community that developed through shared activities with the teachers: sports teams, plays, recitals, field trips, clubs, kite day and undoubtedly some activities that sprang up long after I left.

The sense I am getting from parents (some of whom also went to RCDS), faculty members (current and former) and alumni who had stayed closely connected with the school for various reasons is that the attitudes of some of the school administration and some of the trustees started to change about 5-10 years ago.  Since this is all hearsay, I will not name any names.  (I will add that I do not suspect anyone in the final school administration who were present at the 8/31 gathering.)  But here are some of the comments I have heard: parents of alums were dropped from the contact list even though they were faithfully giving; the administration trashed their relationship with the alumni group; someone must have sold out the school; where has the money gone; a lot of key people have left or resigned in the last two years since the campus was sold (and there could be lots of reasons for that: some innocent and some not so innocent); the educational standards and environment went downhill; the school was not properly prepared for the arrival of international students with a lack of ESL teachers (later remedied); the school had too high an amount of scholarships.

On top of all this, the end was handled in a regrettable manner.  I’ve already talked about how the decision so close to the start of the school year on top of the notices sent out in May and June, has been terribly difficult on the students (and their parents), the teachers and staff (and their families).  It was the final insult added to a series of injuries.

I have also heard that there were a few heroes in the midst of this debacle, trying to do the right thing.  But they were outnumbered, overmatched, outmaneuvered and ran out of time.

As it happens, I was just starting to get more reconnected to RCDS in October 2016, although I had been giving faithfully for a few years before that.  (And one time, I was the first person to solve one of Mr. Boyer’s math puzzles.)  I had decided that I wanted my school to know the real me.  So I began going to events: the school-wide reunion in October 2016, the Holiday shopping village, the spring musical in 2017 and the last two graduations.  I was told that the school wanted to reconnect with the alumni and I wrote a series of reminiscences of my time at RCDS which I was told would be put into the school newsletter.  It would have run about 6 or 7 issues.  Only one was included, in part because the school newsletter, even a digital version that should have had minimal cost, suddenly ceased.  I told one of the trustees in 2016 that I wanted to be more involved and never heard from the school.

Even so when we toured the school at the 2016 reunion; when we saw the progress on the new STEAM lab; when I saw the happy faces at the 2017 spring musical: it still seemed like the same positive RCDS experience.  I liked the people I met from the administration.  When I had positive, supportive one on one conversations with teachers and administrators, there was no hint of anything terribly wrong.  The school looked great, the food was great and kids looked like they were doing well.  It may have been a patina.

Partially because it is my biggest concern and partially because it is my area of expertise, I am most concerned about what happened to the money.  But once again I need to tread lightly here.  I do not have access to the books of the school, nor do I have access to the closing documents for the sale of the campus.  The only things I know are that it has been widely reported without dispute that the school sold its campus to the Town of Clarkstown in early 2018 for $4.4 million and that I have read RCDS’s required Form 990 filed with the IRS for its fiscal year of 7/1/17 to 6/30/18.  Form 990 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 is not due until November 15, 2019, so it is not available for download with the IRS as of a few days ago.

With those caveats in mind, I have cause for concern.  This caution has to be kept in mind: there could be an accounting reason that is particular to non-profit organizations that explains it.  But based on a cash flow analysis of the Form 990, the numbers don’t add up as far as I have been able to dig with what I have available to me.  I’ve heard possible explanations offered up: what if the Town was allowed to pay in installments under the contract of sale?  Then, it should show on the balance sheet as an asset of some kind.  What if the school took out additional credit lines against the property to keep going?  Then that should be offset by additional cash coming into RCDS when doing the cash flow analysis.  What if there were $3.4 million in mortgages prior to the 2017-18 fiscal year?  Then why does only $2.1 million show up on the Form 990 reported to the IRS?  But until I have more proof, all I am willing to say publicly at this time is that the discrepancy appears to be major.

Should it be looked into further?  I believe so.  If wrongdoing was done, those responsible should be held to account and as much restoration made as possible, especially to the parents who paid out tuition for the upcoming year.  The sad thing is that if this money had been on hand, the school would have been able to open this month.  It would be even sadder if the people were finally in place who had the ability to find a long-term financial solution and still maintain the wonderful education that made RCDS so special to all of its alums.  Now they won’t have the chance.  But there is more investigation needed to confirm my suspicions about the monetary discrepancy.

I hope there is a better explanation, even if it is my own inexperience or error.  I’d rather the school failed because of falling enrollment revenue (and it did drop $550,000 from 2016-17 to 2017-18).  I’d rather the school failed because of poor fundraising efforts (it did drop by $120,000 between those two years and without hiring an outside fundraiser, RCDS actually lost $7.000 on its fundraising efforts in 2017-18).  I’d rather the school failed because of poor but honest management.  I’d rather my hypothesis is wrong either because of my error or because the accountants for RCDS filed Form 990 with an error in the numbers.

When I graduated, there were about 170 students spread over 7 grades, with 1 Headmaster, 5 non-faculty staff members and 27 faculty members (6:1 student-faculty ratio).  According to the website, there are about 120 students spread over 14 grades with 1 Head of School, 15 non-faculty members (more if school secretaries or administrative assistants aren’t listed on the website) and 18 faculty members for a 7:1 student-faculty ratio.  Some of those extra non-faculty employees are needed because of the International students who were boarded at Dominican College.  Even so, the number of employees is about the same for about 30% fewer students.  The faculty to non-faculty ratio went from about 6:1 to 6:5.  And yet this doesn’t necessarily mean poor management.  This might have been necessary to stay competitive with what other private schools in the area were offering for the high tuition being charged.  All I’m saying is that I’d rather the downfall be something other than evil.

The surrounding community: For most of the years that I attended RCDS (1963-70), we were called “Hippie Hill” by the public school kids (and maybe adults too … and maybe worse).  Boys were wearing Beatle boots and longer hair when the public school boys were wearing button down shirts, chinos, loafers and crew cuts.  Girls had long straight hair, granny glasses, boots, and Hippie or Bohemian fashions when public school girls were wearing Peter Pan collars, sweater sets, plaid skirts, wing-tip glasses and either penny loafers or saddle shoes.  The drug culture hit us in high school; it hit the public school kids in college or for many of the boys, in Vietnam.

We were disliked for being different.  (What else is new?)  We were disliked because it was assumed that we were all stuck-up rich kids.  (In fact many of us were getting quite mellow on a regular basis and many of us were not rich.  I know my parents weren’t.)

