While the policy pair continues to prepare for Last Chance, for which the debate team hired Florence to judge in their name, as they had for Columbia, two weeks after the district qualifier, the results from the USAMO arrive. So many in town hold much higher hopes for Jennifer and Valerie than they do for Cristiano. For years, girls have out-performed boys (more than simply out-numbered) in math to the eyes of the VA faithful.
As with last year, he lets the mathletes at the USAMO deliver the announcement before classes begin, with the results on hand. For months now, the parochial newspaper and the radio both closely followed the so-called "race to the IMO" but abstained from publicly announcing she was competing at the EGMO until the actual race to the IMO ended. That, even though competing at the EGMO was a foregone conclusion.
"So today, I really don't have the best news in the world to announce. It's about the race to the IMO. I lost out on the IMO team by one measly point!" Jennifer bursts into tears while in the principal's office. "Sorry I let you down, sorry I let down the entire parish, nay, the whole state! I had one... ONE! chance to make it, and I squandered it! And I still scored a thirty-seven on the USAMO for crying out loud! I hereby announce that I am handing over captaincy of the math team over to Valerie Watkins, effective May first"
I guess, going to Yale will keep me going for the next four years after this crushing defeat in the race to the IMO... the EGMO is a nice consolation prize, though, Jennifer muses while going to the bathroom to look for napkins so that she can safely shed tears in class. As unreal getting to the IMO would have been, falling short of it is equally unreal, too. If Gen taught me anything, it's that being the reserve for that sort of tournament would mean living under constant stress until you know whether you're called up for duty or not. But while the probability is technically nonzero, I may as well do as if I wasn't going to attend.
"I'm Valerie, and I'm not going to sugar-coat things. I didn't score as much as Jennifer. But, as a sophomore, I scored a twenty-nine on the USAMO. As such I'm attending MOP! I must not waste this golden opportunity to take up the mantle from Jennifer over the next year!"
"I'm Cristiano Ortega, a junior, I scored a total of twelve points at the USAMO. For next year, I will focus more on quiz bowl, since I feel the intensity of getting to the USAMO took a lot of time away from it"
While mathletes are common occurrences in quiz bowl, as mathletes, they aren't always that great. Marcia's estimate is that, on any given year, there are 5-10 players who scored 10+ on the AIME and also play at the HSNCT, Cristiano muses while he prepares his CV for college applications and wonders if he wouldn't be better served waiting another year.
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Upon returning home that day, around the dinner table, all three feel like the pressure is ratcheting up on Valerie, now that Valerie is the closest one to the IMO the Venomous Agendas have on hand that can still get to it.
"Now that Jennifer lost the race to the IMO, it's all down to you! You're going to MOP, so make sure you get to the top-thirty on the TSTST!" Glen screams at his daughter, angry about Jennifer's failure to make the IMO team.
"That's a tall order, all things considered!" Valerie retorts, realizing that she now bears the whole parish's mathletic hopes. Or at least once the VMC ends. "Pressure was already hard enough without me being at MOP. Now that I am at MOP, I know what next year will be made of! This is a complete nightmare!"
"By now you know there are very few female mathletes at MOP. At this point we are one of the most successful programs in the country as it relates to girls, post-pandemic. Four girls at the USAMO, two EGMO qualifications, seven girls with ten or more on the AIME, and I don't even want to talk about the VMC!" Selena then harangues Valerie. "You know what's missing?"
"Dad kept talking about the IMO for years now! I understand that's what's missing from this list of achievements, I understand how male-dominated it is, but is that the reason why dad wants me to get to the IMO so much?" Valerie's face then turns red while asking this question.
Is Nicole going to get a perfect score at the VMC final? As a school, we won the Lasedri Prize three years in a row. It seems like, in odd-numbered years, the person who wins the Lasedri Prize for us is a mathletic late bloomer and doesn't get to the USAMO, while, in even-numbered years, that person seems to be in the running for the IMO, Selena questions whether this streak can be continued with Nicole, whom she feels is the weakest of the bunch as a mathlete. After all, it is hard to argue with that given how Nicole stacks up to even Imélie. Equally hard to argue that the VAs aren't among the most successful mathletics programs in the country in recent memory.
"One more thing, dad; now that I am at MOP, you must keep your end of the bargain and pay for college once I get to college! However, I must remain mindful of financial aid, and not to attend a place that's too expensive for us. Finally, what would you do if I fail to make it to the IMO? Surely there is some college somewhere who would take a chance on me without me competing at the IMO, for which attending MOP once is enough with the USAMO result I had"
"I only want what's best for you and this town's school. An IMO berth would reflect well on us like almost nothing else outside of sports could; the next-closest thing would be either winning the HSNCT or winning any given event at NSDA Nats, international extemp or public forum! As it stands now, however, Chantal stands a better chance winning Nats than you attending the IMO!" Glen berates his daughter.
