In the weeks to follow, the parish's attention ends up being taken by Trillian at the IMO. For a time, VA came under the national spotlight and was even known internationally as a success story for girls' mathletics. So much that, to capitalize on their newfound but temporary fame, Marianne circulates a memo to the faculty about a new project.

She wants VA to be open to the student exchange market, and internationally. Why did she wait until Trillian competes at the IMO to do so? Did she believe no one would have wanted to go to VA on exchange unless we make a name for ourselves in the academic arena? Flo starts thinking about the implications of opening VA to the student exchange market. And not the least because she doesn't expect a whole lot of families to either be able to host a student or to send a student away.

The memo ends with the time and place of a faculty meeting on one of the days designated for professional development. Which is about cultural sensitivity, and it takes place after the workshop on it ends.

"Dear Venomous Agendas faculty, before we open the school to the international student exchange markets, we would like to discuss why I believe this was overdue. Honestly, I believe it will provide more cultural exposure to our students and hence supplement their education in ways we can't otherwise"

Wattpad High was open to the international student exchange market, but more often than not, the students it got that way acted more or less stereotypically for their nationalities of origin. Here's to hoping VA will have more luck with stereotypes than Wattpad High had, Marianne has another flashback of her old workplace.

"I have a concern: bullying. It might increase students' cultural exposure, but I am afraid that it will make discipline more difficult, or at least paint a target on the exchange student's back while a VA" Trent starts voicing his issue.

"If you want exchange students to bring in, culturally, what we currently can't, I say, it's best to get nationalities and cultures not represented on the faculty and student body" Flo adds to the comments.

"My other concern is that exchange students fitting this description is they are likely to be ELL students and they would then face a language barrier" Ena voices another concern. "Which would make it harder for any cultural exposure to take place"

"Don't worry about language proficiency, Ena. Some of our weaker students in regular English courses would be, frankly, better served in ELL ones and just a little better than the worst case scenario I could expect out of international exchange students" Marianne shares her observations about language proficiency.

"We also want to make sure that the exchange student will get their credits earned here to transfer at their home institution. It's an academic give and take" Steven adds to it.

They keep voicing their respective issues with opening VA to the international student exchange markets, almost as if doing so would amount to a company entering international capital markets. Such as the limited number of families that can act as host families for exchange students, due to the cost of doing so.

Yet, it's painfully clear the staff doesn't fully support the move. Add in another point the teachers overlooked:

"We have been focusing too much on the benefits to the students involved. The elephant in the room is the financial impact on the school: will the student bring in money or make us spend money?" the agricultural sciences teacher asks the principal.

"Unfortunately, the financial impact is not yet clear. We need to iron out the financial details with Bâton-Rouge as well as with the organization running the exchange program" Marianne tries to be diplomatic. "We will need to postpone any decisions about entry into the international student exchange markets"

So while the org running the exchange program will pay a certain amount to us, my question for Bâton-Rouge is: do exchange students count towards the MFP? If so, we'll need to grab as many exchange students as the program will allow us to! Marianne then drafts an email regarding the Minimum Foundation Program (i.e. headcount-based state funding) and exchange students.

The answer comes pretty quickly from the Department of Education in Bâton-Rouge. Which then provides the staff with a clearer financial picture.

"It appears that exchange students are considered the same as any other student for state funding purposes. So I propose that we vote on VA opening up to international student exchange markets. Those in favor, please raise your hand"

Approximately half the staff is in favor, and also half is against it. When the final tally is made...

"By a one-vote majority, we will be open to the international student exchange markets, starting in the 2035-2036 school year! Now that we are open to the student exchange markets, may we actually get fruitful experiences on the market! The session is now declared over"

Then the time comes to go home, tired of the sterile discussions about the cost-benefit analysis of hosting exchange students at the school level. Whoever is left next year will then see how exchange students will enrich their educations, much like how a foreign language teacher can open students to new cultures, provided we get an exchange student, Flo starts wondering if there isn't some ulterior motive for Marianne to open up VA to what she calls the "international student exchange markets".

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Marianne posts on school social media, as well as on other resources used to engage with parents, calling for local families to act as host families for the next school year. Also, she emails all the coaches of the various teams, sports, academic or artistic, calling for a special meeting the following day specifically for the issues raised by opening up the school to the international student exchange markets.

Once that meeting begins, all the coaches of the various interscholastic teams, as defined by the "rule of two" of school regulations, are assembled in a classroom normally used for English courses.

