Chapter Thirty-Three: Guests - the invited and uninvited

Chapter 33: Guests – the Invited and the Uninvited

My husband flew in last night, the first Thursday in November. We are going to celebrate his birthday this weekend. We have reservations to stay at Disney World for two nights. As I run my laps on this cool November morning I try to anticipate anything that can possibly go wrong today. My worst case scenario is a gaggle of poorly behaved children at dismissal, which will cause the busses to leave late and delay our departure for Disney.

Clearly I have no idea what is inside this finely-wrapped Friday.

Every Friday is Career Day at Prospect School. I schedule people to come talk about their jobs: a typical day at work and the skills and education they needed to get their job. In the beginning of the year I had students make a list of all the jobs they know about and then circle the jobs they would like to have. Their lists were short and pathetic. Many listed the names of retail establishments as though the store or restaurant was the job: McDonalds, KFC, Blockbuster, Wal-Mart. Others picked a place and listed every job there: cashier at Winn Dixie, bag boy at Winn Dixie, donut man at Winn Dixie, cleaner at Winn Dixie or sadder yet: Prison Guard, Prison teacher, Prison Cook…. Some listed sports, teams or leagues: swimmer, runner, jumper, wrestling, pool, basketball, NFL, play running back Others listed jobs of those around them: teacher, principal, policeman, parole officer, tattoo artist. There were the dreamers: TV host, Monster Truck Driver, Movie Star, President, Rapper, or “Brian Sergant.” Many listed, facetiously (or prophetically?) crimes: sell weed, sell dope, sell crack, pimp, deal drugs, bank robber. Friday Career Days are designed to broaden these horizons by exposing students to jobs they didn’t know existed or, if they knew, they didn’t know the details of the work or what skills and education are required.

Recently we’ve had former New York City commissioner of Corrections (and inspiration for television show “The Commish”) Anthony Schembri, State Representative Dennis Baxley and a real hit with the girls, a woman from Barbizon Modeling. The students were riveted when the Herald County Electric Company folks demonstrated the workings of a bucket truck and the Fire Marshall did the same with his fire engine. They were less excited when the woman from the Red Cross brought along the Blood Mobile and they were disappointed the pilot didn’t bring his plane, although none of them expected the ship builder to bring a ship! The wanna-be rappers had a lot of questions for the operations director of a local radio station (even if they do play oldies!). They had a vague idea what the mechanic does as well as the hair stylist but prior to Friday Career Days, they had no idea about the jobs of radiologist or chiropractor. Some of them knew the director of the YMCA and when some brave school board members came, some of the students used the Q&A time to voice some complaints (length of school day, school year etc.)

My students look forward to these speakers and are on their best behavior Friday mornings to earn the privilege of hearing a speaker. And after hearing the speakers, they are willing to write thank you notes with follow-up questions. They tend to stay in the good mode until lunch. Henry, my public school liaison jokes that Prospect students are so good on Friday mornings I should make EVERY day Career Day!

My staff can see these positive changes, but despite my requests for help, few of them arrange for any speakers. I’m not sure why. Maybe they see this as outside their job description or they feel they are too busy. I resent being the only one who schedules speakers, but I am dedicated to Friday Career Days and if I can’t get my team to find speakers, I’ll do it.

On this November Friday we have five speakers:
• A man who raises Alpacas (I read about him in a newsletter)
• Dean, the manager of Books-a-Million where I buy the NY Times daily
• Ward from Merrill Lynch who I met while working on the United Way grant
• Abby, a graphic artist working at a t-shirt shop and the future wife of Jordan, one of my teachers
• My husband, a vice-president in a small telecommunications company

I scramble getting each speaker settled in a classroom (except the Alpaca guy, he gets the spot under the tree) and introducing the students to the speakers. I am in the process of making all the speakers feel comfortable and at ease with my students when I receive an urgent radio transmission from Tara, the curriculum specialist over at Haven High. She says I must come to the Haven High office immediately.

Tara is the one person I trust at the Haven High, so I dash off. When I arrive, the first person I see is a Deputy. Oscar, the Haven High principal, tells me former Prospect employee, Noreen, is coming at 3:15 to pick up her belongings. I am flabbergasted. Why are Oscar, Tara and a Deputy involved in a situation involving my employee, my former employee? I calmly let them know what I told Noreen: that she is not to come on campus while students are present. It seems Noreen contacted the Sheriff’s office and claimed I wouldn’t let her get her belongings and she is so afraid of me she feels she must come on campus while a Deputy is present and since the Deputy leaves at 4:00 she is coming at 3:15. Oscar tells me I am legally obliged to permit her to do this. I offer several suggestions (weekends, evenings) but Oscar is adamant. Finally the Deputy agrees on a compromise. He will inform Noreen she should arrive at 4:00, I will put students on the bus early and the Deputy will stay late. If Noreen arrives early she will stay in the Haven High office until the busses leave.

