Chapter Seventeen: Staff Infections

Chapter 17: Staff Infections

I got in late last night due to flight delays from La Guardia. It was after midnight when I turned off the light. I resigned myself to being tired when the alarm went off at 4:00 am. But the alarm never went off. The radio is set to the local public radio station so I can hear the reassuring voice of Bob Edwards on Morning Edition as I go about my morning routine. There wasn’t a power outage; maybe when I set the alarm I accidentally jiggled the volume control and muted the sound? Maybe the public radio station had technical difficulties and wasn’t broadcasting at 4:00 a.m? All I know is that I didn’t awaken until after 6:40. No time to run five miles, the only running that takes place this morning is around the apartment trying to organize myself and my belongings before a frantic shower. I really needed that run. I do not like losing control so early in the day. School has been in session for a month and I have developed a strict morning routine. From 4:00a.m. to 7:00a.m. is the only time I am in control.

I knew it would be difficult to control the students; I just never expected it would be so hard to control my faculty. Is it me or is it them and if it is them and I hired them, then isn’t it back to me? Ernie and the so called Dream Team are out of control and I need to reign them in.




Goodbye Ernie

It is Monday, and that in itself, is bad enough. Last Thursday Ernie, directly flouting our discussions and my verbal and written warnings, suspended two students from the bus without conferring with or advising me or the Transportation Coordinator, Shasta. He left before I could speak with him, then he took Friday as a vacation day. After the 8:00 meeting I sit down in his office to talk with Ernie. Before I finish my opening sentence he becomes belligerent and starts dialing his phone saying he wants to speak with his accusers. I am not sure who he plans to phone. He tells me he doesn’t trust me anymore. He stands up and in a very loud voice gives me his “verbal” resignation. Wisdom born of pain, I accept it and escort him to his car. He insists on stopping in the cafeteria to get his lunch where he exchanges telling glances with dream team members Noreen, Tammie and Neeley. He tells me he is going to call The Boss to tell him what has been going on here. He says he will tell The Boss that I permit people to drink alcohol on campus. I am confused until I remember Noreen asking to drink beer during the last half-day in-service. He rants about how he has been disrespected because of his lack of education. I remind him that I’ve never made an issue over his lack of education. He changes the raving to be about Ebencorp. I tell Ernie I accept his resignation and ask for his keys. He tells me he lost them. I tell him again to go home. Goodbye Ernie.



Role Playing for Neeley

I am concerned about Neeley. My youngest teacher, who used to be a writer for a Key West newspaper, is not doing well. He showed a video to his class last week. It was Blade Runner. I find this out when two parents call to complain. I am determined to make Neeley a better teacher. I develop a plan to meet with him regularly to go over lesson plans and discuss challenges. Today I will teach his class and role-model a well-planned lesson and a classroom under control. He is beginning the Narnia books. I do an introduction to the book, the time and place, introduce some “Britishisms”.... I don’t want Neeley to crash and burn.

With the exception of Torrey (she has to be reminded frequently to open her book) and Marcus (his hair is unbraided, he refuses to participate but is willing to sit quietly), all the students remain seated and reasonably engaged while I instruct the lesson. After about 40 minutes I suggest Neeley take over. I intend to stay and observe but Marcus becomes vocal about his non-participation “I ain’t doing shit.” So I escort Marcus to the counselors’ office. After dropping him off I return to Neeley’s classroom. I don’t think he expected me back.

I enter the classroom to find Neeley standing in the middle of the desks with students leaping around the room trying to catch yellow, mini boxes of Milk Duds he is throwing in the air. A few students, Warenita, Aidan and Renzo, are working on the Narnia related assignment – draw a picture of a time when you were lost. Connor balls up his drawing paper and starts to throw it around the room. Torrey is writing “I love Mr. Neeley” and drawing hearts on her paper. Lindy makes an airplane. Neeley stops throwing candy when I arrive and tries to focus the students, but the chaos prevails. Renzo insists Neeley likes the girls better because the girls got more candy. Aidan runs to the closet to get more candy. Neeley beats him to it and the two battle over control of the door knob until Neeley slams it shut declaring “There, it’s locked.” Aidan grabs the knob, tugs and the door flies open. He runs in and scoops up handfuls of candy. Neeley chases him into the closet. Warenita finishes her drawing and Neeley asks her to discuss it; she does but few can hear her and those who can are not listening. The class ends when Cassandra dramatically bursts out of the bathroom, with her blue jeans around her ankles and her long shirt covering her underwear. Is there any hope for Neeley?

