Lots of craziness in the past few weeks. None of it is good and it usually takes me awhile to get around to writing about the bad stuff. So here it is.
We had a meeting last week about the state of our school. As we all know, my principal got fired at the beginning of this school year because of our low performance on standardized tests. She was replaced by a milder version of herself. We haven't even taken this year's standardized tests yet, and The Powers That Be have already decided firing old principal wasn't good enough.
We were told at this meeting, in not so many words, that we're all fired from our jobs as teachers at this school. In April, whoever the principal for next year is going to be and whoever they appoint to be their administrative team will begin interviews for next year. If I (or anybody) want to keep working at this school, I have to interview again. If I want to go to another school, the voluntary transfer fair is April 14.
I think I mentioned this before, but we're also being paired with an "outside partner" to assist us in not sucking.
My question is, when are we going to find out about this new principal and administration and outside partner? I would like some sort of information about the school before I decide to stay there or move on. What if they partner with a company or program that I disagree with? What if they partner with a company or program that is my perfect ideal of how a school should be run? This is information I could use to make my decision.
I'm not going to focus on the fact that I find it incredibly insulting that I have to interview for a job I already have (which I do), but I'm going to focus on the fact that somebody I don't know is going to decide in a 30 minute interview whether I deserve to keep the job that has a body of work that spans five years is beyond ridiculous. Why wouldn't you consult the people within the building? We KNOW who works and who doesn't. Oh, right. Nobody cares what I think.
If I don't sign up for voluntary transfer and then I don't get invited back to my school, I will be assigned to any random ol' hell hole in the city that has an opening. So, do you preemptively take a job at another school so you don't run the risk of being assigned somewhere terrible, or do you wait it out and hope for the best--that you can keep your current job? Now, we all know that said current job isn't all rainbows and butterflies, but it's the devil I know. And with the possibility of a new, less sucky principal and an outside partner (i.e. $$$$$$), things could be looking up for this school.
I just don't understand why the whole process has to be so shady and secretive. Are we so worthless that we don't deserve to know what's going on?
Oh, and P.S. they had a "community forum" to let the parents know about what is going on with the shut-down. We've got 500 students...less than 30 parents showed up. Can a girl get some parental involvement?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Does this in any way make the decision to quit and go to school for a year any easier? Have/had you made that decision yet?
And I will agree wholeheartedly with you that it is sucky. However, at my age (52) I am beginning to understand that every venue of commerce, government, education, etc., etc. etc is screwed up. And royally. So while the grass may SEEM greener on the other side of the fence, it's not.
Post a Comment