The whole encounter leaves me shaken and distracted. By the time I get back to my speakers, they are finishing up. I feel like a terrible host; usually I spend time with each speaker listening, taking photos and observing students. I am especially sad to have missed my husband’s presentation. He is not accustomed to talking to adolescents and he was concerned as to whether he could hold their interest. I wasn’t there to help him.

On a positive note, Abby, the fiancé of Jordan, is a huge hit. When Jordan first introduced me to Abby I made the mistake of assuming because she is petite and cute that my students would torment her. I was wrong. Abby is a former alternative school student herself. She was the only white child in an all black alternative school for “bad adolescents” in Alabama. When she talks to the students, they listen. She addresses minor misbehaviors before they become a problem. After an hour she has 25 students who are desperate to become graphic artists. Luke and Preston can’t stop asking Abby questions. Abby suggests a field trip to her studio in Gainesville. I agree to work with her to set it up. I try to convince Abby she’d like to be a teacher. She wouldn’t.

I place a call to Henry, my public school liaison, to let him know of the Oscar/Noreen situation. Henry comes over right away. He tells me Oscar called him earlier to let him know he intended to arrest me for keeping Noreen’s belongings! Henry also tells me former counselor Ernie is somehow involved in this mess. Now I am completely unnerved. Oscar told Henry I am power hungry and unreasonable. Henry asks me if I ever had these types of problems in other places where I worked. Do I have a history of vengeful former employees? No and no. Henry has the power to discipline or at least censure Oscar. Why doesn’t he use this power? I am learning that Henry does not like to make waves.

What will Ernie and Noreen do next? I fear Ernie’s good old boy connections are more powerful than my newly-formed and tenuous relationships.

They’re back….

I have only begun unwrapping this Friday surprise package. About 3:00, Henry and the assistant superintendent, Paul Cook, who also happens to be Oscar’s boss, come to tour the campus. They ask me to act as tour guide. The Assistant Superintendent is looking at the campus as a possible site for another school to open next year. He is also taking his first look at my students and at how well I am running the school. I didn’t know about the tour in advance so I didn’t have a chance to give my staff a heads up. Henry makes positive comments about how orderly my students look and tells Paul what a fine job I’ve done reorganizing the school. A class of students files silently past us, perfectly illustrating Henry’s words. Then a car pulls up. It is former teachers Noreen and Tammie. Unsurprisingly, they’ve arrived early. My single file students break ranks and storm the car. Noreen honks the horn several times and blows kisses from the window. As Noreen and Tammie get out of the car Sonya, the custodian, runs to give Noreen a long hug. It is Ernie deja-vu.

Neeley and his class are on the ball field playing kickball. He can’t contain himself at the sight of his friend, Noreen and the love of his life, Tammie. He waves and, surrounded by his students, starts toward the women. When Neeley sees me standing there with two men in suits (Henry and Paul), he stops and half-heartedly calls his students back to the ball field. As usual, they ignore Neeley and continue to throng, mob and hug Noreen and Tammie. Stone opens his classroom door, looks around to make sure I notice him, then waves and shouts to Noreen and Tammie “Hey, we missed you! You back to stay?”

I stand frozen watching Noreen and Tammie delight in my discomfort and in the adoration of some of their former students. I feel I should take some action to hustle them into the Haven High office but I don’t want to escalate the tension with a volatile encounter, especially not with Henry and Paul looking on. After many long minutes, the door to Haven High opens and Tara comes out. She shoes away the Prospect students and ushers Noreen and Tammie inside.

I look at Paul and Henry to gauge the impact of this drama. Henry catches my eye and raises an eyebrow, but Paul hasn’t noticed anything unusual, he is engrossed in describing to Henry his grand scheme for the future of my campus. My students, staff and I are invisible to Paul as he reveals his plans to start a school exclusively for students who perform poorly on the FCAT’s. Usually I bristle at being so thoroughly ignored, but today I am relieved nothing has penetrated Paul’s monologue. I am even more relieved when Henry and Paul depart before dismissal.

Before I call the busses I give Rusty, Rosie and Lynne a heads-up about Noreen and Tammie. Rosie agrees to keep watch over the doors leading to Haven High, but if Noreen and Tammie emerge during bus departure, there isn’t a lot we can do and undoubtedly it will heighten the usual Friday end-of-day chaos.

Noreen and Tammie don’t make an appearance during dismissal. The busses and staff are able to depart on time without incident. My husband and I are in the Saturn heading south on Florida’s turnpike shortly after 5:00 p.m. During the ninety-minute drive, scenes from the day play and replay in my brain. Should I have said this or done that? I process and reprocess the day, often aloud to my patiently suffering husband, as I try to make sense of and analyze the day’s events. I must be doing something wrong to have so many “ex-employees” with axes to grind. I ruminate, reflect, regurgitate and review both the events of the day and my reactions. My jaw aches from clenching, my temples pound from pondering. Finally we arrive at Disney World and just in the nick of time. A wonderful feature of Disney World is that the minute I step though those gates, past the smiling faces of Mickey and Minnie, all my troubles disappear. Disney is like a drug and today I need a huge dose. Zippidy-doo-dah!