Fast-forward two years later, in 2038, and it becomes clear that Marianne's relationships with the school staff, as well as with the parents of students, deteriorated, to the point that the parish school board saw fit to have her work elsewhere in the parish, Hathaway. In the meantime, Flo had an in vitro child, Ben. Who's mostly under the care of his grandparents, at least for the time being.
Shortly after Memorial Day, Norman, the interim principal of VA, who has been an assistant principal at VA beforehand, announces some bad news for the school staff. For which he saw fit to hold a staff meeting at lunch.
"Dear Venomous Agendas staff, I gathered all of you today to announce news that will hurt. First, while Marianne butted heads with several of us, as well as parents, her departure for Hathaway is going to leave a hole. Also, Warren, a biology teacher that so many among us knew for coaching the quiz bowl team, is going into retirement. For now, I assume principalship until confirmed by the parish office" Norman starts telling the meat of the bad news.
But because the parish tends to prioritize internal promotions, if possible (which wasn't possible when Marianne first came to VA), and there just aren't a whole lot of teachers who would want to be administrators, Norman got VA's top job.
"So for the coming year, this leaves us with two more teacher openings than the ones we already have" Ena then tells them, now that she's the new lowerclassmen high school assistant principal. "But I will still teach one section of ELL"
"English and biology. One is easier to fill than the other, but biology is the easiest STEM field to hire for" another assistant principal points out.
"Can anyone tell me why exactly?" the custodian asks.
"Pre-meds. This typically means the pool of teachers to choose from contains people who end up teaching because they failed to enter a healthcare profession" Steven makes a follow-up comment.
Norman wastes no time drafting a job description for both faculty positions, which he then sends to the parish office. Now, Ena would still be responsible for coordinating student exchange matters at VA, so he quickly realizes that, without a coach, there may not be a quiz bowl team anymore.
"What do you most want me to act different from Marianne?" Norman asks the staff.
"I was the one with whom Marianne butted heads most. Foreign exchange students and the debate team were the most common apples of discord, if you will, at least for me" Florence is the first to answer.
I pray that Marianne won't run into as many issues at Hathaway, and not the least because it doesn't have a debate team to begin with! Much less a team in the conversation for Nats berths year in, year out. However, I may be wondering who will replace Warren as the quiz bowl coach, Flo starts ruminating, while other staffers voice their complaints about Marianne. After the grievances are recorded...
"With the retirement of Warren, I need not remind you that we should get one of the existing teachers to coach the quiz bowl team for it to remain in operation, subject to the regulations in place" the principal warns the rest of the staff.
Although it wasn't explicitly stated until now, VA teachers are not allowed to coach more than one team subject to the Rule of Two per season. So while it's possible for the same teacher to coach, for instance, cross-country and track, because their seasons don't overlap, because quiz bowl is an all-season team, coaching it is a year-round commitment. As is coaching the debate team.
"I wonder who has any experience of playing or moderating quiz bowl games here..." a chemistry teacher asks. "Other than Flo of course"
"Wait a minute: we can't have Flo coach both, and I feel she would be better used coaching the debate team" Ena retorts. "But at the same time, we cannot assume that whoever we hire for next August will be able to either coach the debate team or the quiz bowl one"
"What I don't want to see is a coach that will stack mathletes and hope for the best outside of math and science" the football coach voices another concern.
"Even though the system allowing the math and debate teams to reserve one spot apiece on the quiz bowl team was in place for years, there's a reason why the debate team never used theirs since I started coaching it. And yet, while flawed, it's the best mechanism we have to ensure subject balance. However, I wonder how confident you are in leaving the reins of the debate team to Steven" Flo seems to sense that, out of VA's faculty, she is seemingly considered the best fit to replace Warren as coach of the quiz bowl team.
"Why is it that the debate team never used their reserved spot on the quiz bowl team?" the football head coach asks Flo, oblivious to the realities of the academic teams. "The debate team tended to attract high-achieving students, and quiz bowl too!"
"While debaters and quiz bowlers both need fast wits, strong nerves and research skills to do well, you don't necessarily need to have the kind of wide knowledge base quiz bowl tends to require in order to succeed in debates, nor do you necessarily need to be comfortable with public speaking to play quiz bowl well. Bottom line, they don't attract the same kind of high achievers"
The debaters who would suffer the most in quiz bowl either deal in interp, orat or rely on flowing off a speech document. Plus the whole system of reserved spots was based upon the assumption that, because you play on an academic team heavy in one subject area, you will bring your expertise in that subject area to quiz bowl, Flo struggles to think of debaters on other teams who play quiz bowl.
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"I can't really say I have complaints against Steven as a debate coach, so I will keep supporting the team as my predecessor had" Norman tells him.
"I think I will need to confer with Flo first, and ask about how she feels about me taking over the team" Steven then turns to Flo. "Do you feel confident enough in me as a coach to take over the debate team?"
