And, when Nats get underway, people in town, and to a lesser extent other parishioners, seem to endlessly talk about the performance of their beloved Venomous Agendas. And it's only then that people start getting into the finer points of the events they compete in.
On Sunday afternoon, the town's mayor, alongside the parish school superintendent and the principal of the VAs' school, organize one closing rally to this season at the municipal stadium, where the townsfolk, drawn to the novelties that are speech and debate (to their eyes anyway), wanted to see the triumph of another facet they heard so many good things about, but never where it led until Nationals went underway.
The rally begins with a group photo of the five players at Nats holding their respective trophies, under the cheers of the crowd. The mayor then addresses the crowd:
"Dear residents of our town, I can confidently say these kids are a major component of what gives me hope in the population. Our beloved Venomous Agendas returned from the NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament, held in Raleigh, with three top-ten performances! Never before, since the inception of the NSDA, did any parish high school attend the national championship, so here are five of the smartest kids in the parish! In tenth place in policy debate, a round of applause for Rebecca Tarib and Jarod Wilson! In seventh place in international extemporaneous speech, Chantal Morin! Also in seventh place, in public forum, Sadie Naath and Joe Glumack-Layton!"
"As superintendent of the parish's school district, the post-pandemic years brought its set of challenges, and nothing made our parish more proud in the post-pandemic era than our accomplishments in academic competitions, where we showed time and time again that we could perform even on the grandest of stages, especially in mathletics and quiz bowl. But today, I hereby announce my retirement as superintendent of the parish school district, and my successor here, the principal who made the Venomous Agendas what they are today, will be taking over the reins of the parish school district!"
That sort of rally for our performance at Nationals would, in all likelihood, never happen anywhere else. The sort of schools that get to top-14 positions are mostly in urban areas, irrespective of whether they are public or private. It's very intense! Sadie reflects on how this roller coaster of a season ends. How, despite having struggled with anxiety for months, she still made it through.
But she knows that, for every person like her, there are several people who fail to even qualify to Nats in the first place, and she doesn't think any less of them as people just because they didn't get to compete for a national title; it may well be that their strengths lie elsewhere.
"While this is undoubtedly the crowning achievement of this debate season, it's not time to rest on our laurels. May the next season bring us joy on the debate floor! And in mathletics as well as quiz bowl, too" the principal keeps it shorter. "However, the time is not appropriate right now to talk about the priorities for the parish's school system as the parish's new superintendent!"
"I announce that I will be playing on the math team next season as well!" Chantal then announces to the crowd, who all gasp upon hearing that.
I would never have expected Chantal, of all people, to play on the math team. If what Daisy said is correct, Chantal was shut out of the final because of a bad cross-examination phase in the first semi-final game! Cross-ex can lose games for extempers, but never win one, Dexter said. That said I am fully confident that Chantal won't become one of those lazy extempers... Glen ruminates while he wastes no time returning to the parish school district's office to make the principal's job posting for others in the parish first, as per the rules of the parish regarding managerial positions.
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Choosing a new superintendent created a domino effect; a principal needed to be chosen to replace Glen at the helm of the VAs' school, then an assistant principal... unless, perhaps, the town can accept Jennings Middle to be merged with the VAs' school, in which case there would be one fewer person on the school's staff. Or perhaps two.
He then calls for a town hall meeting at the school's auditorium regarding the matter a few days later, with the boards of both schools involved in attendance. And some parents of kids at both schools.
"Today, as superintendent of this parish school district, I feel the need to rectify an administrative oddity left behind by my predecessor: this town's middle and high schools being administratively separate even though they have the same campuses and are highly integrated in several respects, be it academically and socially. This situation created administrative inefficiencies which are hurting our ability to serve the kids!" Glen announces to the townsfolk.
"Sir, for the merger to proceed, we will need to merge our administrative databases and all that, and any streamlining would take a while to yield benefits" a middle school board member points out.
The one thing no action would need to be taken about is bus routes: the parish knew for years that, since middle and high schools are on the same campus, transportation should be treated accordingly.
"What would that imply for the school and team name?" Faith's mother asks them. "Would it mean that both middle and high school teams will either go back to Bulldogs or switch to Venomous Agendas?"