Some people say that the animus has never quite gone away.  Other sources would indicate that as the times changed and the cultural divide between town and gown narrowed, most or all of the animus departed.  I live in Suffern, far enough away that RCDS is not a topic of conversation.  People have heard about it and that’s all.

Nevertheless, there is talk and conjecture by some that there was politics involved in the purchase of the RCDS campus by the town, and politics involved in the slow response to the school’s request to renegotiate the lease agreement to give the school some breathing room and the Head of School more time to work out another of the school’s traditional last minute saving moves.  Some suggest that it was never about helping the school stay afloat.  It was about a land grab by the Town for its own purposes, reasons to become known when the Town makes its next move after the school is cleared out.  I have heard from more than one person close to the school that there was a shadow effort, sources unknown, that were at work countering the attempts to find the funding, whether through donations or new tuition paying students, or any other legal means to keep the school afloat and on a new path to sustainability.

I would love to see a school on that campus again, either a revival of RCDS or a school with the same spirit of RCDS but one that is geared as a place of learning and refuge for children who identify as part of my gender community, the transgender community.  It wouldn’t be Rockland Country Day School any more, but the name I would give it is “The Magnolia School at the Rockland Country Campus”.  (If the RCDS campus is no longer available, the school would simply be “The Magnolia School” but the goal would be to use the best aspects of the RCDS tradition as its academic model and the RCDS inspiration would be noted on the new campus.)

As we can see from the example of NYMA during this decade, that would require a large influx of liquid assets.  (I would estimate at least $10 million, mostly in cash with some high quality stocks and bonds as well to provide income.)  Hurdle number one is the same as the first headmaster wrote in 1961: where will the money come from?  Hurdle number two is how determined is the Town of Clarkstown board to get the property back on the tax rolls (assuming that they can find a developer willing to pay their price) or to keep the campus as an additional recreation site for their own residents.  Hurdle number three is outbidding anyone else who wants the property if it is put up for sale.

Even so, land and property, while not strictly fungible, can be found elsewhere if there are enough people with the vision to make it happen plus the ability to provide or find sufficient funding to make it happen.  And then it would remain to be seen if it could be run in a businesslike fashion without losing the special qualities that made RCDS so beloved by so many of its alumni.

There are 444 listed members of the Rockland Country Day School Alumni Group on Facebook (which is open to anyone who attended the school, even if they did not graduate, plus former faculty and staff).  Of that number, 65 have joined since the school announced its closing.  What can we do to keep that momentum going and accomplish something worthwhile with it?  The floor is open for suggestions.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. – Proverbs 29:18

God bless,

Lois

Death of a School – But Not Its Spirit – Part 2

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actuarial, administration, alumni, awards, bequests, Bill Irwin, boarding school, bonding, campus, capital asset, celebrities, Cherry Lawn School, Chinese, Community, Cornell, counterculture, Department of Education, development officer, donation, drugs, endowment, entrepreneurs, faculty, family, free education, Halsted School, irreverence, Jim Fyfe, land, life expectancy, Lower Hudson Valley, New York Military Academy, Niche, NYMA, Oakland Military Academy, operating expenses, planning, prep school, private school, professionals, progressive education, public school, RCDS, real estate sale, Rockland Country Day School, Rockland County, Scarborough, St. Mary's High School, St. Peter's School, suburbs, teacher, tuition, Tyne Daly, unprofessional, US News & World Report, vanity, wealth

While RCDS succeeded academically and in building connections between students, faculty and administrative staff, I look at some of the elements of the school that hindered its financial success. Even so, it outlasted a number of private schools (some day and some boarding) in the area. It may have also been hindered by diminishing advantages compared to the public school alternatives.

Public school improvement: It is difficult to compare, because either there were no ratings of public schools and school districts when RCDS was founded or those ratings were not archived.  What we know is that in recent years, public schools in Rockland have won awards and been well-ranked by independent groups or publications.  Since 2000, five elementary schools (two of them twice), one middle school and two high schools have received the Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Education.  And since 2015, every public school district in Rockland except East Ramapo (the school district with a majority of students going to private schools, mostly yeshivas) has been ranked with an award or among the best by either U.S. News & World Report or Niche (formerly College Prowler).  RCDS was founded to provide a quality alternative to the public schools at that time.  If the quality of public education has risen to higher levels, it will be harder for parents to justify spending low five-figure tuition costs when their children can get good quality public school education for free.

RCDS culture: While there have been times when the mission of the school has been cloudy and there were different educational philosophies between the founders or board of trustees and the head of school, in general RCDS followed the country day school model of progressive education.  What varied over the years was whether the collegiate prep school element would be emphasized or the encouragement of student freedom to explore and develop model would be emphasized.  Both elements were present simultaneously regardless of the philosophy from the top down as faculty members varied in their approach.  I had teachers in each camp as well as those who tried to balance the two.  As a result at least based on the alumni I have known over the years and have recently reconnected with, there is a large dose of irreverence and counterculture among the alumni.  While there are a number of professionals (especially the medical profession) and entrepreneurs among the alumni, those who own their own businesses tend to have small businesses.  At least in my generation, there was a spirit of anti-materialism at RCDS.  And of course there was the drug culture.  Some who turned on, tuned in and dropped out didn’t drop very far back in.  The bottom line is that while there has been a profound outpouring of devotion to RCDS over the years, especially now that the school has announced its closing, for all these reasons it didn’t translate into a large amount of giving, certainly not enough to keep the school afloat.

Jim Fyfe

Borrowing a line from “A Tale of Two Cities”, RCDS was the best of schools and it was the worst of schools.  Or as Jim Fyfe (wearer of many hats, including former Trustee) put it at the school’s good bye event on 8/31, the best part of RCDS was also the worst part of RCDS.  It was a family.  The students, faculty and administration bonded like family.  But too often it was also run like a family, from the heart, not like a business.

Lack of endowment: When RCDS acquired the Pitkin farm, they had more land than they could use.  When I attended the spring musical/pajama party in 2017, I was sitting with a number of parents who didn’t realize that at one time, the school’s property extended all the way from Kings Highway to Lake DeForest.  Over time, some was sold off, whether for housing developments or Town athletic fields.  No doubt that was part of the original plan until the school could develop an endowment fund.  But the school ran out of land.  Perhaps the school could have sold off some more parcels rather than the entire campus, but the only one left of significant size would have meant losing its only remaining athletic field large enough to host a sport (and the baseball field, barely visible on Google Satellite, hadn’t been used in years).