Noreen and Tammie: passive aggressive dreams

During a random search we confiscate many cd’s, all from students in Noreen’s class. Upon questioning students we learn Noreen told her students they can bring in cd players and cd’s “even if it is against the stupid rules Ms. Smee makes.” I talk to Noreen. Yes she knows we all agreed to the rules. Yes she understands we forbid cd’s because the students steal from each other. Noreen denies telling the students they could bring in the cd’s. Who is lying?

I’ve been spending most afternoons in Tammie’s class to role model classroom management skills. I am really worried about Tammie’s science classes. Her class is wild, running around the field rather than walking in a line, bolting out of the room while she sits at her desk. I try to jam “how to teach” into 30 minute counseling sessions. I give her Harry Wong’s book First Days of School and pretty much beg her to read it. Tammie does not seem receptive.

He’s Back

Today should have been our third day without Ernie. Yesterday the Dream Team did a lot of whining about his absence, but I’m feeling a great sense of relief in the post-Ernie world.

In the morning meeting we talk about how to honor today: the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Noreen calls in sick during the meeting. Neeley is very upset. He can barely control his class let alone his plus half of Noreen’s. Tammie seems nonplussed but she has to be concerned too. Her classroom management skills are pretty rudimentary. We don’t have the luxury of substitute teachers - either from a budget perspective or from a “get real” perspective: who would sub here?! When a teacher calls in sick, my options are limited. I usually try to keep students with their regular team of teachers and classmates. This swells class sizes, but keeping students with adults who know them is better than farming them out.

At about 11:00 I am talking to a group of students who are heading to counseling class from Neeley and Tammie’s classrooms on south campus. They are quiet and attentive until suddenly, as if bitten by scores of fire ants, they become agitated and break ranks running toward the parking lot. Their voices soar as one: “Ernie’s back!” They mob around him, hugging him, asking him why he quit. He tells them I fired him. More than a few evil looks and obscenities are hurled in my direction.

I herd the students into their counseling class then ask Ernie why he is on campus. He informs me he is here to return his keys. Ernie heads to the main office of the Haven High, I follow him in. Although our programs are totally separate, we share some bureaucratic business, such as key control, with Haven High School. I tell Ernie he must not return to campus. He says he can return to the Haven High campus anytime he wants. Agnes, the Haven High secretary (and Ernie’s friend) nods. My stomach knots as I envision Ernie making regular visits to campus riling up my students. Agnes proclaims: “Ernie is welcome to visit ANYTIME!” Feeling powerless, I am slowly shaking my head when to my rescue comes Tara, the Curriculum Specialist of Haven High. Tara contradicts both Ernie and Agnes and says if Ernie is not an employee of Prospect he must not be on campus - not Haven High Campus or Prospect Campus. Ernie storms off. I really hope the recurring nightmare of Ernie is going to fade soon.

Rosie readily agrees to become the new counselor to take the place of Ernie. I think she and Rusty will work well together. I hope and believe she will be a better counselor than teacher, if only because she wants to be a counselor, not a teacher.

Tammie and the long goodbye

“There’s a crisis in Tammie’s room.” Rusty shouts on the walkie-talkie. I’ve barely recovered from the Ernie visit but I am on my way. I arrive in time to witness Tammie’s car roaring off campus, spewing stones and dirt, with Tammie’s head hanging out the window shouting: “I fucking quit.” She follows this by a plethora of profanity. Tammie shouts again that she is quitting and that she used her cell phone to call Noreen (she had to phone Noreen at home since Noreen called in sick this morning), and Noreen is quitting too.

A full-scale riot is taking place inside and outside Tammie’s classroom. The girls are spilling from the portable and screaming curses back at Tammie as she drives off. It takes a long time to calm them down. Rusty and I de-escalate the mob and bit-by-bit we learn the story. After lunch today, the class was rowdy and Tammie started to curse at her students. She cried and threatened them. At some point she told Cassandra if her mother has any problems with what Tammie says and does then Cassandra can have her mother come “park her fat ass outside my classroom door.” These are surely fighting words to Cassandra. “Your mama” are fighting words to most of my students, but to a girl who was sexually attacked by her father when she was a toddler (he is in jail still for the attacks on Cassandra and her sisters), and as one of 13 children who has lived in over ten foster homes and is anxious to be reunited with her low functioning mother, this is blasphemy. Cassandra went wild and the other girls joined her tearing up the classroom, throwing desks and ripping posters off the walls. Tammie didn’t use the walkie-talkie to report this, instead she sent several boys to run to Neeley’s classroom (her boyfriend?) to let him know. Neeley’s sage advice? “Get the hell out of there!”

When the day of the emotionally unstable Tammie blissfully comes to an end, I find Neeley in my office. Tammie is the love of his life. He is heart broken at her departure, and doesn’t know what to do. I just listen. I don’t feel too confident in dispensing advice right now.