"Hello everyone and let me preface this new meeting by saying that just opening up to the markets is not enough. To make the best out of the market, we need to know from the very beginning what we need, or at least want. If we want to get the best fit for us, we must decide what we want out of the market" Marianne's face turns red and then yells at the school's coaching staff for interscholastic teams, almost all of whom also teach. "Now! Don't be shy if you know your team will be weaker next year, and why!"

Tabarnak! All three of my star players will graduate this year! As much as I would love to "wait and see" for the other five, I'm not sure any of the other five can earn Nats berths at any point of their high school careers. Not to mention any new player we could get this year or next year, I may as well use the exchange market as an insurance policy! Flo ruminates on the state of the debate team for the next two seasons, while the rest of the room turns silent since the request forces all coaches to make forecasts for two years in their minds. Other than that, I'm not picky about format.

"With all due respect, under LHSAA rules, you cannot directly and explicitly ask for an athlete playing a specific sport from a foreign exchange student program!" the cross-country and track coach retorts, yelling at Marianne.

"In football, it would be completely useless to go abroad! From a lot of countries, in order for a foreign exchange student to start a game for us, it would pretty much require that student playing on their home country's national team for their age bracket!" the football team's head coach whines.

"I'm well aware of the size of the skill gap in youth football between here and the rest of the world. However, assuming you don't request aid for a LHSAA-sanctioned sport on the student exchange markets, if they happen to be playing a LHSAA-sanctioned sport well enough to make the team, they'd still be welcome to play so long as they are medically cleared to do so" the swimming coach comments on what LHSAA rules imply for exchange student participation in interscholastic sports.

"You all convinced me that using exchange students to bolster sports teams a year from now is not a viable option" Marianne then turns to the band (which, in VA-land, is used interchangeably with orchestra) and theater teachers. "However, maybe the arts would be a better bet?"

"The problem with theater is that we have no budget to run a middle school theater department and therefore I have no clue of who could have any acting talent going into ninth grade" the theater teacher explains the reality of Venomous Agendas high school theater.

"From a roster planning standpoint, band is much like a football team. You have a lot of positions, so if, for example, my star of a given instrument will graduate this year, I could ask for someone playing that instrument" the band teacher comments calmly about the ways in which conducting an orchestra is similar to coaching a football team.

"My big concern about this idea is that it will make the local kids feel like they're inferior to the exchange students. It will cause them to lose their confidence and hence feel powerless to improve, even in the artistic or in the academic arenas" the basketball team coach argues. "I'd say, just don't look at exchange students as if they are rental players for us to push for victory!"

"With that said, since I have Josiane graduating this year, and someone else as well, what I believe would be best is asking for a student with a proven academic track record; usually quiz bowlers are strong students" Warren adds to this chorus, while also reminded of the size of the achievement gap.

"Exactly. Especially since students who go on exchange tend to come from wealthier families, they are also more likely to take their education seriously, too, so they could be drawn to the academic teams. However, some of them could want to play sports in ways they couldn't at home" Flo keeps discussing what kind of kid Marianne hopes VA would draw.

"I think we have enough of an idea to go forward, and the rest of the process is no longer in your hands" Marianne announces, having calmed down a bit from earlier in the meeting. "With that said, I'm surprised that it was this productive, so this meeting is now over. Good luck to all teams this season, and go Venomous Agendas!"

Wattpad High squandered opportunities to establish academic teams such as mathletics and quiz bowl. However, there is a clear trend emerging: someone with a proven academic track record. So I'd want as strong a student as I can get, Marianne starts thinking about who she could want. And yet, I'm not sure about how the location would change the dynamics of getting stronger students to go to VA on exchange, Marianne seems a little unsure of whether prospective host families would even accept to use her specifications to select who to have VA enroll. And yet, she must think about what a "proven academic track record" means to her. And how even that stuff would not mean the same to Warren or Flo, at least in the context of the quiz bowl and debate teams respectively. This place is far more competitive academically than Wattpad High ever was, but it's still nowhere near the competitive pressure level our big academic rivals face.

And then Flo finally gets around to writing an email to this year's instructor of Spanish II and AP Spanish regarding suggestions for homework assignments (as it relates to reading material and writing or oral prompts), containing what she used herself last year for that purpose. Here's to hoping that the advanced Spanish instructor would understand how this choice of assignments is there to help cover what parents want school to cover but can't otherwise fit elsewhere in coursework, Flo starts thinking about what she hopes to accomplish by making these suggestions to that instructor.