The Beginning of the End?

After the school board meeting last night and the public forum (I did not attend both), I gathered a few "intuitions" about what went down.

As far as my position goes, my 7th grade baseball contract was approved, although the feeling through the crowd was that the athletic director wanted me to volunteer my time after school with the boys. If it were during the summer, yes -- I'd be more than willing to volunteer my time, pay-free, to help out a baseball team. But during the school year, it is a different matter. It takes a pretty big chunk of time during the day (it may not seem like much, but it adds up) and I believe a little compensation is in good order.

If it was decided by the school board that I should volunteer my time, I would have stepped up and said no. Sometimes, as a teacher, I get the feeling like they like to "push us around," so to speak.

As far as I heard from the public forum, there were strong sentiments for the teachers and a lot of people against the administration. It's just what the impression was from another attendee who was at the meeting. But he also got the message that they were going to cut one teacher from every department in the school. Since I'm at the bottom-of-the-heap in the Business Ed. department, I could be screwed.

Then, looking through my Master Agreement last night, I remembered that the other Business Ed. teacher is also fully certified to teach high school social studies. I began to feel a little bit of hope, only if the adminstration does realize that she can teach another subject matter, then I would be the only Business Ed. teacher in the school district -- thus my job saved.

It's wishful thinking through an extrememly volatile and stressful time. Some days I think that I should just approached the already-let-g0 principals and ask them how safe my job really is. They'd probably give me a comforting answer, only to delay the inevitable. As a teacher, yes -- I do have an obligation to finish out the school year in the best interest of the students. But, if I'm let go, it's going to be tough to carry on with a positive attitude.

The cuts are just around the corner -- thinking that by April 15, everybody will know who stays and who'll go. Hope for the best.