Chapter Twenty-Four: The Last Day of the First Quarter

Chapter 24: The Last Day of the First Quarter

In many ways, the last day of my first academic quarter is fairly typical of my Prospect days. It is filled with joy, sadness, helplessness, frustration, incredulousness, and pure anger. I wonder, do all principals go through this every day?

8:00 a.m.

Clyde, the boss of The Boss, sends an email requiring all five Prospect Schools to send a student to speak to hundreds of people at the annual Ebencorp convention in two weeks. It will be held about 80 miles south of our school on a school holiday. I scramble. Together, my staff and I come up with the names of six students. Five scratch. Only Darius says yes, but his foster mother won’t transport. Shasta to the rescue. She and bus driver Ellie volunteer to take Darius to the convention on their day off. Rusty spends hours with Darius working on his speech: “How Prospect changed me.” Darius practices with anyone who will listen. I want to go to the convention to hear him, but The Boss has other ideas. I am to attend an Ebencorp training on the Ebencorp way of counseling children. I later learn that despite Clyde’s mandate, we were the only Prospect school to send a student and that Darius did an incredible job. I hear indirectly that Clyde is pleased.


9:30 a.m.

Stone has a student who would like to speak with me about her change of address. It is Chloe, a girl who has been living with her sister and stepmother since her father went to jail. In the cool of my office Chloe explains that she and her sister had an argument and Chloe smashed the windshield on her sister’s car with a rock and although the man from DCF promised it wouldn’t happen, Chloe has been forced to move back with her mother. “Ms. Smee I know it doesn’t seem like it, but when I get mad I have an awful temper.” Chloe thinks I will be astonished by this admission believing I can’t see beyond the ”good girl” image she tries to project. She says it isn’t so horrible, living with her mother, but she is tired of her mother telling her she wishes that instead of having Chloe, she’d had an abortion.

Brock’s probation officer asks to see me. He feels Brock is getting into too much trouble here; he cites the marijuana arrest. He has arranged to transfer Brock to ESAK, the alternative high school. I disagree with his rationale and decision, but his mind is made up. Brock reveals no emotion when he is told the news. Goodbye Brock.

11:00 a.m.

A pizza delivery car is stopping at Noreen’s portable. I go investigate. Noreen tells me she ordered pizza for her class to celebrate the end of the quarter. She didn’t ask first for permission nor did she inquire as to whether there is money in the budget, I wonder whether she will request reimbursement. She doesn’t. I hear a rumor Noreen charged her class for the pizzas. Noreen says the students wanted pizza and they brought in their own money. It was their idea. What about the children who don’t have money? Noreen doesn’t see this as an issue, those who did have money bought enough pizza for all. What about the prohibition against Noreen handling money? She says she never collected or handled it.

Noreen has perfected a wide-eyed innocent look. She doesn’t break eye contact or show any of the typical signs of lying even when I know she is not telling the truth. I tell her this must not happen again, either Noreen pays for pizza or the school pays in which case I need to know and approve in advance. Noreen changes the subject to discuss the rumor that one of the teachers is pregnant. Like so many adolescent girls, she counts on exchanging gossip and confidences to cement and repair relationships. When I don’t nibble, she offers me a piece of pizza.

11:30 a.m.

Selma tells her teacher, Daphne, that her stepfather sexually abuses her. Daphne tells Selma she’ll have to tell DCF. Selma isn’t thrilled but when DCF comes to the school to interview her, Selma says she is willing to talk to them if Daphne stays in the room with her. The two DCF workers refuse to allow this. Daphne radios for my help. I explain what I thought should be obvious to the DCF workers: Selma feels safe with Daphne. The DCF workers grow angry and tell me that Selma has made this allegation before and that she is a liar. They say this in front of me, Daphne and Selma. I ask Daphne to take Selma out of the room so I can give the DCF workers a piece of my mind. When I am done, they storm off campus saying they’ll question Selma later.

12:15 p.m.

Daphne stops by my office to tell me about an incident in her classroom this morning involving Edgar. Edgar is a thirteen-year-old Hispanic boy in Daphne’s class. He was sent to Prospect for fighting. In the last twelve months he was suspended thirteen times from his public school for fighting. At Prospect, Edgar asks anyone who will listen for techniques to help him control his anger. With our limited counseling staff we have no ability to delve into the causes of Edgar’s huge reservoir of anger, although his parents’ acrimonious divorce proceedings are at least one likely explanation. Edgar seems so genuine about controlling his anger that Rusty, Daphne and I all spend time teaching him anger management techniques. We can actually see Edgar using these strategies and succeeding. After breakfast, Daphne’s class was sitting in a circle with the newspapers discussing current events. Timmy called Edgar “stupid” when he misread some words in his current events article. Edgar immediately leapt to his feet, face flushed and fists clenched. He took a step toward Timmy but stopped suddenly, closed his eyes, shook out and relaxed his hands and began to count backwards from 25. When he got to zero he sat down. Several students complimented Edgar and Timmy apologized!

12:30 p.m.

