If we can do anything to help them, we're happy to do it. I think it's hit all of us hard, all of us have friends there. When we found out, probably half the school was crying.

Be sure to ask for help, and vent or brag on your progress along the way.

Julia is a great lacrosse player and taught us some things, but she was more of a friend than a coach. We had some good lacrosse players, but we needed the coach to put it all together.

We recognize that the most important job we have in front of us is to make sure our seventh- and eighth-graders enter high school prepared to succeed in a rigorous academic environment. Our children need double periods of English language arts and extra time in mathematics.

It feels like everything has been put back together. She knows what she is talking about and helps us to improve our game. Practices are very organized and we always are working on something with a single goal in mind.

More time does not in itself fix the problem. But it gives us the instructional time we need to implement our three-year academic plan.