Springtime brings out more than new leaves and flowers—it brings out all those little critters, too. As classes start to wander outdoors again, exploring kids wander through the sports fields again, and school gardens begin to grow, this is a good time to be reminded of potential allergies to insect bites and stings.

Editorial Most adults, if not all of us, set out each morning on a quiet journey to find happiness. We don't always find it—we don't always look in the right places to find it—but we always intend to. Teenagers set out each morning on the same journey. They want to be accepted, appreciated, respected, and most of all, happy.

It seems that every decade there's a new "flavor of the month." Each time, it is the new thing that will revolutionize education and change the way in which we do things. It is possible that the last invention to truly change education was the blackboard, invented in 1801 and popularized in the United States in 1842 by William Alcott. Tables and benches were replaced by individual desks and chairs, and the Prussian military rows were incorporated as the ideal of educational practice.

Q:: "I read more stories about teachers suing schools and school districts for wrongful dismissal. How can I protect my school against this?"

Q: We're a religious school, but our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statement says that "we don't discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion," etc. Is this a problem?

As many schools are now either right in the midst of—or are thankfully winding down—their faculty hiring efforts for this season, we thought we'd take a moment to share a few views of the "lighter side" of the interviewing process. Whether it is due to nervousness, desperation, or other factors, we all know how interviews can bring out the "quirkiness" in even the most otherwise "calm, cool, and collected" individuals.

Over the past two years, two new categories of FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) were added under federal law: "qualifying exigency" leave (of up to 12 weeks) and military caregiver leave (of up to 26 weeks). When originally added to FMLA, "qualifying exigency" was broadly defined as leave required to help a family member prepare for a sudden military call-up. The Department of Labor (DOL) has since provided more details around situations where a "qualifying exigency" may apply.

We've received several calls in recent months from schools wondering whether a letter they ostensibly received from "CMS" seeking employee data is legitimate. Suspicions were high among a few Business Managers we spoke with who were concerned that the letter might be a scam, that someone was trying to steal the identity information of their employees.

Private-independent schools don't have the same issues concerning high school dropouts. However, every school is affected in some respect. Robert Balfanz, co-operator of the Baltimore Talent Development High School, co-director of the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University, and researcher, has determined four core reasons why students drop out of school before graduating.

When an athletic coach in Hernando County starting getting text messages from one of his teenage female students, he thought nothing of it. He often kept in contact with his students that way. However, many of her text messages were not related to the weightlifting team—they were in regard to personal issues.