"It's tough. I know nothing about what makes a good quiz bowl coach, other than having some experience of the game as a player or moderator. However, our debating successes of these past few years can't really be attributed to one coach in particular"
And, of course, since all coaches of Rule of Two teams are now paid stipends according to the same schedule, which, in turn, is a fraction of the extra section stipend (how big depends on 2 things, grade level and head vs assistant), the decision to whether to stick to coaching debate or to coach quiz bowl is not a question of pay to Flo. What gives her pause is then what could potentially differ between the two.
"I think I need to learn more about how coaching quiz bowl differs from coaching debate before I can decide. Rest assured that any decision I could make on this matter, which I believe is best to be postponed after Nats, will be made with the best interests of VA in mind" Flo tries to allay Steven's concerns.
I owe it to VA for these years in high school, even though the first half of it took place during the pandemic, and the school wasn't actually named VA until well after I graduated. Which is why I repaid my debt to VA, and probably many times over by now, but my loyalty to VA still remains, Flo thinks about why she remained devoted to VA's debate team for years.
The rest of the meeting goes on with other matters of school policy that Norman feels should be addressed with all the staff, or at least faculty if it's about the education the students receive at VA in future years. Such as foreign exchange students.
"My main concern about foreign exchange students is the temptation to put undue pressure on host families to let them in to fill holes in the student body. I trust you're aware of LHSAA eligibility rules and what they mean for foreign exchange students" Ena warns Norman about LHSAA regulations.
"Yes, I'm aware of LHSAA eligibility rules" Norman responds to her.
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After the meeting ends, Flo looks up the resources the LQBA (Louisiana Quiz Bowl Association) put at the disposal of new quiz bowl coaches. Such as the logistics and budgeting part, which is not part of what she believes differs enough from debate to tip the balance either way. And, of course, the challenges of coaching quiz bowl and whether these translate from debate to quiz bowl coaching. What interests her most, however, relates to the traits of good quiz bowl coaches and how much, if any, of that she fits.
But, looking at tournament schedules of past VA quiz bowl teams, a trend quickly emerges: no quiz bowl tournament required players and Warren to miss class for it, as they typically played in-state single-day tournaments.
Fingers crossed that any of the new hires can either be an assistant debate coach or a quiz bowl coach, if not, something's gotta give... Flo keeps having racing thoughts on the topic of academic team coaching, upon realizing that, while at their core, coaching either academic team might have some similar challenges, the devil really is in the details to her. Especially when some of the resources used in debates may be usable in quiz bowl as well. Even though I'll put in fewer hours at tournaments, I'll be replacing the paperwork of excusing the players' absences by driving players in the dead of night to tournaments! She then keeps a mental note of the biggest advantage of switching to quiz bowl coaching.
However, she feels her relative lack of familiarity with quiz bowl drills and player development will cause her to undergo a steep learning curve, especially in the beginning of the quiz bowl season. Which, in turn, could cause some problems in her mind, especially as it relates to teaching.
In the meantime, Norman's attention is turned to the year-end as well as to conducting remote interviews with potential candidates for any of the teaching openings at VA, hoping that the vacancies will be filled in time for the beginning of the next school year.
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A few weeks later, in mid-June, after the VAs return from the national debate championship, and Steven sends the students' final transcripts, the two meet with each other one last time at work before their vacations begin.
"Did you decide what to do with your future as an academic team coach?" Steven asks her.
"Assuming none of these new hires are good fits to coach any of the academic teams, the more I feel like the changes are mostly going to be about logistics" Flo then shows him a sample tournament schedule, last year's quiz bowl-State.
"I really hope the local community will be more patient with changes in quiz bowl coaching if it comes to that" Steven sighs. "That said, I wonder how dependent quiz bowl teams are on their coaches to do well"
Especially since this town has come to equate a successful quiz bowl season with postseason participation, under the form of the MSNCT or HSNCT, depending on whether one talks about middle or high school respectively. Obviously, high school is given more weight than middle school among the parish's public, Steven keeps his thoughts about the local quiz bowl expectations to himself. But these new hires will set the tone for the new principal.
"You would think that losing a debate coach would hurt the team, even when its successes can't be attributed to a specific coach" Flo retorts. "You have an idea of the paperwork that goes into running a debate team, not that you're necessarily afraid of paperwork per se, but I was responsible for the bureaucratic aspects of it. Players won't necessarily receive as much attention with only one coach, but not all players are made equal. Congress, extemp and orat are lower-maintenance to coach"
"Debate has historically been, year-on-year, the most inconsistent of VA's academic teams. I believe the VA community would be more understanding of one bad year or two on the debate floor, even though we have the only operational debate team left in southwest Louisiana" Steven lays down the realities of debate in town.
"I guess I'm the best choice remaining, and new teachers are going to have a lot on their plates early in their careers, or at least early in their lives here in Jennings. Especially if they didn't grow up here. So I will hand over full responsibility over the debate team to you"
And then she sends out an email to Norman as well as the returning debaters announcing that she will step down from coaching the debate team and then coach the quiz bowl one, with Steven going to coach the debate team going forward as sole coach. Which Norman announces to the townsfolk after finishing a report for the parish office HR department about hiring recommendations.