Chapter Thirty-Nine: Faculty Meetings

Chapter 39: Faculty Meetings

Both Sides Now

I stand in the cafeteria at 4:00 on a Tuesday afternoon in early December. Today our weekly staff meeting will begin with food, based on my belief that people are happier when they are eating. Lynne, my business manager, ordered a variety of sandwiches, salads, chips, cookies and sodas from Publix. Everyone takes a plate and chooses quickly except Daphne and Stone. Although Lynne ordered some vegetarian sandwiches, Daphne doesn’t know what is in the bread, so she won’t eat any (could be milk or eggs, anathema to a vegan). I ask Stone why he is hanging back. I worry he is ill and encourage him to take his turn. Stone explains to me he is on a diet and he wants others to make their selections first. He says what is left is what God means him to have. There is quite a bit left.

The faculty sits down in what has become an established pattern. Counselors Rosie and Rusty are on the right side of the cafeteria along with Lynne, the business manager, Shasta the transportation manager and Stephanie the Orientation leader. On the left side of the cafeteria, on the other side of a six-foot aisle, sit the teachers.

Clearly a schism has developed between the teachers and the counselors. The counselors complain to me that some teachers don’t have classroom management skills, are inconsistent in chastising students and depend on the counselors to control their classes.

In some ways the counselors are right. With the exception of Daphne and Jordan, my teachers’ classroom management skills range from fair to pathetic.

The teachers, in turn, complain to me that the counselors are too soft, too nice and don’t “support” them. They want counselors to yell and frighten students. They want to be able to threaten students with “If you don’t stop I’ll call a counselor.”

In some ways the teachers are right. Rosie and Rusty are better at counseling children than disciplining them.

When Rosie and Rusty respond to a teacher’s request to help with a disruptive student, frequently the child calms quickly in their presence. They may gently chastise the student, but in doing so the child often confides in them about personal problems. They regularly talk to parents to report disruptive behavior. Some of the students actually get quite a bit of one-on-one time and counseling with them. If they don’t have too many disruptive children in their office, they might have a child pick up trash, scrub graffiti off a wall or write a letter of apology or an essay on correct behavior. The trouble is, none of these activities is punishment to our students, most of whom have been physically beaten for misbehavior. Our punishments pale in comparison. Moreover, our students long for adult attention so while they are scooping up garbage or scouring a wall, they can chat with Rosie and Rusty. The dilemma is, we need people in whom the students can trust and confide, and if going to the counselor is seen as punishment, then we lose this important resource.

Of course some days, being a counselor is not the cushy job the teachers imagine it to be. Some days the walkie-talkie chatter is non-stop “I need a counselor to remove Luke, Roxanne, Darius, Victor, Aidan, Warenita. . . ” On those days the counselors are running and misbehaving children are either returned to class or taken along to pick up the next misbehaving student. Rusty does hit upon a sanction many students dislike – sitting on a hard bench, facing the wall without talking, but this punishment works well only when you have a few misbehaving students.

And so the teacher-counselor tension persists. I spend extra time in Neeley and Buffy’s classrooms since they seem to call on the counselors the most. Often Buffy’s entire class is in the counseling office. Rosie and Rusty ask whether they can have Buffy’s paycheck! I counsel and coach Neeley and Buffy on classroom management techniques. I have them observe other teachers. I arrange for speakers on our “in-service” days to discuss effective classroom management and behavior modification techniques but Neeley and Buffy continue to have chaotic classes, to have the most children removed and to be vocal about placing the blame on Rosie and Rusty.

If you can’t say something nice…
.
If I’m not careful, our Tuesday afternoon meetings degenerate into black holes of negativity. Teachers are desperate to share horror stories; each subsequent speaker tries to one up the others. “Well if you think Marcus’s bad….” Stone can always be counted on to interject his solution to all student misbehavior: “Get a cattle prod.” Today I open the meeting with a request for each teacher to tell one success story; one student who we might “save.” I encourage the teachers to indicate whether this child is a candidate for returning to public school at the end of the semester.