The cash cow was used up and apparently all of it was used for operating expenses.  Using one’s capital assets for operating expenses is poor planning and partially based on wishful thinking that a rabbit can be pulled out of the hat in the future.  Like Bullwinkle, RCDS always had the wrong hat.  Whether past administrations got complacent because of the land sales or they tried and tried to build up an endowment but couldn’t because of current deficits, the end result is the same.  Without investment earnings on an endowment fund to supplement the income from tuition and fees, a school either needs to cut down on spending, increase enrollment or increase tuition (which usually is self-defeating unless the school was underpriced).

Part of the problem is actuarial.  Strange as it may seem, with increased longevity in the U.S., a school 60 years old is only now starting to see its earliest graduates reach the end of their life expectancy.  I’m not expecting to have a large estate unless something wonderful happens in the next few years, but I did include RCDS in my will for a significant percentage.  I’m sure others did, too.  That would be one source for an endowment fund if the school had the foresight and enough means to use it that way.  But until bequests from alumni start to come in, other sources have to be tapped.

Adrian Durant

Encouraging the more loyal and wealthy parents of students to include the school in their will would have been one way.  Appealing to vanity or a sense of community (plus advertising) is another.  Donate enough money and a building or the chairmanship of a department will be named after you or your company.  For example, Adrian Durant is not just a head coach at Cornell.  He is “The George Heekin ’29 Head Coach of Men’s Track and Field and Cross Country”.  While he was still alive, George donated enough money to Cornell that he was able to have them name the head coaching position of those teams after himself.  Presumably the income from that donation pays the salary of Adrian Durant, his predecessors and his successors.  If it would have put the school on a firm financial foundation, it would not have bothered me one bit to have the John Doe Chairman of the English Department, Mary Roe Children’s School Building or XYZ Corporation STEAM Lab.

I had a recent phone conversation with someone who attended RCDS when I was student but did not graduate.  She did not attend the 8/31 gathering.  She knew details about many of the school’s founders as well as parents of the students in the early years of the school.  She named 10-12 wealthy families associated with RCDS who could have easily established an endowment fund in the early years of the school.  There may have been more.  Some may have intended to but changed their mind as the students and school became more countercultural.  Some might have thought that their donations to buy the farm with excess land to sell off had been sufficient on their part.  No doubt some had different priorities for the bulk of their estates, or their fortunes changed or taxes ate up a significant portion of their holdings.  And perhaps some would have given much more if asked.  The facts of this matter have been lost to time.

NYMA Academic Building (c.1916 postcard)

RCDS is not alone in terms of private schools that closed in the Lower Hudson Valley and northern NYC suburbs.  A few years ago, I did an online search of the private schools that RCDS played in sports when I attended.  Roughly half of them have closed although one reopened.  I pitched against St. Peter’s School in Peekskill (NY) the year they closed in 1970.  Oakland Military Academy in New Windsor (NY) closed in 1972.  I remember throwing out a runner at home plate on the fly from right field in a game at their field in 1969.  A series of fires at Cherry Lawn School in Darien (CT) forced that school to close in 1972 due to declining enrollment (concerns about safety) and difficulty getting affordable insurance coverage.  I remember playing at their field and making a long running catch from second base into short right field, and then Peter Yang ’69 catching me to make sure I didn’t fall down.  Others that are no longer in business include Scarborough (Briarcliff Manor, NY; closed 1978), Halsted School (Yonkers, NY; closed 1983), St. Mary’s High School (Greenwich, CT; closed 1991).  New York Military Academy (aka NYMA, Cornwall, NY) was scheduled to close in June 2010 but alumni and local business leaders kept the school alive by raising $6 million in a matter of weeks and by planning to sell off underutilized portions of their campus.  It turned out to be a band aid.  Enrollment continued to decline, they failed to open in September 2015 and the school headed for the auction block.  The school was acquired by a non-profit corporation led by a Chinese national real estate mogul, reopened with a handful of students (both returning and recruited) that November, had 29 students the following academic year and has about 100 students now.  Only time will tell if the 130 year old school will continue to survive and even grow.

Tyne Daly

There was a time when celebrities connected to the school like Tyne Daly (first graduating class of ’63) and Bill Irwin (RCDS parent) would come to the school and headline a fundraiser.  At some point for whatever reason, I hadn’t seen anything like that in quite a while.

Other alums ask me “Didn’t the school do any planning?”  “Did RCDS have a development officer or hire a consultant on how to create an endowment?”  I was not on the inside and cannot answer those questions.  And even if the answer to some or all of those questions is yes, then the next question would be “Why was it ineffective?” Hopefully others more knowledgeable will be willing to supply answers.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. – Luke 14:28-30

God bless,

Lois

Death of a School – But Not Its Spirit (Part 1)

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academia, actor, Alan Jay Lerner, alma mater, alumni, baby boom, Broadway, celebrities, Clarkstown, Congers, Cornell, East Ramapo, firefighters, gentrification, Haitian, high school, Hispanic, Hollywood, junior high school, Kendall Pennypacker, maturing, New York City, Orthodox Jewish, police officers, power broker, prep school, prestigious, private school, professionals, professors, public school, RCDS, reverse migration, Rockland, Rockland Country Day School, Rockland County, South Nyack, suburban, Tappan Zee Bridge, Transgender, Transsexual, Ultra-Orthodox, yeshiva

On August 19, a little over two weeks before a new school year was supposed to start, my alma mater announced that their finances made it impossible to continue. They have closed their doors and declared bankruptcy.

No, I’m not talking about my college, Cornell.  That school is so large, well-endowed and supported by state government that it would take a collapse of civilization to threaten it with closure.

RCDS Pitkin Hall (Main Building)

I’m talking about the Rockland Country Day School in Congers, NY.  I went there from grades 6 through 12, the only grades it served at the time.  It was a bit of a culture shock for me at first when I went there.  I was from a family somewhere in the middle to lower-middle income range, one wage-earner, with typical values of that group.  I was entering a school populated by children of members of the entertainment and creative industries (actors, playwrights, musicians, producers, photographers, cartoonists), academics (Ivy League professors), and professionals (doctors, dentists, architects, stockbrokers, attorneys).  They had been exposed to so much more than I had when I started school there in September 1963.

At the same time as I was making that adjustment, entering a school that covered grades 6 through 12 brought my gender issues front and center for the first time.  Sure I knew that little kids got older and matured.  With a brother five years older, I saw his friends in small groups and even played sports with them on occasion (and held my own, thank you).  Going from a school that was K-6 to a school that was 6-12, suddenly I had panoramic view of the maturing process of the preteen through late teen years.  I didn’t like what I saw.  And I didn’t hear about anyone saying that they were going to change gender once they became adults.  Homosexuality was rarely talked about.  Transsexuals weren’t even on the radar.