There is only one thing more surprising than the manner in which Tammie resigned, and that is in how she returns. Tammie appears at work the next day. The day after her cursing, skidding, screaming departure, she is behaving as though nothing happened. Tammie, Neeley and Noreen all enter the 8:00 meeting together. Solidarity? After the meeting all three want to see me but I refuse, saying instead I only need to talk to Tammie, alone.

We talk for 45 minutes. Tammie denies that she quit. She admits it was wrong to abandon her class but she did so because she felt threatened and Neeley told her to leave. She admits she never even tried to radio for help. I know I should fire her. But she begs to return and promises to read the Harry Wong book for new teachers I gave her on her first day at Prospect (Harry Wong is an educator, writer and speaker who has written books and produced videos to orient new teachers to the teaching profession). I forget to be tough and accept Tammie back but she is on a PIP (performance improvement plan). I have this thing about giving people, (students and teachers), second chances. I don’t know if this is a weakness or a strength.

Tammie and I talk about concrete things she can do to improve her classroom management skills such as planning ahead, frequently counting the number of students to make sure none go missing and asking for help when she needs it. Thirty minutes later Tammie walks her class across the campus but doesn’t notice that Adoncia is not with the class. Rosie finds Adoncia outside the portable smoking a cigarette. Adoncia, a J.Lo look alike, is a thirteen-year-old Hispanic girl from Brownsville, Texas. Rosie interrogates Adoncia and finds she hid cigarettes under the portable, in the ceiling tiles in the classroom, in the ceiling tiles in the bathroom and in a sack of flour in the supply closet (the flour is for a future science project). Adoncia is upset that she is in trouble and tells Rosie that while attempting to retrieve one of her hidden cigarettes last week she found Tammie and Neeley having sex in the empty classroom. Rosie knows Adoncia well and has a hunch this sordid tale is true, however Rosie is not about to plea bargain. Adoncia is given a citation from the Deputy for smoking on campus and Rosie tells Adoncia a phone call will be made to her guardians. Adoncia is non-plussed.

A new teacher starts. Yvonne is a petite white woman in her early twenties with freckles and shoulder length strawberry blond hair. I wonder whether I will be able to give her a new class or whether Tammie won’t last and she’ll have to take over Tammie’s class? Yvonne is very quiet but she is a real, certified teacher who moved to Lakeboro from North Carolina for this job. She is living in my apartment complex. I tell her if she ever needs a ride, I am happy to provide one. She looks as though I just offered to shave her head. Lynne tells me later that when she was helping Yvonne with the new employee paperwork, Yvonne’s facial expressions were odd, interspersed with lots of blank stares. Perhaps Yvonne, unlike Midge (my very emotional elementary teacher) has mastered the poker face, or maybe she has no thoughts or feelings to reveal, or maybe she is just terrified. Whatever the explanation, it is unnerving to converse with Yvonne. Will Yvonne last? Have I gone from looking for great teachers to just looking for warm bodies? I feel I am hiring the best among the applicants that I have, but how do I attract better applicants? New students arrive daily and I need to keep hiring to keep up. If my current staff isn’t stable I’ll have to redouble my hiring efforts. Tonight instead of working on grants, I conduct phone screening interviews with potential teachers.

The Back to School Night Open House

The focus of today’s morning meeting is tonight’s Open House. Parents will come to school tonight with their children and follow an abbreviated school schedule. It is frustrating we don’t have an auditorium or indoor space where everyone can congregate, but we devise a plan we hope will allow all parents to meet with all staff. We go through the schedule and make sure every role is assigned: Ruth, the cafeteria manager and Lynne, my business manager, will be sure food is served, always a vital element to any parent event. I am hopeful we’ll have a good turnout; teachers were responsible for calling all their students’ parents, sending home reminder notes (I printed on bright blue card stock) and for writing a note in every student’s planner. I end the morning meeting with a reminder to be sure classrooms are tidy and attractively decorated for parents. “Don’t forget to hang not only commercial posters but also student work.” In retrospect, I should have been more specific.

The Boss calls during the morning meeting, I let it go to voice mail and call him as soon as the faculty departs. The Boss is calling to tell me Ernie phoned him at home last night. The Boss first demands to know how Ernie got his home number. Before I can plead innocent, he “strongly suggests” I take Ernie back because “he has a presence.” I try to stand firm and cite specifics. The Boss isn’t interested. Ernie is giving The Boss a headache and he wants me to make it disappear. Finally I pose the unspoken question: “Are you mandating I rehire Ernie?” The Boss says no. Then Ernie will remain off my payroll.