RitaMae picks Nora. Freckle-faced Nora, who used to live with her family in a van, is now living with an aunt and cousin in another county, and is doing splendidly. She completes all her work on time, aces tests, smiles in class, wears her uniform and no longer wears Goth make-up. Nora looks well-rested and… well, she looks “like a normal kid.” RitaMae hasn’t seen Nora lose her temper or even look angry in weeks. Nora uses profanity occasionally but more and more she catches and corrects herself. RitaMae plans to select Nora for second quarter academic honors when we meet after Christmas to determine award recipients. RitaMae believes Nora will be ready to return at the end of the semester if her aunt approves the move and assuming Nora continues on her current trajectory.

Daphne talks about Edgar. Edgar, who fought so often and so brutally that he was formally expelled from public school, has made huge strides in controlling his anger. He is also learning to read. We talk about the complicated process for returning a student who was formally expelled rather than one who was “voluntarily” removed by a parent. It isn’t impossible but…. We all agree Edgar is worth the hassle.

Jana, looking quite pregnant and very tired, speaks next. She says her nominee is not ready for public school, but his improvement has been incredible. His name: DerMarr. Stephanie, the orientation leader, is visibly shocked. Could this be the same DerMarr who threw wastebaskets, could only speak in vulgarities and who defied every adult? The boy who never spoke but always SCREAMED? The same DerMarr who caused Stephanie to temporarily resign? Apparently it is. DerMarr, the fifth grader we put in middle school to protect the other elementary students, is doing better in Jana’s class. We had to call his Aunt to school about four times before DerMarr realized Auntie, unlike Mom, would support the teachers and hold DerMarr responsible for his behavior. Jana says she will advocate hard to make sure DerMarr receives the award for “most improved student” for this quarter! But, she emphasizes, he isn’t ready for public school, yet.

The Trouble with Tony

Neeley wants to talk about Tony. Tony has no anger problem, he doesn’t curse, he is never truant, he is always polite. But he will need a public school with more ESE (special education) resources, because his academic skills are very low. He is very slow to learn new material and it is unclear whether he can even read. Tony appears to be a normal 13 year old white boy, says Neeley, adding that Tony also has a crush on classmate, Stacey. Neeley wants to know why Tony is still here. Before I can craft an answer, Rosie asks whether Neeley has read Tony’s file. He hasn’t. I encourage teachers and counselors to read the student files. Most don’t, but Rosie always does. She recites from Tony’s file: Tony was removed from public school two years ago on a felony charge. He served time in jail and in a program. Legally he can return to school now, but his mother is afraid to have him return to the middle school he previously attended. When he was arrested, it was big news and all the students and teachers at his former school knew about it and remember it. Mom doesn’t want Tony at Prospect but until she moves to another neighborhood, in another school district so Tony can attend a different middle school, she feels stuck. Every couple of months Mom decides she’ll homeschool. She pulls Tony out, homeschools him a couple weeks, then returns him to Prospect.

Neeley wants to know what possible felony Tony could have committed; this kid is a Boy Scout.

Tony sexually molested a four-year-old girl.

Tony has never shown an inclination to talk about this incident to anyone at Prospect. Rosie once asked him directly about the molestation during a one-on-one conversation, but he just shrugged, sighed and refused to discuss it. Since Tony rarely misbehaves, he doesn’t often see Rusty or Rosie individually and, honestly, Rosie and Rusty don’t really have the time or specialized training to work with sex offenders (who may also be victims of sexual abuse). Tony does receive sex offender counseling from a hospital in Gainesville as one of the conditions of his parole. Tony’s mother feels the “incident” was blown way out of proportion. She has also been adamant that the details of Tony’s crime be kept private, fearing, with good reason, ostracism for Tony if his peers learn the truth. His cover story for attending Prospect involves a knife. Tony’s mother does comply with the court order to take Tony to the hospital for the sex offender counseling where once a year he is subjected to an extensive battery of tests after which his mother receives a detailed report on the findings. She brings one of these reports to me asking me to explain it to her so she can explain it to Tony. For over an hour we go through it page by page. I offer to help her explain it to Tony. She thanks me, but says she’ll do it herself. She never discusses it with Tony.

