Riding The Storm Out

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I honestly did not anticipate the crash would come this hard, this fast.

It’s been a stressful school year, in a long string of stressful school years.

A referendum to fund teacher pay and much needed school repairs was defeated in landslide on Election Day. Not that we didn’t see it coming, but it still hurts when the people of your city are like, “Nah, you guys got enough money. Figure it out.”

Our superintendent tried to soften the blow by reassuring our teaching staff that all contracts run to the end of the school year, and that no one was in danger of losing their job on November 8.

On top of the referendum defeat our contract negotiations reached impasse and went to arbitration and are still not complete even as we approach winter break. Doesn’t matter, because there’s no money for raises, and an insurance premium increase means an effective pay cut, at least for the teachers who are left.

So you could say we have a morale problem in our district right now.

But wait, there’s more.

Friday, literally at noon, a week before Winter Break, a district-wide email.

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Paraphrasing here, but the basic gist was “Remember that email I sent on election night, saying things were bad? It turns out things are way, way worse.”

Total gut punch. You can guess the reaction amongst the teaching staff. Panic ensues.

I stopped by one of my math colleague’s classes during passing time just to guage where he was at. I said “If you can concentrate on teaching geometry these next two hours after that email, you’re a better man than me.”

The wider world will know the reality when the personnel report is published for this week’s school board meeting, but within the buildings the dot-connecting started immediately. The instructional coaches spent most of the afternoon counseling teachers who were concerned about getting RIFfed two weeks before Christmas.

Our superintendent was up front and apologetic in his email. He realized that his election night email may have created a false sense of security, and that the timing of this news, right before the holidays, was devestating.

I’m gutted for my colleagues who will spend the rest of the year (or at least until the state-mandated May 1 window for reduction-in-force announcements) worrying about their job status, and my heart hurts for our administrative staff at the district level. There is a lot of supremely talented people and good human beings who are going to be out of a job. We’re losing a lot of institutional knowledge.

Not to mention our district admin staff just got a lot whiter and more male, in a district that is predominantly serving students of historically marginalized populations.

Many of my colleagues are still hurting from a district downsizing just four years ago. I wrote about it as part of my reflection on the Summer Of E-Learning Conference in my district in 2019.

I spent some time with Mrs. Dull on Friday night sorting out the possibilities. I think there’s a five percent chance I get caught up in the cuts and end up a free agent. My status as a highly-effective teacher probably saves me but I switched districts for a minute and then came back so despite my 15 years in Hammond, my current years of service make me the least senior teacher in my department.

Just looking at the distribution of licensed math teachers in my district, involuntary transfers are a likely reality so there’s maybe a 35% chance I stay in Hammond but switch schools, leaving an instructional coach position to return to the classroom. Again, seniority is not my friend.

There’s about a 55% chance I am no longer an instructional coach and return to the classroom in my current school. Good thing I didn’t really unpack a lot of the stuff I packed up from my classroom last August.

And the other five percent is total pipe dream, we decide we need instructional coaches at the building level and I stay in my current position at my current school.

I love teaching and won’t be heartbroken to take a full schedule of classes next year. Honestly, I’ll be happy to still have my same job in my same building with my same department colleagues. We all will be happy just to still have jobs, if you want the truth.

But I’m really not looking forward to walking back in my building tomorrow. I don’t think the weekend away will have assuaged anyone’s fears about what’s to come the next five months. If anything folks will be more concerned about the future, not less.

Gonna put my counseling hat on as I walk in the G door.

We’re going to have to ride this one out together.

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