But once I became acclimated, I caught up and thrived there.  I didn’t get into Cornell because I was cute.  I got good grades and good scores on standardized tests.  Out of boredom with a teacher who taught only to the middle of the class, my performance in public school started to suffer in 5^th grade (same year when it did for my brother) and my parents seized the opportunity to enroll me when one of my public school classmates announced that he would be going there next year.

Based on the remarks I have heard from alumni who graduated from there both before and after me, there are many of us who have fond memories of RCDS.  As sad as it is that the school is closing, it is equally sad that it took something like this to bring the alumni closer together.

The first Tappan Zee Bridge under construction

In a strange way, the school is closing pretty much the way it started.  It was supposed to open its doors in September 1958.  They hired a headmaster and were preparing to begin this brand new experiment in education in Rockland County.  There was only one problem.  They kept waiting for the new headmaster to show up to lead the way.  He never did.  Parents had to tell their children, many of them disappointed, that they would be going back to public school that September.

But the group that started the school was undaunted.  They had a vision to provide a better quality of education for their children without having to send them away to boarding school.  The found a new candidate to serve as the first headmaster, Kendall Pennypacker.  This man arrived with his wife, Ruth, who was the school librarian for many years.  The school began in September 1959 with just a few grades in a house in South Nyack, not far from the same Tappan Zee Bridge that had brought a population boom to Rockland County and made it a little easier for people to commute to New York City, turning the county from rural to suburban.

Alan Jay Lerner

Within a few years, the school received enough donations, Alan Jay Lerner being principal donor, to purchase a plot of land in Congers that was known as the Pitkin farm.  It had been home to one of the first women medical doctors in the United States.  I won’t go into detail about some of the strange things that were found when the school took position of the property.  Suffice it to say that the cleanup and transformation of the farm house and other buildings on the premises into classrooms, a library, an art studio and science labs took longer than expected.  Before the school could be ready for classes that year, everyone (faculty, teachers and students) pitched in to put the finishing touches on the place.  (A member of the class of ’67, someone whose father won five Tony awards, told me that it was her job to paint some of the baseboards.  As one of the younger students at the time, they gave her a job she wouldn’t have a problem reaching!)

Similar to the 1958-59 misfire for the start of RCDS, the school has ended in a similar way.  The latest information given to the press was that the parents were told in May that there was a possibility that the school might not continue in September.  But then they were assured in June that the school was committed to moving forward another year.  This time it wasn’t the head of school leaving that scuttled things.  Current Head of School, Jocelyn Feuerstein, was working every angle she could to find a way to keep the school in operation until the cavalry arrived.  But it didn’t arrive.  The Board of Trustees deemed in mid-August that the school’s finances did not warrant keeping the school open.  The chances were too great in their view that they might start the year and have to close down in mid-year, unable to pay the bills.  That would have made it even more difficult for teachers to find new jobs and students to move to new schools.  Two and a half weeks gave very little time, but at least there is some.

There are short-term reasons and long-term reasons that led to the school’s demise.  First the short-term:

• Declining enrollment which meant declining income.
• The sale of the campus to the Town of Clarkstown in early 2018 didn’t save as much money and help finances as expected.
• Negotiations with the Town for more favorable lease terms failed.
• A number of students who were supposed to attend in 2019-20, pulled out at the last minute, lowering enrollment revenue even further. Some sources indicated that many were international students who presumably (based on country of origin) were making significant tuition payments, but some local parents concerned because of the May announcement also found alternatives.
• Efforts to raise funds in the 11^th hour from alumni, local businesses, by attracting new students, or to get Clarkstown to reconsider the lease amount were all unsuccessful. Although that May letter had gone out, the reassurance made in June made the board reluctant to send out appeals for donations in any kind of a panic “save RCDS from dying” mode.  And so it has come to an end.

The long-term reasons require a longer explanation.  They are far more complex.  They are also just one person’s analysis.  But this one person has talked to a number of people, has a mind good enough to get into RCDS, Cornell and Mensa, and brings some professional skills to the table.

Hollywood, or more precisely Hollywood becoming more and more the center of the entertainment industry compared to New York City:  Yes, there is still Broadway theater and there are a few studios in NYC, but in general the stars of Broadway don’t have the same celebrity status they had 50-60 years ago.  The exceptions tend to be those who are on hiatus from filmmaking.  Lesser box office appeal would tend to translate to less relative income, meaning less ability to live in the suburbs and send their children to an expensive private school.

Gentrification of New York City: After years of flight from the city, it started to become the in place to be again.  Converted industrial building lofts in Soho and Tribeca became trendy.  As one indicator of how demand changed, a brownstone in a depressed neighborhood like Fort Greene that sold for $20,000 in the mid-1970’s couldn’t be touched for under a million dollars 20-25 years later.  As bus and rail service and transportation terminals became more crowded and dilapidated, the commute became more dreaded than urban life, especially as New York City started to get cleaned up and revitalized.  Stockbrokers, ad executives, publishing executives, college professors and others who had been part of the professional group that supported RCDS were leaving the county in reverse migration.  The supportive community was shrinking and becoming less close-knit.

Demographics: Who moved in to replace the people who moved out?  The population of Rockland County has increased in every census, except for the 1920 census.  While growth was heaviest in the 1950’s and 60’s, there are about 100,000 more people living in Rockland now that the nearly 230,000 counted in the 1970 census (the year I graduated high school).  While much of Rockland was still rural before the completion of the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Palisades Parkway to link the county by limited access road to the George Washington Bridge, it is now the third most densely populated county in New York State outside of New York City (behind Nassau and Westchester).

Ramapo HS (NY)

One group that has moved in heavily is the Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish population.  6.3% of Rockland households speak either Yiddish or Hebrew at home.  31.4% (~90,000 households) of the county’s population is Jewish, many of them school age children, making them the largest per capita Jewish county in the United States.  At one time, the Jewish population was well represented at RCDS.  At least 12 of my graduating class of 30 identified as Jewish.  But the large Jewish population now has given rise to a large number of Yeshivas.  This is where many Jewish students now go to school.  East Ramapo Central School District is one of only three school districts in the United States where more students go to private school than public schools.  While some go to Catholic schools or nonsectarian schools, this is true throughout Rockland.  The difference in East Ramapo is the large number of Yeshivas.  This is a large group of students who are not candidates to go to RCDS.

Another group that is heavily represented in Rockland is those who are in the public service sector, mainly police officers and firefighters.  There are always exceptions, but generally their children are more likely to go to public schools.  The Hispanic and Haitian residents of the county also generally go to public schools.  13.2% of the county’s households speak Spanish, French Creole or French at home.