Ernie resigned a week ago but the Ernie problems continue. He is like a ghost haunting my campus. I overhear Noreen, Tammie and Neeley talking about going to Snowbirds, a local bar, with Ernie and talking with him on the phone. Ernie has convinced them I am the enemy. Now when a student is acting up, instead of requesting a counselor, the three “dream team” members get on the walkie-talkies asking for me by name. If I am on the phone, or don’t respond immediately, they make a point of telling me how I don’t support them, how vulnerable they feel without Ernie, and so on. My patience with the Dream Team tactics is waning. I resolve to get tough and Tammie provides the catalyst.

Goodbye Tammie

"The worst part of the incident was that Marcus went awall (sic) and we or I tried to call Mrs. Smee at least 3 times and she did not respond despite the fact that she was on campus."

After I read the incident report Tammie wrote on Marcus, the hair braider, I call Tammie to my office.

“Tammie what is this?! An incident report is supposed to detail the student’s behavior. Moreover this report is untrue. You didn’t radio me three times; my walkie-talkie’s been on all day and there were no calls from you.”

“Neeley said you weren’t wearing it today.”

“Tammie, I always wear my walkie-talkie. But that isn’t the point. If Marcus was AWOL why didn’t you follow procedure and contact the counselors first?”

“Noreen said you need to be involved in all arrests.”

“Tammie, that makes no sense. Marcus was AWOL, why would we need to arrest him? Tammie, an incident report is supposed to describe the behavior of a student.”

Tammie shrugs and leaves. But she has arranged for more surprises . . .

I try to pop into every classroom every day - even if just for a moment. Today when I make my rounds, I inspect the walls for student work and other decorations for our Open House tonight. I make it to most of the classrooms during the day, tossing out compliments as I go, but I miss a few and I don’t get a chance to visit them until after the staff leaves for a dinner break prior to the arrival of the parents. When I unlock and enter Tammie’s classroom, this is what I find:

-black construction paper with student hand prints in chalk
-purple construction paper onto which is glued a newspaper photo of a woman under which the student wrote "drug dealer, prostitute, eat me"
-blue construction paper with a taped newspaper photo of a woman under which the student wrote "Mrs. Smee died cause they shot her and she never made it cause she's old."
-yellow construction paper with one word in large print "SEX"

So this is how Tammie had her students decorate her classroom.

I ask Tammie for her resignation and she complies. Noreen is furious, Neeley is depressed. I sternly lecture these remaining dream team members on my expectation they will not raise this subject with parents tonight, that they will limit themselves to discussing the curriculum and the behavior of the students. My worry was unnecessary. While over half of Daphne’s parent-student pairs attend, only one parent and student from the Dream Team shows up. It seems the Dream Team neglected to contract any parents.

Yvonne wins Tammie’s class. She says she is up for the challenge. I try to have a discussion with her regarding what lies ahead, but she says fewer than ten words, her facial expressions say less and I quickly tire of hearing my own voice. Will Noreen and Neeley ignore her or share their anger and negativity over the loss of Ernie and Tammie? How long will Yvonne last?

I get home late and check my email before going to bed. Midge, my elementary teacher, sends a short note about this evening’s open house.

“I thought the open house was fairly successful. All of my parents and students attended! There were two strange events, the novel I’ve been reading to the class, The Yearling, was stolen from my desk. I don’t know whether to be happy someone wanted a book that much, or dismayed one of my students (or their parents) would steal from me. Also when Trey’s family showed up – man, woman, three little kids; the man (Dad?) had a pacifier in his mouth and spent most of the evening sucking away. It might belong to the baby, but I know this is a sign of a crack addict. For so many weeks now we’ve been struggling to deal with Trey’s disruptive behavior, this is our first window into his family. I wonder whether Trey is a crack baby…. Enough for now. Goodnight. Midge”

What lessons have I learned from the Tammie and Ernie debacles? I get in bed feeling upset at myself for not making better choices with Tammie, for not developing her to be a better teacher and for not cutting my losses sooner when she was clearly beyond saving. Tammie lasted almost two months. And what has the Ernie mess taught me to do differently in the future? And what did I learn about getting support or help from The Boss? I start to fall asleep and suddenly remember it’s my brother’s birthday. It‘s too late to call him. He works nights and is asleep now. My work is all consuming and causing me to neglect the people I love. Despite my efforts to be efficient and organized, the many competing priorities leave me with a long, unfinished “to do” list every night. Is it the nature of the job or is it the nature of me? Have I lost sight of the line that separates “responsible, hardworking and dedicated” from “obsessive, consumed and compulsive”? I comfort myself knowing I don’t do any work on the weekends when my husband and I are together, unless, of course, my cell phone rings….

The last thing I do before succumbing to sleep is to check my alarm. Never again will I set the alarm to the radio option, instead it is set to a loud annoying buzzer, a noise that makes my spine spasm when it blasts at 4:00 am.