The executive mansion
6/3/19
Today was so busy I barely had time to take a deep breath! It started off promptly at 9:30 where we met with Jeff Coultrane the policy adviser for education K-12. He told us a lot about funding for different less advantaged counties which was eye opening for me because I have been privileged enough to live in Wake county my whole life. After Jeff, we met with LaTonya who is the teacher adviser. Her job is to travel around the state talking to teachers to get their opinions and then convey their ideas to the governor or his advisers. Then we met with Daryl, who told us about criminal justice policy. It was interesting how many opportunities there are in a normal day for any person to be arrested. If a police person wanted to arrest me, all they have to do is follow me around for a few hours before a conscious, aware, person like me would break the law. Our final meeting was with Sarah who is the policy director. Similarly, she never thought she would become a policy person, especially while she was travelling the world. She is the boss of all the policy directors and her job summary is to help make the policy advisers jobs easier.
After saying goodbye to Eliza for the day, we headed to the executive mansion and took a backstage tour. Jack told us lots of funny stories about the first family and the history of the executive mansion. Governor Polk was the first governor to live in the executive mansion, but he sadly died 4 months into his term. His bed was retired until early 2017 when Hillary Cooper came home and wanted a bigger bed. The only bed they could find was the Governors actual death bed. Hillary never slept in that bed again. Another funny story is that every year when the fig trees bloom, you can find Mrs. Cooper at the top holding a basket full of figs. She loves to climb trees! My final fun fact is that there are only 3 or 4 employees employed by the government; the rest are convicts who work for a 2 year term before going back to jail to finish their term. This is a great program that helps these people who have made a mistake get back on their feet after they are released.
Overall I had a very productive day and I enjoyed all of the different points of views.