There is still a large group of students who would have been possible candidates for RCDS.  But on a percentage basis, it is probably smaller than when the school was founded.  There is also a trend towards more prestigious colleges (while small liberal arts colleges are declining) and in turn more prestigious prep schools.  Many parents and students are looking for the route to becoming Wall Street wizards, real estate tycoons and other power brokers.  A well-rounded education starting in high school doesn’t cut it.  This may be another reason so many local students in the lower grades didn’t continue on to high school and graduation.  And there is another trend that is affecting the candidate pool for the school. It will be discussed in the next post.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; – Ecclesiastes 3:2

God bless,

Lois

When Seasons of Life Collide

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activist, birth name, business, Caitlyn Jenner, career, children, Christian ministry, church, Classmates, college, Cornell, death, Facebook, Google search, graduating class, grandchildren, high school, hormones, HRT, Laverne Cox, letter winner, LinkedIn, Marriage, menopause, missionary, mobile society, new name, organized religion, parents, prep school, puberty, RCDS, Relationships, retirement, Rockland Country Day School, seasons of life, skills, Social Justice, sports, standardized exams, starting a life, stealth, target gender, Transgender, Transition, Transparent, Transsexual

When I initially started HRT, my doctor at the time had me on one medication that required a weekly injection and one that required a monthly injection.  I did not do well self-injecting (and later on was advised that doing such a thing is dangerous for someone who lives alone like me).  For about 18 months, I was able to find people willing to help me with the injections.  But when I was down to one person, I realized that it was not feasible as a permanent solution.

So I researched online and found that there was a patch alternative to the weekly shot.  And that was acceptable to me (although I have since switched to a daily gel as far easier and more convenient).  But for the monthly injection, the only alternative was a pill.  And for certain medications, pills are the least safe alternative.  After we discussed it a bit, my doctor declared that I really didn’t need that medication anyway.  After all, he said I was basically a “post-menopausal woman.”  It’s a real hoot going through puberty and menopause at the same time.  But I have to say that my body has responded well.

Recently, I considered rejoining Classmates.  I left that website when I transitioned, at the time still expecting to go stealth.  (Wow, was I wrong!)  But finding the listing rather inflexible for anyone who changed first name since high school graduation (as almost any transgender would have done, but many cisgender people as well), I decided to pass for now.  Under their setup, the emphasis would have been on my old name and my new first name would be an afterthought.  Since I also changed my last name, it could be confusing.

What that exercise did was stir up a desire to look up some of my old classmates in high school, even some who switched to other schools before graduating.  The recent death of one of those who graduated from another high school also added to that desire.  My high school graduating class had thirty students.  (It also happens to be the largest graduating class in the history of the school.)  As far as I have been able to find, at least five of those thirty have died.

So I went to Google to search for my classmates.  I found some on LinkedIn, some on Facebook (at least their public pages; I do not have a Facebook account).  Others showed up in news stories or have their images on the web.  I learned of one death through my searching.

My classmates from the little prep school, at least the ones I could find, became doctors, entrepreneurs, accountants, community activists and public officials.  They have been through marriages and divorces, raised children and sent them to college and some are seeing grandchildren come into the world.  They range from England to San Francisco and Florida to the Canadian border.  I only know of one other classmate who stayed in the county where the school is located (another who stayed in the local area died two years ago).  While some moved back to New York City from the nearby suburbs where we lived and went to school, part of the urbanization trend at the time perhaps, the rest have been quite scattered.

At this time, I am not in contact with anyone from my graduation class, although I am still in contact with one person with whom I went to school in grades 6-8.  Without Classmates, I do not know how I will make contact with the rest.  I also do not know how interested any of them will be in renewing an acquaintance.

What I am feeling the strongest is that a number of my classmates have made their mark in life and most are wrapping up stages of their life, even though they still may be active.  For me, echoing my doctor’s remark about puberty and menopause, I am simultaneously wrapping up a life and starting one.

Twenty-eight of us graduated from Rockland Country Day School on a drizzly June day in 1970 in a nearby church because the weather prevented an outdoor ceremony on school grounds.  (Two girls spent their senior year of high school as college freshmen and didn’t walk with our class.)  Then most of us went off to college like any group of young people: excited, scared, hopeful, ready to take on the world, and searching.  The boys still had to worry about being drafted and going to Vietnam.  (One of our younger teachers fled to Canada to avoid the draft during our time at the school.)  Some protested.  Some struggled with drugs.  One lied to his mother about applying to college and found his niche as a commercial fisherman, eventually becoming the captain of his own boat.  One died in a heroic attempt to protect someone else.  Many of us ended up with lives much different than we expected when we ventured out of that church some 45 years ago.

I cannot say that my life is more different than anyone else in my class.  But it is surely different from my high school and college days.  After getting very good grades (especially on the standardized exams) and lettering in four sports in high school, I went to Cornell as an engineering major wanting to become an urban planner: designing rail systems and roads.  I ended up majoring in political science, a degree I promptly shelved in 1974 and never went back to.  I tried for careers in publicity, public relations, sports writing (co-authored one book, but couldn’t build on that) and advertising.  To pay the bills, for a couple of years I settled for government jobs in public housing.  Chafing in that climate, I took the risk of working for commissions instead of a salary in the brokerage business.  Over time, I added hats in real estate, insurance, financial planning and tax preparation.

In my personal life, I was married for less than a year.  I never had a long-term relationship and never initiated any relationships.  I was torn between a need for privacy and a need to be loved for who I am.  There were times when the lack of companionship hurt.  But now that I see what so many others in the TG community go through with their families, I am grateful that I am single and without children.

I drifted away from organized religion while in college.  But in my late twenties I returned and within ten years became active in church leadership and in a worldwide Christian missionary organization.

By the time I reached my mid-fifties, it looked like my life was settled.  I said a final good-bye to both of my parents.  I was respected in my church and moving up the ranks in the missionary organization.  I jettisoned everything from my financial services business except tax preparation, blessed by a group of wonderful, loyal clients.  With the extra time and some inheritance money, I began to travel for the first time in twenty years.  I have been blessed by extraordinarily good health.  I was content.  Until …

My supervisor at HUD would say that you have to watch out for the quiet ones.  Still waters run deep and dark.  And deep beneath my surface there was a different name, a name hidden in my heart during my time at RCDS and Cornell but shared with no one.  That is my legal name now (with a middle name eventually added).  And the gender marker on my driver’s license has changed from M to F.