"For years now, people refer to our high school as the Venomous Agendas' school and the name Venomous Agendas has become central to school identity. So I believe we would prefer if the team name Venomous Agendas be retained for both" a high school board member suggests the audience.
What started out as a meme became a household name around the parish and in girls' mathletics. I might be wondering what else we could save beyond a principal for costs. This setup created some redundancies, which costs the parish some money. And the money would then be reused to help the kids. Yet my predecessor let the middle and high schools operate separately from an administrative standpoint because he believed that middle and high school needs were too different from each other, Glen reflects on what caused his predecessor to let this situation happen, and listen in to what the community had to say on the topic of the merger.
"You may as well name the resulting school Venomous Agendas High!" Nicole warns the crowd in the room.
"And replace this outdated, static sign by a two-sided LED one!" a janitor complains about the sign at the school's entrance.
"Do you have any idea of how much a two-sided LED sign would cost?" Catalena's mom asks the attendees.
"Lacassine bought theirs for fifty grand a few years ago, so we can get one for that much, as a turnkey solution as they did" Daisy's father comments on the cost of a two-sided LED sign.
I guess I am lucky that Lacassine's principal didn't become superintendent: he only cared about milking money out of facilities. I suppose that Lacassine used their own LED sign for advertising space... Daisy's father reflects upon how Lacassine used their LED sign.
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"What impact would the consolidation have on the lives of the kids?" another concerned parent asks the schools' boards. "On their education's even?"
"I'd say it offers more opportunities to offer more electives, and requests to open up AP Spanish came up regularly; we will be able to with the merger since it allows greater flexibility in scheduling teachers" a high school board member answers that parent.
The parish board will accept the merger and the name change but only if there's a plan to ensure a smooth transition of administrative functions for the consolidated school over the summer. The details of the plan will probably be stuff the population won't care about, however, the locals embraced the VAs as part of their identity, and renaming the consolidated school Venomous Agendas High amounts to officialising what the residents did informally for years, Glen then realizes that it will be the only concrete difference most people will feel upon changing the school's name. But, by and large, people agreed on changing the signage.
"Who will the principal of the consolidated school will be?" Salome's parents ask.
"To reduce the chaos of the merger, we will keep the current middle school principal as the principal" Glen then makes the one readily understandable detail of the plan clear.
While the town hall meeting isn't the most attended in the world, the attendees have yet to touch a question that, to Glen, is critical for the long-term future of what he accomplished as a principal.
"For years now, the Venomous Agendas built their reputation on mathletics; what's your stance on academic teams?" Faith's mom asks Jennings Middle's principal.
"I feel like academic teams have disproportionately benefited students at the top of the class. Fully eighty-six percent of the students on high school academic team rosters are in the top ten percent of the class, excluding FFA. And often, at least in mathletics, they were in that bracket in middle school as well. Rest assured that money will still be allowed to circulate among academic teams, but the school will not provide any money directly and specifically for them" the middle school's principal answers the question from Faith's mom.
This is going to mean that all academic teams are at the mercy of mathletics, especially debate, since mathletics is the only academic team bringing in any revenue at all. That is, unless FFA could somehow raise any money from their fundraisers. Which would probably involve growing vegetables for revenue. Then again, for some reason, school administration, and certainly the public, deems FFA to be an academic team and not at the same time.
"What about band and theater then? Surely their academic profiles are more balanced" Gaston, a Congressional player, asks, after realizing that debate will no longer be supported directly by the school because it's deemed to be too top-heavy academically.
"Theater is more top-heavy than band, but that's because six of the twenty-one actors play on the debate team as well, whereas only two musicians also play on the academic teams. Band has more or less the same academic profile as those who play sports" a high school assistant principal explains to him.
Which means relatively few top students, but more middle-of-the-pack kids. Anna and Valerie have, without question, the best grades on the band.
"We will keep supporting the arts at their current level; after all, the town wants more than just sports out of this school" another board member tells him.
In the mind of the current principal of Jennings Middle School, the resources used to support the academic teams could be better used on students with lesser ability. It seems like, going forward, it will lead to increased financial pressure going into the Math Madness, which leads to increased pressure for us to perform, Nicole reflects on the implications for the math team going into next season. But I am surprised by Chantal suddenly wanting in on mathletics; she was one of the 2 workhorses of the debate team for as long as she was on the team. For this reason, I could never have imagined her being strong enough in math to do calculus as a junior.