I end the “history of Tony” lesson by asking Neeley whether he has any other students who look like potential candidates to return to public school after Christmas break. Neeley looks disoriented, he is clearly unnerved by what he just learned regarding Tony’s background. He slowly shakes his head no.

Bibliophiles?

I end the Tuesday afternoon meeting with the news that we have $15,000 in Title One money to spend on books! It immediately becomes clear I am far more excited about this than is my staff.

Prospect has a room called “The Library” but in it there are no books save for a few outdated textbooks. When I first saw this, it shocked, upset and then depressed me, especially since Prospect students are so literature deprived.

Most of my students were behind from the beginning. Many years ago, when they first started school, they started without having met Pat the Bunny, Little Toot or the Pokey Little Puppy. They never joined the rabbit in saying Goodnight Moon. They sat in kindergarten classrooms with peers who had been read over a thousand books, while my students had heard fewer than a hundred. Growing up poor with uneducated parents put them behind long before they were divided into reading groups.

Through the years, their teachers, with varying degrees of success, taught them “decoding” and reading “skills.” They were tested and retested and taught and retaught. Many were held back when they failed to perform on these tests. But literacy is more than achieving a set of skills and passing standardized tests. My 100 book children are missing an awareness that books make sense and tell stories. They’re missing the rich vocabulary of literature; they are missing the joy of adventure, magic and silliness found in books.

I don’t know how, or if it is really possible, to compensate for literature deprivation. When I was the principal at the maximum secure prison for juvenile male felons in upstate New York, I found a way to provide an intensive remediation on the missed stories of childhood. We planned for the adolescent boys to do a series of story hours with the children of the prison staff. To prepare, the boys had to read stacks and stacks of children’s books. We didn’t have enough money to buy as many children’s books as I wanted, but the grant money I obtained bought us many of the classics of childhood. Watching Albirio, (armed robbery) and Jumaine (attempted murder) reading aloud The Little Engine that Could, was surreal – innocence and joy on the faces of tough, street savvy criminals.

I want to replicate this project at Prospect but I can’t get the teachers on board. They think that since Prospect students are so behind, we need to use our very limited time to instruct them using age appropriate material, not baby books. This opinion is not without merit, especially if one is FCAT focused. When I place my Title One book order, in addition to high-interest chapter books for my middle schoolers, I plan to purchase dozens of classic children’s books. I figure I can justify these purchases given that I have two elementary classrooms. Maybe then I can get some of the middle schoolers to “help out” by reading aloud to the younger children. It makes me sad to think of a childhood devoid of Sam pushing those pesky green eggs, Corduroy searching for his missing overall’s button or worrying that the Color Kittens’ clumsiness will have dire effects.

I try to generate enthusiasm for book buying and ask for suggestions – titles of books teachers would like me to buy. I stand poised, marker in hand ready to write titles on the easel. Nothing. I write down a few titles to get their neurons firing: Holes, Maniac Magee, atlases. I explain I want them to brainstorm, give me your wish lists – books you want for a classroom library, books for a school library, multiple copies of books for literature-based reading lessons, we can’t buy text books but most other books are permitted. Nothing. In defeat I finally ask the teachers to go home, think about this, research some titles and submit these suggestions to me before Christmas break.