Certain I would spend the second half of my life in a quiet, plain vanilla way, I have found myself doing quite the opposite.  When I least expected it to rear its beautiful head, I reached the point where I could no longer live a lie.  (I could write a book expanding on that one sentence.  And I hope to do so.)  Even after I went full-time nearly three years ago, I thought I would stay in the background: grateful for each client who stayed with me; attending support group meetings and an occasional social function; finding a new church that would accept me and hopefully a new place to do ministry.

But I could not stay silent.  Even before Laverne Cox and Transparent and Caitlyn Jenner began to splash across the headlines, I knew I needed to find a way to do more.  Crying out to me was the blood of transgender people who were murdered or who committed suicide because they were bullied, rejected by family, disparaged by their religious community or denied the opportunity to transition.  The indignity of those who were buried by family members using their rejected name and laid out in the wrong gender cried out to me.  Anti-transgender doctrine by many major religious groups cried out to me.  Legal and societal pervasive anti-transgender discrimination in employment, housing and medical care (to name just a few) cried out to me.  The plight of runaway and throwaway transgender teens cried out to me.  If I remain silent, then shame on me for ignoring those plaintive cries.

Once again, I am venturing forth excited, scared, hopeful, ready to take on the world, and searching.  But you can add urgent to that list.  I am not heading off to college this time.  I am in my early sixties, not in my late teens.  Then I appeared to be a quite ordinary white suburban middle-class male, hoping to find upward mobility through education.  Now I am a white female member of a marginalized group, hoping to help open doors of social justice while establishing reconciliation and common ground with the Christian community.

While I hoped against hope to transition to female, until I was 59 years old, I never thought there was a chance of me doing so.  In fact, all the evidence was to the contrary.  And it is at least as big a surprise that I am a budding activist.  Yet here I am, despite or perhaps because of my shy, conservative, college sports team manager and calculator keys background.  But I also have a background in writing, editing, publicity, public speaking and political science.

Ready or not, here I am.  There are no retirement plans in the Bible.  Who will find me?  Who will I find?  One person can make a difference.  Together we can make a bigger difference.

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. – 1^st John 2:12-14

God bless,

Lois

Two-faced

Tags

acceptance, astronomy, Carl Sagan, Chris Bohjalian, Christian martyrs, conformity, consensus, Cornell, discussion, Doctrine, education, erroneous, feminine strength, general public awareness, hatred, knowledge, LGBT, liberal, marginalize, New York Times, observation, Oriental philosophy, out of date, Planet Mercury, reconciliation, religious beliefs, religious debate, Rockland Country Day School, Salvation Army, science, socialist, TDOR, Trans-sister Radio, transgender allies, Transgender Day of Remembrance, Transgender Lives series, transgender rights, Vermont, water, yin-yang

Originally part of the previous post on handedness, I pick up the thread once again with song lyrics from back in the day.  Thank you, Lou Christie!

And I have a confession to make.  No, I’m not living a lie nor do I wear two faces (although until a few years ago, that was true).

My confession has to do with the title for my blog.  It is based on out-of-date science.  It is based on the idea that Mercury was the McDLT of planets: one side faces the sun and is always kept hot; the other side always faces away from the sun and always stays cold.

It is now known that the belief was erroneous.  The errant observation was due to the nature of Earth’s orbit and rotation as it synchronizes with Mercury’s orbit and rotation.  A layman’s explanation is that when Mercury was in its best position to be observed from Earth, the same side was always facing the sun.

I discovered this bit of information when I reconsidered my blog title recently.  At first, I was not upset at the error.  After all, no one corrected me on the inference I had made.  So I assumed that this must be a recent discovery.

Then I dug a little deeper and my heart sank.  This has been known about Mercury for 50 years!  I was in junior high in 1965.  Yes, I did well in math and science and hung out at times with the math/science “geek” crowd.  But my interests extended beyond that one group.  I was a well-rounded student who at one time or another hung out with the athletes (I lettered in four sports at my tiny private high school, Rockland Country Day School), I was one of a group of guys who would play bridge at a drop of a hat, I had one male classmate who got me interested in war gaming for a while (Avalon Hill games, for example) and a female classmate with whom I discussed classical music (she being far more knowledgeable than me).

While astronomy was never my science focus, I was interested in it.  And to top it off, I attended and graduated from Cornell, where I was an engineering student for two years.  By the time I arrived at Cornell in 1970, one of the best known astronomers and popularizers of science, Carl Sagan, was already there as a professor.  Becoming a full professor in 1971, he was already one of the more popular and visible professors on campus.  I even read (and I think I still have) one of his books, The Dragons of Eden.  But somehow, I never received the memo that Mercury was a little more complex than one side always facing the sun and the other always facing away.

But the title of my blog post still fits.  Not only is this still a commonly held view of the planet Mercury, it is a reminder that it can take a while for scientific knowledge to trickle down to the general public.  The average citizen is not going to be aware that the medical community (AMA and American Psychiatric Association) no longer classifies transsexuals as either suffering from mental illness or engaging in a form of homosexuality.  They are not going to be aware of recent studies that show that certain areas of the brains of MTF’s are closer to the normative female brain than male brain.  They are not going to be aware of the recent knowledge that male and female does not always fit into neat little physical boxes (see my links page for various conditions, such as XY people giving birth, Androgen Insensitivity Disorder, other sex chromosome abnormalities and XX people born with MRKH: the lack of or severely underdeveloped vagina, fallopian tubes and uterus).

I happen to meet some of my tax clients at the local public library.  I sometimes browse the used book sale to see if there is something interesting to read while I am waiting for a client.  Now and then, I buy the book I started reading.

Chris Bohjalian. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Usually it will take a while before I find something I like.  But last week, I zoomed in on a book.  It was “Trans-sister Radio” by Chris Bohjalian.  With a title like that, how could I pass it up?  And while Bohjalian is a thoroughly cisgender author with a number of successful novels, I was correct: the book had a thoroughly transgender theme.

Bohjalian researched the topic very well and the writing showed it.  But when I first picked up the book and read the liner notes, I thought he had erred.  A resident of Vermont, he did what good authors often do: he wrote about what he knows best, so he had most of the story take place in a small town in Vermont.  So it surprised me when the blurb on the back of the paperback edition stated that the main characters had to contend with the “outrage” of a “Vermont community”.  I know that Vermont is a very liberal state, having elected a self-described socialist, Bernie Sanders, to the US Congress ten times (eight times to Vermont’s only House seat and twice to the US Senate).  Vermont was also one of the first two states to approve Medicaid funding for surgery to treat gender identity disorder.

