Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Exile's Return?
This afternoon I returned for the first time to Underwood High School. The place resembled a recently abandoned citadel, perched on a small hill overlooking the moat of a road with empty windows and shut doors reminding passerbys that it had borne witness to a long siege. In this case however, unlike a military example, this siege was one enforced from within by the teachers and staff to contain the chaos. And in this case, the efforts, though monumental, had not prevented the school from being added to the state's list of persistently dangerous schools.
I went in hopes of meeting with the principal, Ms. Oldman, both to touch base on how things were shaping up for the coming year, but also to see if I could arrange to introduce the new math teacher I mentioned a few posts back to her and the school. The front doors were locked, so I slumped around the sides through the empty parking lot turned basketball court, glancing into the propped open gym locker rooms, and eventually crept in through the maintenance doorway. The hallways tell a sad story...graffiti in the stairways, posters pulled down, all rooms sealed up. Disheartening sight all around. Even the office, all closed up...but, knowing my principal, I knock on the locked door to her office. And lo and behold...there she is, arguing on the phone with someone at the main office about the auditorium.
Yes...the right hand side of the auditorium had long been plagued by crumbling plaster from the ceiling. Sections had been roped off for the entire school year. But now after the summer rains, the entire room now suffered from ceiling deficiency and had been deemed unfit for use. For my principal, who loves building school community through regular meetings and assemblies, this was intolerable, especially with freshman orientation around the corner. But once she was off the phone with the district, we got to talking about all manner of things. turns out I may not have a uniform schedule of physical science across the board this year after all. We'll see how things turn out in a week or two. As for my other question, it turns out a mixup at the district may mean that my friend the math teacher has no placement at all...and because of that my plan to arrange a meeting will have to be postponed.
I'm now in a mildly awkward position, because I was was in the position last year of not having a placement. Now I learn that another teacher is going to be thrown for a loop; he had a placement, and now because of my intervention, may not have one tomorrow. You can guess how stressful that can be. And should I feel guilty for mentioning the fact that I had met someone who claimed to be assigned a math position if my mentioning it causes him to lose that position in the end?
No use dwelling too long on this moral conundrum...after all I don't know how it ends. But it seems I may be exiled once again at Underwood this coming school year, for better or for worse. And I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
UPDATE
Wow...an actual e-mail regarding a post! How novel.
So...my friend at the Sleeper Cell asks: "At first, you say that a mix-up at the district is why this person doesn't have a placement now, but then you say that you mentioningthis person's placement is why there is no more placement... I don't get it."
In case I was unclear, allow me to provide the following background. Recently one of our math teachers got promoted to be a vice-principal. Initially it appeared that meant we had a math vacancy, so the district automatically went and filled it...with this colleague of mine. However, my principal and roster chair were of the opinion that no such position was necessary and thought they had made the point clear to the district. They were as such unaware that a placement had been made until I mentioned it at my meeting yesterday. Thus in effect, my intervention hastened the inevitable resolution of these mixed messages that would result in the placement's loss rather than being directly responsible for the action. In either case, it sucks for the guy who thought he had a job, but now may not, and I'm still not sure if it's good to be alone at a school or not.
This afternoon I returned for the first time to Underwood High School. The place resembled a recently abandoned citadel, perched on a small hill overlooking the moat of a road with empty windows and shut doors reminding passerbys that it had borne witness to a long siege. In this case however, unlike a military example, this siege was one enforced from within by the teachers and staff to contain the chaos. And in this case, the efforts, though monumental, had not prevented the school from being added to the state's list of persistently dangerous schools.
I went in hopes of meeting with the principal, Ms. Oldman, both to touch base on how things were shaping up for the coming year, but also to see if I could arrange to introduce the new math teacher I mentioned a few posts back to her and the school. The front doors were locked, so I slumped around the sides through the empty parking lot turned basketball court, glancing into the propped open gym locker rooms, and eventually crept in through the maintenance doorway. The hallways tell a sad story...graffiti in the stairways, posters pulled down, all rooms sealed up. Disheartening sight all around. Even the office, all closed up...but, knowing my principal, I knock on the locked door to her office. And lo and behold...there she is, arguing on the phone with someone at the main office about the auditorium.
Yes...the right hand side of the auditorium had long been plagued by crumbling plaster from the ceiling. Sections had been roped off for the entire school year. But now after the summer rains, the entire room now suffered from ceiling deficiency and had been deemed unfit for use. For my principal, who loves building school community through regular meetings and assemblies, this was intolerable, especially with freshman orientation around the corner. But once she was off the phone with the district, we got to talking about all manner of things. turns out I may not have a uniform schedule of physical science across the board this year after all. We'll see how things turn out in a week or two. As for my other question, it turns out a mixup at the district may mean that my friend the math teacher has no placement at all...and because of that my plan to arrange a meeting will have to be postponed.
I'm now in a mildly awkward position, because I was was in the position last year of not having a placement. Now I learn that another teacher is going to be thrown for a loop; he had a placement, and now because of my intervention, may not have one tomorrow. You can guess how stressful that can be. And should I feel guilty for mentioning the fact that I had met someone who claimed to be assigned a math position if my mentioning it causes him to lose that position in the end?
No use dwelling too long on this moral conundrum...after all I don't know how it ends. But it seems I may be exiled once again at Underwood this coming school year, for better or for worse. And I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
UPDATE
Wow...an actual e-mail regarding a post! How novel.
So...my friend at the Sleeper Cell asks: "At first, you say that a mix-up at the district is why this person doesn't have a placement now, but then you say that you mentioningthis person's placement is why there is no more placement... I don't get it."
In case I was unclear, allow me to provide the following background. Recently one of our math teachers got promoted to be a vice-principal. Initially it appeared that meant we had a math vacancy, so the district automatically went and filled it...with this colleague of mine. However, my principal and roster chair were of the opinion that no such position was necessary and thought they had made the point clear to the district. They were as such unaware that a placement had been made until I mentioned it at my meeting yesterday. Thus in effect, my intervention hastened the inevitable resolution of these mixed messages that would result in the placement's loss rather than being directly responsible for the action. In either case, it sucks for the guy who thought he had a job, but now may not, and I'm still not sure if it's good to be alone at a school or not.
