As you may have surmised from the title, I’m not really down with admins who refer to their staff as “family”. Every email and meeting is an occasion to tell us how important each of us is to the success of our school. Maybe I’m just an old cynic but I don’t go for all that kumbaya huggy stuff in the workplace. Perhaps this is because of the old adage “Show, don’t tell”.
I’m in a frustrating spot these days. Due to lowered enrollments I have to split my time between two different schools to provide special ed services. For 2.5 days per week I am at Home School and for the other 2.5 days I am at Other School. Initially I was told that I might not have a job for this year because there was someone with more seniority than me who had dibs on the role I currently have. (I learned later on that this person is infamous for not showing up to work.) A few hours later I was told that I had the job. I had asked if there was a way I could teach for the equivalent of 2.5 days and do other things at Home School for the remainder of time. While our school has desperate need for the skills of an experienced special ed teacher with a Master’s degree and official Reading certification, staying in one place was not an option. (I assume it’s because the bean counters can’t reconfigure their spreadsheets to accommodate a creative idea like this. Yes, this sounds like a dig but I really don’t mean it that way. I get it – bureaucracy is not a flexible beast.)
Fast forward to the present day. As it turns out, both schools need more than their 2.5 day allocation. At Home School I have special ed “small” groups of seven where I run around the room in a circle as I tend to kids with vastly different goals. No one is getting the attention they deserve. Other School is even worse. There is simply not enough time in 2.5 days to get to all of the mandated services. This school is currently in violation of the law because there are special ed services that are not being delivered as mandated. I’ve tried for weeks to make this work but the solution is not with me or my scheduling.
I’ve made sure to protect myself by letting admins and district people aware of this issue. The district appears to be standing firm on keeping things as is. The principal at Other School wants me to make it work as she believes the issue is with me and not the fact that some kids have 3 days’ worth of services and not 2.5 days’ worth. After making myself crazy and run down I have decided I have said all I can say on the topic. I will never bring it up unless new information arises that needs to be distributed. There is no way I am going to burn myself out to make this mishegoss work. I’m being more assertive than my usual self, partly because our union is in danger of being shut down. Come January, we may all become at will employees. In all of this, neither principal has asked how I am doing in all of this. I get it – you don’t go to the hardware store for oranges and you don’t seek validation from your employer.
That’s fine but spare me the family talk. Let’s just paint this picture accurately. I do an honest day’s work and I get an honest day’s pay in return. That is the extent of the relationship. The family stuff just feels fake and manipulative to me. As I tell newer teachers, if you were to suddenly drop dead there will be an email titled “Sad News”. We may have an awkward moment at the next staff meeting. But rest assured that within a week, someone else will be in your classroom doing your job. That’s how indispensable you really are.
Groucho Marx nailed all of this.
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