"What would the merger imply for middle school debate and quiz bowl?" a middle schooler's parent asks the board, beyond there not being any money.
"If you thought southwest Louisiana was an academic tournament desert at the high school level, it's even worse in middle school. Middle schoolers are too intellectually immature for debate tournament topics, so a middle school debate team is out of the question, and also too expensive for us. Especially if the cost of last debate season is any indication. But quiz bowl might depend on student interest" the middle school principal then adds a comment about middle school quiz bowl. "Again, no school money is going to be spent on middle school math or quiz bowl teams, even if the TQBA (Texas Quiz Bowl Association) let us enter middle school tournaments in east Texas. There's just not a whole lot of middle school quiz bowl in Louisiana. However, if the TQBA allowed us to play in their tournaments, they will do so at all levels"
Will the Venomous Agendas be able to sell as many math season tickets if my daughter fails to make it into the "race to the IMO"? Last year, math season tickets sold out very quickly, Glen ruminates while he feels that he shouldn't intervene in this discussion unless points seriously threatening the functions of the consolidated school are raised.
However, the local community seems to be supportive of the merger especially since busing is already consolidated: their questions were mostly about the logistics of the school merger as it relates to the students and the parents, and not objections.
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And the janitor raises a good point about signage. Glen then goes around asking other schools in the parish (except for Lacassine, whose data is used to make a case for replacing the signage parish-wide) about the age and type of signage before he opens a bidding process for the replacement of signage using the money saved by consolidating the middle and high school into Venomous Agendas High.
No other school in the parish seemed to even have LED signage. But he quickly realizes that, while schools might be ok with all having the same LED screens as Lacassine did, the mounts are definitely not the same. He then emails Lacassine's principal about it, which prompts that principal to call him.
"Mr. Superintendent, this is Camden, Lacassine's principal. May I ask why you're asking us for our dealings with our signage vendor as well as the model?"
"The parish is planning on replacing all other schools' signage for LED screens so that they can raise advertising revenues outside of sports games, and we also want to renegotiate the service contract so the whole parish is serviced by the same vendor" Glen explains to that principal.
He then changes the bid to ask for supplying the model of two-sided 7ft x 11ft LED signs Lacassine is using, and the winner is also required to service the entire inventory of LED signs of the parish for the next 8 years. One model, one service contract and economies of scale. As a sign of good faith, he leaves the bid open until July 6, and lets Camden provide the other two members of the committee in charge of selecting and running the bidding process.
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Fast-forward to July 4, at which point school administrative matters are far away from the residents' attention, and Valerie is invited to the parochial radio station to announce the result from the TSTST herself.
"This is Valerie Watkins. As per usual on July the Fourth, if there's anyone at MOP, the results from the TSTST in Pittsburgh are announced. It's probably not going to be as glorious as with Jennifer last year, but I still finished tied for twenty-seventh. This year, however, is the first year with more than four girls in the top-thirty so you cannot take for granted that I will compete at the EGMO. Nevertheless, I will be in the race to the IMO next season"
With the consequence that, when the period for buying season tickets starts, people are still lining up to buy them. And, along with the race to the IMO, the Venomous Agenda faithful ratchet up their expectations of Valerie.
"Valerie, you made it into the race to the IMO. But unlike Jennifer, you're not a favorite to win. You must also realize that other academic teams, especially debate, but also both middle and high school quiz bowl, count on us to go deep into the Math Madness playoffs this year, and both seasons" Glen warns her daughter upon returning home from work on July 6, and the LED sign supplier of Lacassine also winning the parish's contract.
"The math team bankrolling the quiz bowl and debate teams is nothing new to us. But the middle school now has a quiz bowl team? That's news to me!" Valerie then gasps.
"The middle school has merged with the high school and the consolidated school is now called Venomous Agendas High. The principal opened a quiz bowl team for middle school since offering only a math team at that level amounted to depriving kids whose strength didn't lie in math and science an opportunity to shine" Glen explains to her. "Now, ask Faith about when she can train with you, and get back to training for the IMO!"
"Fine..." Valerie sighs.