Then I saw that the copyright date was 2000.  Bohjalian had been researching this book at the turn of this century.  Now I knew he had not erred.

What is the point I am making?  Simply that transgender rights has not always been a liberal cause.  It has not always been a cause for the L, G and B members of that coalition.  There are still some radicals who have a problem with transgender rights.  And transgender allies who have worked with all four communities will tell you that even those supportive members of the first three do not understand those of us who are T.

My desire is to educate people and add transgender allies.  I don’t care what other labels they give themselves.  Older allies were new allies at one time.  Therefore at one time, they were not allies.  If they can convert, so can others.

When I came out to people, I lived by two slogans: “If I want to be understood, I need to be understanding;” “if it took me fifty years to figure this out, I can’t expect you to figure it out in fifty minutes.”  So my desire is to help people understand.  That requires a process.  And it requires understanding what part of their belief system prevents them from being an ally already.

In my previous blog post about handedness and reviewing the historic treatment of left-handed people, we saw that there are some cases where society is driven by a need for conformity.  In the related and intertwined topics of sexuality and gender, many people feel the need to see things as male or female with no gray areas.  Initially at least, it isn’t a matter of hatred.  It is a matter of wanting to keep life simple and manageable.  Who do I call “sir” and who do I call “ma’am”?  Which pronouns do I use for a person without having to ask everyone I meet?

At the beginning of this post, I discussed the time lag before which knowledge passes down from the expert level to the general population.  If there are people who are not aware of the nature of transgender as a birth condition instead of being a behavioral choice, is that the fault of the student or the educator?  Therefore, we need to continue to patiently educate.  Some people are resistant to change, some people are skeptical of new ideas and some people are slow learners.  These things take time and effort and persistence.

And then there is religious belief.  As a Christian, I respect those who follow deeply held beliefs consistent with their religion.  I also know that in every religion with which I am familiar, there are doctrines that are debated within the body of followers.  So there is room for discussion on a number of points outside of the principal doctrines.

I have witnessed hatred first-hand from people who have turned away from me or who have attacked others in the transgender community.  It could be because of ignorance, fear of a world that is moving beyond their comprehension (loss of conformity), religious fervor or any combination of them.  But I have had people disagree with me without showing hatred or disrespect.  Some remain in my life as good friends.  Therefore, I will not automatically ascribe to hatred those who hold a different opinion on transgender issues.

I endeavor for open, honest, respectful discussion and to build consensus as a result.  I do not want to be marginalized during that discussion.  And I will not marginalize any other parties of the discussion by name calling or making assumptions about them.  I will listen to the other person’s point of view and respond in a way that befits their beliefs.

Last year at the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), we memorialized between 300 and 400 people who we learned were killed because of their transgender identity or their alliance to transgender causes.  Since there are many countries that will not acknowledge the transgender identity of murder victims, it can be reasonably assumed that the number is significantly higher.  For the sake of this post, I will make a guess of 550 victims.

According to reliable statistics, 100,000 Christians are violently killed for their faith every year.  That would be roughly 550 victims every two days.  But it is also true that the Christian population of the world is much larger than the transgender population.  There is not a matter of competition.  I belong to both groups and I grieve those who lose their lives or are otherwise marginalized due to hatred against either group.  And I grieve the existence of any in one of the groups who hates those of the other group, whether or not directed at me.

Last week, my story (400 word limit) was published in the online NY Times editorial series “Transgender Lives: Your Stories” (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/storywall/transgender-today/stories/lois-simmons). With the encouragement of two non-Christian members of the TG community, I focused on the acceptance I have received in my church from church leaders and others.  With the permission of denomination leadership, I included the fact that my church is part of the Salvation Army.

How did I achieve acceptance at such a church?  I did not compromise any of my beliefs regarding either group.  After meeting with three key people who provided reasons to believe that I would be accepted, I simply let people get to know me.  On a need to know basis, I came out to two people here and another person there. Based on people’s responses when  I came out to them, I have ~90% acceptance, one person who asked for time to process the information (granted!) and one person who appears to be negative.  I would have been thrilled with 50% acceptance!

As I put it to the college class to which I spoke last Wednesday evening, instead of coming in like a hammer, I was water.  It is consistent with the feminine strength of yin-yang (gleaned from my days of studying Oriental philosophy).  With nothing more than a desire to educate and bring the Christian and transgender communities together, I flowed where the terrain would allow me to go.  It has brought me to a larger body of water.  We shall see where it will flow next.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. – Ecclesiastes 1:7

God bless,

Lois

Favorite Moments in Sports (plus USA advances in World Cup)

Tags

1980 Winter Olympics, 1988 World Series, baseball, Big Red, Cornell, Dodgers, football, Germany, Ghana, group of death, Hockey, Kirk Gibson, knockout stage, Manaus, Miracle on Ice, Portugal, Rockland Country Day School, Round of 16, Team USA, USA, World Cup

No list of my favorite moments that I witnessed would be complete without including sports.  I have attended some major league baseball games in person in four different cities including a playoff game, many NHL hockey games, one pro football and one pro basketball game.  Then there are many other games I have watched at the high school and college level (including Ed Marinaro breaking the NCAA rushing record).  And then there are countless games that I have watched on television in these sports, plus contests in person or on television in other sports like soccer, lacrosse (my alma mater, Cornell, was NCAA champs two of the four years I attended there) and track and field (including an international meet at the Iffley Road Track at Oxford, the same track on which Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile).

Kirk Gibson’s hobbling to smack a clutch pinch-hit home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series and the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s miracle victory over the Soviets in 1980 are two memorable moments in sports that I saw on television.  But some of my most memorable moments are from games in college and high school that were played in front of relatively few people and have never made it into the annals of sports history.  They happened long before You Tube, Facebook and Twitter.  But all of them were feats I never saw any other time.

Schoellkopf Field at Cornell University. Source : wikipedia.en  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have seen many dominant performances by quarterbacks, running backs and pass receivers in football.  But a kick blocker?  I saw Cornell beat Rutgers because of one man on special teams.  John McKeown was an NCAA championship caliber long sprinter.  He was also a speedy pass receiver but initially he played on the 150 pound (now sprint) football team at Cornell.  (A handful of colleges have football teams reserved for smaller talented athletes.)  Eventually the Cornell varsity added him to their roster.  Normally, his heroics were on the receiving end of a long Mark Allen pass, scoring three touchdowns on twelve catches.  But this day was different.

