I need to vent about the state of my school.

In September, my principal went on "voluntary" leave. Our union rep had a prepared statement for the surprise emergency meeting, in support of him. Suggesting that it wasn't voluntary.

Two weeks before that, our head of purchasing quit over the weekend.

Our IT department took so long to set up one of our new teachers that she quit.

(Oh, and our principal resigned officially. Nobody I can talk to knows what specifically happened; our only hint is a dropped dui charge from last school year.)

We held a position open for a teacher who was put on leave last year for choking a student. He resigned mid year, his classroom was emptied, and one of the teachers who floated every single period got the classroom.

I was supposed to be observed by the principal who resigned, and when everyone was reassigned, they forgot about me. So I haven't been observed all year. I asked about it and won't be observed until even later (by the observer who is so rigid and nitpicky she gives me panic attacks). The good news there is that they can't fire me. Part of our contract requires a specific number of observations by a specific date if you were to be fired/nonrenewed, and it's just not possible.

I had a para for one class that desperately needed one. My largest class with multiple severe behavior problems--I'd basically need her to act as a one-on-one for a student. She disappeared for nearly three months. Came back last week. So there's that.

I don't have enough books. I have been shaking down every tree I can to get them, and I'm losing hope I'll get them. I've literally been hoarding paper in case I have to print 50 books.

My paint has been peeling in my classroom and the floor acts like it will collapse. My stairs had nails sticking out of them for two months before I got it fixed. I asked the art teacher about having her kids paint a mural over the worst spots. She would love to. But she can't. She doesn't have paint.

(We're getting a new building, but the neighborhood doesn't want us to build anywhere but on our property, which doesn't have room to hold both buildings. So that's a thing to look forward to.)

And to top it allll off, a SPED teacher "had a physical altercation" with a SPED student. I'm waiting to see if it hits the news. If it does, shit hits the fan, because the district is already trying to deal with the negative PR from a different teacher in a different school attacking a student.

I've written 2,000 characters about how much of a trashfire my school is. At this point, some of you will write "Leave. Get out now." And I'm considering it.

I'm considering leaving this building that, despite all its faults, has been very good to me. I was a trashfire teacher myself last year, and they put in a lot of effort to help me. Admin that Gives Me Panic Attacks got me into a program to help new teachers by giving us extra professional development, and a mentor teacher who will observe us and help us out. She may stress me out by just existing, but she's not a mean/bad person.

My coworkers are amazing. I have to leave early once a month to meet with a doctor and they never complain about covering me. Admin is aware and gives me the green light. There's not a lot of cliquiness or bitchiness--the majority of us are just nice people eager to help.

Guidance has been a great help. I have a big say in who gets scheduled in my intervention program, and who doesn't. They try to make my class average 10, with my biggest class being 14.

And the kids. My toughest class right now has two students in it who will not stop talking and require constant redirects. If that's my biggest problem, I'll take it. Even my student in a gang is extremely polite and well-behaved when he's in the room.

I hear next semester I have some tougher students coming down the pipeline, but I haven't had, and don't expect, students to throw desks or try and attack each other in front of me, or me.

If I leave, I leave this program I've basically been there to help build from the ground up. It started the year I did, and I've had a lot of control over it. I may have to give up doing reading intervention, because I'm technically not qualified (yet. I love it so much I'm going back to school to make sure I am qualified, and have taken lots of PD to help shore up my skills in the meantime.)

The people in my building deserve better than what we're getting.

Submitted December 07, 2019 at 05:08PM by CooperArt https://ift.tt/2quiJLo