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Elementary principal shares his stories
By Senitra Horbrook, shorbrook@acnpapers.com
Carrollton resident David Wehmeyer had an interesting run in with a duck during his first year as an elementary school principal 20 years ago.
He decided to come in on the weekend to get some work done and ventured out to the school’s Critter Courtyard to say hello to the animals. One of the ducks saw the open door into the school’s hallway as a chance to escape and took off flying straight towards the main front doors with big windows.
“From the duck’s view, it probably looked like an opening and his ticket to freedom,” Wehmeyer said. “I knew what was about to happen, and I was only about halfway down the hall when I heard a loud and sickening thud. The duck had hit the door window head-on and was lying motionless on the hallway floor.”
“I started writing stuff down 20 years ago. I know my own memory, which isn’t very good,” he said. “About a year and a half ago, I said I’ve got to put all this stuff together to see if it would be worth putting together a collection of stories.”
Two months later, he had a manuscript ready to send to publishers. Tate Publishing, a small publisher in Oklahoma, responded less than two weeks later. Just Waiting for the Bell is currently available online and will be for sale in area bookstores in January.
“I just think it’s entertaining stories. It will be really cool for the general public to read some of those,” he said. “It would be cool if I could sell a lot of books that were fun to read. If the book does real well, I would be inclined to see what else I could do.”
Just Waiting for the Bell is a collection of about 30 short stories compiled from Wehmeyer’s 20 years as an elementary school principal. Sixteen of those years were spent in Irving ISD. For the past four years, Wehmeyer has worked as principal of Corbell Elementary School in Frisco.
“I’m fairly quiet. I don’t like to bring a ton of attention to myself. Nobody except my family knew I was doing it,” he said. “Everybody was really excited. They think it’s so cool. The stories relate directly to them. I’ve had nothing but great reaction from everybody.”
Wehmeyer said his favorite story is the one titled “What’s Your Motto?”
“I’m poking fun at school mottos, like ‘Learning today, leaders for tomorrow,’” he said.
In the story, Wehmeyer said he thought the majority of school mottos are really dorky.
“I realize that schools must promote a positive image and do what they can to gain the confidence of the parents and community, but I’ve always wondered about how much stock a parent puts into the school’s motto,” he wrote.
The book’s title came from a vision in Wehmeyer’s head of how he wanted the cover to look.
“The image of the cover is supposed to be a principal of this school thinking this is crazy get me out of here, I can’t wait for the 3 o’ clock bell to ring,” he said.
While being a principal has more than its fair share of crazy days, it’s the rewards that have kept Wehmeyer coming back for more.
“The kids are great. You can have the worst day in the world… with the kids it doesn’t matter,” he said. “They’re still happy. They love you because you’re taller than they are.”
For information, visit justwaitingforthebell.com.
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