On October 7, 1972, Cornell beat Rutgers 36-22.  There is no doubt in my mind that the Big Red would have ended up on the losing end without Johnny Mack’s efforts.  Early in the game, he lined up on one side of the line and blocked a punt deep in Rutgers territory.  Later in the first half, he did it again.  On their next punt attempt, the Scarlet Knights adjusted and blocked McKeown from getting to the punter.  Soon, Rutgers punted again and this time he got through to the kick from the other side of the line.  Finally, with the Rutgers punting team completely befuddled, Johnny hid behind a defensive lineman in the center of the line.  He timed the snap perfectly, sprinted through the line, past the blocking back and sacked the punter!  My recollection is that all of these plays gave Cornell great field position and led to scores.

That collegiate game was witnessed by a few thousand fans and was broadcast on radio, perhaps on local cable TV also (at least highlights).  But feats at two high school games with teams I was a member of were witnessed by no more than a couple of dozen people, plus team members, coaches and officials.  Still, I know they happened because I was there.

On the day we (Rockland Country Day School) beat the Halsted School in 1970, the opposing hitters could barely touch our pitcher, Ian Kanner.  In a seven inning game, he pitched us to victory by mowing down all 21 outs with strikeouts.  I did help him a bit, however.  Not as alert as I should have been, I let a grounder go through my legs that I should have handled with ease.  Undaunted, he finished out the inning and the rest of the game sending hitter after hitter back to the bench, bat in hand.

A year earlier, I had an excellent seat on the bench as the second string goalie for our hockey game against Bergen Catholic.  We somehow found ourselves killing off two penalties at the same time, leaving us at a two man disadvantage.  Tom McAllister was only a sophomore and far from the biggest player on either team.  But he was already an excellent puck handler and good skater.  Tom was sent out as our only forward to kill off the penalties.   Soon after the faceoff following the second penalty, Tom intercepted the puck, went down on a breakaway and scored.  Following another faceoff, he stole the puck again and put the puck past the goalie once more.  My recollection is that they were the deciding goals in the game.  Only one NHL player has ever scored two short-handed goals in the same game while two men down, but they were on different penalty kills and one of them was when the opposing team pulled their goalie late in the game because they were losing.  No one in the NHL has ever scored two goals on the same two man disadvantage.

World Cup Update – end of Group play

Despite a 1-0 loss to Germany in the final game of group play, USA advances to the Round of 16 by a tiebreaker.  With Portugal’s defeat of Ghana, USA and Portugal tied in points (4), but USA’s goal differential was three better than Portugal, due to a sorry performance by the latter in their opening game against Germany.

It is difficult to assess Team USA’s performance over the first three games because it was inconsistent and because their path was much more difficult than for most teams.  They came in after six months while aware that they were in a “group of death”, and that the supposedly weakest team in Group G, Ghana, had been their nemesis in the previous two World Cups.  They also faced more travel than any other squad (in part based on their decision to have their practice location in the south, in Sao Paolo, with all their games ending up in the north).

Furthermore, they had to play one of their games at Manaus in the middle of the Amazon jungle.  The fact that it is technically winter in that part of Brazil means little as it is very close to the Equator.  The combination of heat and humidity during their match there against Portugal led the referee to call for a break in the middle of the first half so the players on the field could be hydrated.

Four games were played in Manaus.  Regarding the first three, only Portugal was able to win its next game, but that was against a Ghana team that was somewhat in rebellion over not having received their promised payout: two of their best players were dropped from the team before the Portugal match as a result.  England, Italy, Cameroon, Croatia and USA all went down to defeat the next game.

The fourth game in Manaus was a final group stage game, so we don’t know what will happen next for one of the teams, Switzerland.  The other, Honduras, was eliminated, still seeking their first World Cup win.  Switzerland will be facing Argentina in the first game of the knockout stage, and they might have too much to overcome, even without having to recover from the toll of Manaus.

If USA faced dehydration in game two, their third game featured the opposite.  Heavy rains in Recife since the middle of the night had led to localized flooding and a soggy, though playable field.  Rain, alternating between light and heavy, fell throughout the match and affected both teams passing and ball control ability at times, although the German squad still had the superiority in those parts of the game.  Fortunately, there was no standing water anywhere on the field.

How would Team USA performed against Germany if they hadn’t played in Manaus in the previous match or had 27 hours less rest?  There is no way to find out.  Having survived the gauntlet thrown at them, have they grown as a team, ready to take on the world’s best as worthy opponents?  Or do they still have a few too many weak spots to be among the elite?  Yes, if they fall to Belgium in the next match, their advancement might be considered a moral victory.  Team USA will only arrive as a soccer power when it is no longer satisfied or even concerned with moral victories.

Belgium is the better team on paper, but not nearly as superior as Germany or Portugal were, and they lack the impact players on the roster of those two teams that Team USA already faced and held their own against. Belgium came through Group H undefeated and allowed only one goal. But they managed to win by only one goal in each of their matches, facing Algeria, Russia and South Korea, all teams lower ranked than Team USA.  Both Belgium and USA are seen as improving squads.  The result of the match may come down to which team as improved more and/or which team has come through group play in the best physical shape.  If Jozy Altidore is able to return from his hamstring injury, it will give the Americans fresh legs and someone who could make the difference against a stingy defense.

There were three expected “groups of death” coming into the tournament.  Outside of those three groups (B, D & G), there were no major surprises and the top seed in each group advanced, with Switzerland the only one to advance in second place as a highly-rated French team came up on top.

Group B saw defending champion Spain sent home.  It wasn’t a good tournament for the Iberian peninsula, as both Spain and Portugal drew groups of death and both were unable to overcome defeats by a margin of four goals in their first matches, albeit to excellent teams from The Netherlands and Germany.

Group D provided the biggest upset of all, with little regarded Costa Rica finishing ahead of the teams expected to slug it out to advance: Uruguay, Italy and England.  And we have already dissected Group G’s results.

Trying to guard against favoritism for my home country, on paper it would seem that USA has the best chance of advancing from a second place group finish.  The warranted suspension of Uruguay’s star, Luis Suarez, for biting an opponent, should greatly diminish their chance of besting Colombia as four of the five advancing South American teams face off in matches today.  Overall, it will be interesting to see if the teams that played their games in the cooler southern part of Brazil will have an advantage in this round.  (By the way, Belgium played their games in three southern venues.)

Surprising Costa Rica’s fortunes continue to look good, at least for one more round, as they drew the weakest team to advance, Greece.  With only Honduras departing after group play, it is the strongest showing ever by CONCACAF (North America, Central America and Caribbean football association), qualifying the maximum number of slots allotted to them (4) and a record three teams advancing to the knockout stage.

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.  Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. – 1^st Corinthians 9:24-25

God bless,

Lois