The launch event for Thompson-Hayes Education was held on a Friday evening in February.
Not at a venue someone had paid serious money to design. Not at the rooftop bar on Sixth Street that Ethan had always favored for the camera angles. At Riverside Charter Academy's gymnasium — because Director Carol Simmons had offered it, and because Mia had said yes without hesitation, because the company's mission was students and the company's first public event under its new name was going to be held inside a school.
There were a hundred and twelve people in the room. Investors, former employees, teachers from three Austin districts, representatives from the two new school systems that had signed district contracts in December. Patricia in the third row, impeccably dressed, radiating the contained