"I understand your despair in trying to bring in some form of glory to us on the national extracurricular stage as the principal, don't we already stand out because of our mathletic successes? We have the most profitable mathletics team in the country of any level! But that doesn't answer my question of what you plan on doing if I don't make it to the IMO!"
"There's a reason why I would like to extend the mathletics farm system all the way to elementary school: so we can have a steady supply of mathletes in the long term. So, if you fail, I'll simply have to groom someone else! Unfortunately, the elementary school appears reluctant to get any kind of mathletics done since they deem mathletics age-inappropriate"
Who could I then groom? Faith? Some other girl in middle school I was never told about? Because I am in the dark about the mentees of my school's mathletes! Glen ponders what his options are should Valerie fail.
"Now, go solve other IMO problems!" Glen keeps shouting at his daughter while she returns to her bedroom.
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But the following day at work, for whatever reason, Glen reads an announcement that seems to confuse him, at least at first. The parish superintendent retires at the end of the school year. He then discusses the news about the superintendent retiring with the secretary:
"It's very tempting to apply for the superintendent position, so even though we inspire the rest of the parish in academic competitions, the rest of the parish mostly seems to suffer from educational problems. They overemphasize sports, and we all know where this is going to lead their kids later in life!" Glen laments.
But at the same time, all this mathletic infrastructure built in this town might collapse! I might be criticized for being perhaps too hands-on with running the mathletics team. As much as it has produced results, though, I'm afraid the kids won't be as inspired to perform in math if mathletics no longer performs as it used to, even if I integrated financial literacy as an application of math into the rest of the parish! Success might beget success in the mathletic arena, but the appropriate support systems must be in place! How the next superintendent handles extracurriculars will be key to the survival of this school's much-vaunted academic teams! And I believe any hope for academic improvement, Glen seems to suffer from anxiety over this school's mathletics.
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"It seems like the parish board is going to prefer hiring a local candidate for the position of superintendent. Someone who worked as a principal for one of the parochial schools" the secretary points out to him.
"By now you know that parish residents have a very localized interest, so while our town might have an interest in the quiz bowl and debate teams for the time being, not sure whether elsewhere in the parish, in, say, Elton or Lacassine, people will still follow the VAs at the HSNCT or at NSDA Nats"
This discussion is interrupted by a tardy student who comes to the secretary's office with a doctor's note. Once that student is done with the secretary...
"We need a succession plan for when I'm no longer in office! And, since mathletics are the pride of this town in the post-pandemic years, the question of mathletics, nay, of academic extracurriculars must be addressed in any succession plan!" Glen grandstands about the sudden need for a succession plan brought upon by the retirement of the superintendent.
"A succession plan would include the need to get a new assistant principal among the faculty as soon as the new principal takes office. Of course, the new principal will need to hire replacement teachers accordingly. I believe a person can become an assistant vice principal without educational leadership training, but with five years of experience as a teacher and a valid teaching certificate" the secretary then tells Glen. "Which is, by the way, why I can't be an assistant principal, as much as I would have loved to"
One final thing I need to address, and I know others in the parish eyeing the superintendent job will need to be aware of, is the need to pass the superintendent Praxis test. There is one practice that must end parish-wide, however: excessive academic favors granted to athletes. Teachers were much less likely to massage athletes' grades when their respective teams underperform here, athletes must be treated equitably academically, Glen muses as to what he intends to do as a superintendent, since he feels like the excessive academic favors given to athletes as hurting the athletes academically in the long run. Especially since the parish has a relatively high sports participation and hence can weigh on the balance. These favors go beyond make-up tests and extensions as given for excused absences by any other student.
And then Glen looks for resources to prepare for the superintendent Praxis test the departmental bureaucrats in Bâton-Rouge ask for to get a superintendent license. Especially since, given what he knows about the other principals in the parish, the others either feel like the superintendent's job is merciless or cuts them off from access to the kids.
Like Elton High's principal, who lost a high-flying student to the VAs in Krista during her time as a principal, also overseeing a school team name change (from Indians to Concepts) this time because of an offensive team name.
In the lead-up to the EGMO, he finally sees some donations coming in, mostly from out-of-state, in support for Venomous Agenda mathletics. At the same time, since the policy pair entered Last Chance, he feels the need to keep some money in reserve should the policy pair make it to Nats, and therefore force the bus driver who judged in-person tournaments in the VAs' name to judge public forum at Nats in Raleigh as well. And then budget the same per-person costs as previously.