I wonder, has this meeting run too long and made my team weary and do they hope their silence will end our meeting sooner? Are they worried that if they offer suggestions, someone (Stone) will poke fun? Or, are my teachers unfamiliar with children’s books and can’t think of titles off the top of their heads? I can easily generate a list of books and spend all $15,000 myself. I thought my teachers would be excited to be part of the selection process. Maybe I’ll get a lot of “wish lists” in my mailbox, but I suspect not; I don’t have a team of readers. Last month I was finally able to arrange for the public library’s bookmobile to make regular stops at Prospect starting next school year. Stephanie, my orientation leader, volunteered to arrange this six months ago, but when she lost interest and dropped the ball, I began to work on it. For the last few months the librarian and I have played a lot of phone tag, and I’ve done a lot of begging, but now the bookmobile will visit Prospect biweekly (I’d prefer weekly visits, but I’m just happy to be in the bookmobile’s schedule). We’re working on getting library cards for all our students and I keep encouraging my staff to get library cards as well. As far as I know, only two adults at Prospect currently have library cards: me and my business manager, Lynne. Alas, my faculty does not share my passion for books.

No Simple Solutions

As the meeting breaks up, RitaMae is holding a conversation with Neeley. She doesn’t intend for us all to hear, but because her volume is always set to “megaphone” no one misses a syllable. RitaMae is discussing Victor, her least favorite student. He is brilliant but refuses to follow any directions and curses at RitaMae constantly. Today when Victor began screaming obscenities in class, rather than calling for a counselor to remove him, RitaMae used her cell phone to call Victor’s mother. She held the phone up to permit his mother to hear Victor’s ranting. Mom jumped in the car, drove to school and removed Victor from class to holler at him.

The team is impressed with RitaMae’s creativity but they all want to know, did Mom’s visit make Victor better?

Not really.

This was not how I wanted our meeting to end. I look at the faces of my staff. They are discouraged and defeated.
Nothing works.
The students are evil.
See? Even their parents can’t control them.

I had such high hopes for this meeting. I wanted my staff to feel full of food, proud of our success stories and excited about buying books. What went wrong?

Well to start, there is the animosity between counselors and teachers, which I see as a function of not having enough staff. I really need both counselors and “disciplinary deans”. My students have so many problems ranging from substance abuse, sexual abuse and anger control to dealing with incarcerated parents, abusive parents, no parents, death of parents. . . the list goes on. Two counselors aren’t enough and those I have aren’t fully trained to deal with the myriad of problems my students present. Then I need different people to take on the discipline functions. Of course there is overlap - students often misbehave because of counseling needs, but I need at least two people dedicated to removing naughty children from class and designing meaningful punishments to fit the offenses.

I need a Curriculum Specialist and an Assistant principal. A Curriculum Specialist could effectively drive cross-curricular projects and themes while monitoring lessons and lesson plans as well as working with the staff on appropriate books for our students. An Assistant principal could deal with the double load of bureaucracy and paperwork that flows both to and from Herald County Public Schools and Ebencorp.

I need teachers who are trained to teach and love learning and who want to teach challenging students. I need a teacher’s assistant in every classroom with the teacher. Then teachers would be able to concentrate on teaching and not be quite as distracted by behavior problems. The assistant could immediately remove a poorly-behaving student from the room without waiting for a dean or counselor. An assistant teacher would allow my teachers to go to the bathroom and grab a glass of water when necessary.

Now in this dream world, imagine a Tuesday afternoon staff meeting. My Deans could talk to teachers and assistant teachers about effective discipline. My Counselors could share with staff some strategies for helping children cope with family trauma. My Curriculum Specialist would give a rousing presentation on literature based reading and all my highly educated teachers would be leaping out of their seats to make sure their favorite books were purchased.

While I’m wishing, why not add a library complete with books and a librarian, an art teacher (with art supplies), a music teacher (with at least a piano), a school nurse and a receptionist. Maybe then everyone wouldn’t look so harried, downtrodden and hopeless. Maybe then the children would start to heal and behave and learn.

But who will spend that kind of money on Prospect kids? When I wish aloud for more funding and resources, Henry, my liaison, has pointed out more than once: “We don’t spend that kind of money for our good kids how could we justify giving it to these kids?”

Sitting in my office in December, I know there is no point in creating a wish list for Ebencorp, Herald County Public Schools or even for Santa Claus. For poor children in Florida, it’s kind of like Narnia, but here you say: it’s always Summer and never Christmas.