I finally meet Salina. She has been on our rolls but never attended school here. Salina was recently removed from her abusive family and is now living with a foster family more than 10 miles south of Prospect. She arrives for school this afternoon in flip flops claiming the bus didn’t pick her up and her foster mother told her to walk. Salina is a thirteen-year-old white girl with very short black hair. She tells me her feet are sore. I offer her a pair of my old sneakers and she is so appreciative I almost feel guilty. She tells me how comfortable they are and asks if they are just for today or if she can keep them. I tell her to keep them. She gives me a hug. Although she is wearing the requisite navy blue collared uniform shirt, it is very tight and barely meets her pants. I assume this is her choice – a tight, sexy, hip look, but I when I notice she keeps tugging at it, I ask if she would like a larger shirt. She nods. I dig through my pile of Goodwill shirts and find her one that is too big and again she is pleased. After Salina leaves my office I call her caseworker. The caseworker explains the DCF stipend for clothes is distributed only once a year and since Salina “entered the system” after that date, she missed it. Her foster family is not obliged or expected to buy her clothes without the stipend.

1:00 p.m.

Karla, who is one of our lowest readers, stops me on her way to PE. Daphne’s class is reading the new Carl Hiaasen book, Hoot. Rarely does the whole class read aloud together. Instead Daphne pairs students - good readers with poor - and lets them spread out on the carpet, under her desk and on the deck outside (with the door propped open). The pairs of students sit, each with a book. The competent reader reads most of the time so the story won’t be lost, but when the non-reader reads, the strong readers are patient and guiding. Daphne’s students are progressing well and everyone in her class loves reading time. Karla wants me to know she LOVES Hoot and she thanks me for buying copies for her class.

1:15 p.m.

The Boss arrives after lunch. His visit isn’t entirely unexpected: last week he sent me an email saying he would be here two days ago. When he didn’t show, I phoned. As usual, I reached his voice mail and heard nothing from him until today when he drives onto my campus shortly after 1:00. But before he comes to see me, he seeks out some of my staff members. After he talks to the first few, they come to my office reporting discomfort with the dialogue. It seems The Boss is asking each of my employees a single question: “What do you dislike about Kathleen and this school?” I can’t believe he would phrase it quite that way, but each teacher, counselor and support staff comes to see me repeating the same quote.

When RitaMae tells The Boss it is hard to find a punishment the children dislike, The Boss shares his secret for success: students should do manual labor. At his former school he made the “bad” students carry a 5 or 10 pound bucket of concrete in circles or scrub bricks with a toothbrush in the hot Florida sun or in the pouring rain. I am unclear as to whether this is the Ebencorp way or The Boss’s way. In my head, I debate whether the focus on punishment and the lack of interest in, or support for, academics is coming from Clyde (the boss of The Boss) and Ebencorp doctrine rather than from The Boss himself. I am hoping that if I see The Boss as merely the messenger, it might help improve my attitude towards him.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that my relationship with The Boss is not good and not getting better. I give my former Ebencorp boss, Stephen, a call at his new job in Chicago. He doesn’t have a lot of suggestions. He sighs and says he told Clyde he didn’t think The Boss was a good choice to replace him but…. He cautions me not to take this matter to Clyde; Clyde deplores people who whine to him. We chat for a while about Stephen’s new job and about running. When I hang up the disparity between the boss I had and the boss I have is painful to contemplate.

I am not the only person who is struggling with The Boss. When he was promoted, The Boss hired Lucy to replace him as principal in Naples. Lucy is a lot like me – we are passionate about our jobs and students and totally devoted to making our schools and students succeed. Lucy and I are both very busy and rarely have time to talk but when we do, we share tales about The Boss and ask each other for advice. We joke that as long as he is harassing one of us, the other can breathe more easily. Together Lucy and I try to understand The Boss. He’s not really a bully - school bullies tend to pick on their weaker classmates, but neither Lucy nor I is incompetent or lacking self-esteem. I hypothesize that The Boss could feel threatened by us and we may need to reassure him we don’t want his job. Maybe his lack of management experience means he doesn’t know how to supervise people. Lucy thinks The Boss picks on us because he likes to throw his weight around – that he is intoxicated by his new power. Whether it is power, football coach mentality or insecurity, we need to find a way to change the dynamics of our relationship with The Boss. Lucy decides she’ll go to Clyde despite my sharing with her the warning from former boss Stephen. I decide The Boss and I need a heart-to-heart talk. I begin to make some notes for a future discussion, a discussion I am dreading but know is necessary.

3:00 p.m.

In the morning meeting today I announced that in honor of this last day of the academic quarter, I will buy ice cream for every child in any class that can go all day without any discipline referrals (no walkie-talkie calls to a counselor). This announcement is met with moans: I’ve set an impossible objective. But at 3:00 I have to dash off to Publix Supermarket to make good on my deal and buy ice cream for both Midge’s elementary class and Daphne’s class: they tied with zero referrals. In addition, no one was arrested today. We joke about hanging a sign “___ days without an arrest.” Probably not a good idea for inspiration or attracting prospective parents, but it makes us chuckle and laughter is what helps us all survive.