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Speaking of the EGMO, since the results from the race to the IMO speak pretty much for themselves, Jennifer faces tremendous pressure to deliver, mostly coming from the parish, but also somewhat outside it too.
"Valerie, you're the only one I know who understands the kind the pressure I'm under" Jennifer confides in Valerie after a math team practice.
"I guess... it's the end of the road for you, well, the end of the road considering that you will start at Yale on a blank slate and, because you failed to qualify for the IMO, it makes the EGMO all the more stressful to you since you feel the need to prove yourself on the international stage and then prove that the race to the IMO was a fluke" Valerie shares her observations. "You're not alone, and I'm headed down that path, too!"
"I'm about to crack! You always seemed to go see Anna when things go wrong!" Jennifer shouts at Valerie. "Anna is a much better listener than our teammates!"
"While Anna is probably more predisposed to active listening than I am, she faces pressures of her own, but on the buzzer. Not sure she appreciates being the go-to girl when pressures seem to mount" Valerie then warns Jennifer about seeing Anna for stress relief.
Strangely, neither Valerie nor I seem to be pressured about grades, we always seemed to be able to get good grades just fine. The orat player, on the other hand, must work hard just to maintain a 3.5 GPA, and is constantly fretting about that number. He regularly asks me and my teammates for help in math, Jennifer reflects on her own academic life.
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In the meantime, because Glen is busy preparing to take the Praxis test, as he feels an obligation to at least attempt it, since it's an opportunity that doesn't present itself very often. But around the dinner table with his wife that night:
"On the one hand, I feel like the whole parish should benefit from what has been implemented at our school. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I should give up on the school itself; I'm worried that, if I become the parish's superintendent, that the principal who will then replace me will run the mathletics team into the ground and hence disrupt what gave the school the improvements it achieved" Glen explains his situation.
"You may as well be wondering to what extent the VAs' mathletic successes actually inspire the kids to work harder in class elsewhere in the parish, especially since math is the parish's main area of weakness" Selena points out. "But I'm afraid that you're throwing our brightest kids to the wolves by pushing people like, say, our daughter far harder than necessary in the pursuit of mathletic success. It seems like the better they are, the more pressure they are placed under"
"We are the envy of the rest of the parish. Maybe if the parish paid the entry fees for two remotely administered math contests, one being a league and one being a tournament, per school contingent on meeting certain gender balance requirements, and cut professional development budgets to finance this... it would replace the Title IX system currently in place for mathletics" Glen explains how it would proceed as it relates to parish funding of mathletics. "But rest assured that I will ask the would-be principals about how they plan to handle mathletics. Until the hiring of the next superintendent is confirmed, I will not push Valerie as hard as I used to"
Now Glen is subject to the same intensity in studying as Valerie was, so that he can pass the test required to get his superintendent license on time for Memorial Day. He already sent the remaining materials beforehand.
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So of course, the events surrounding the EGMO, both before and after it, feel all too reminiscent of Gen's historic run to the tournament 2 years earlier. The town hypes Jennifer about as much as they did Gen, media came from well beyond the parish's borders, and she is the talk of the parish. I guess, it's a good thing the superintendent was able to get 4 new LED scoreboards installed, one each for football, baseball, basketball and aquatics. The math team's pep rally for the EGMO at the Jerry Simmons Stadium just wouldn't feel the same without it, nor would the playoff math games, Glen reflects on the intensity of the pep rallies held for math.
Just a week before the VMC final, Jennifer announces her EGMO result on parochial radio, knowing that so many in the parish would tune in on the morning specifically for this announcement:
"Even though the race to the IMO met an abrupt and heartbreaking end earlier this month, I returned from the EGMO with a gold medal! As of right now, there is one last tournament on our mathletic schedule, the VMC. May the VMC be my swan song as a high school mathlete as I head to Yale this fall!" Jennifer announces on air before rushing to get to school, with people lining up to take photos of her with the gold medal around her neck.
Glen reviews the donations made to the school during the lead-up to the EGMO and yes, there is enough money to let the policy team attend Nats (assuming they place high enough at Last Chance to qualify) and let him take the Praxis test on the school's dime. However, there is next to no money left after that. The donations were fairly limited and only fanatics of women's mathletics made any donations to the VAs.
Speaking of Praxis test, Glen leaves work early to take it on May 1, while Valerie feels like it's the calm in her storm that will await her for the next 2 years in high school. About the relentless studying to be done for her AP courses as well as her regular finals. About all the other things she is doing beyond band and community service.