On June 6th 2008 they say they closed the doors forever to Prospect School. “Budget cuts”, explained the Herald County Superintendent. The local paper quoted Herald County Principals reacting to the news:
“My main concern is that if we are not successful in disciplining unruly children then these kids will be taking instructional time from the others.”
“We will definitely use in-school suspension more. It may mean that the expulsion route may be considered more often.”
(In Florida expelled students are not legally entitled to ANY education.)
But Henry, my public school liaison is quoted as saying that disruptive elementary and middle school students will be moved to ESAK, the alternative High School or to another alternative school that is exclusively for Special Education. “I don’t think there will be a problem. There will be room.”
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
TRAC - a possible solution?
TRAC – a possible solution for Herald County
Given Herald County School System’s support and enthusiasm for punishment, Zero Tolerance policies and “getting the bad kids out of the classroom,” there is little hope, in the short run, of decreasing the number of children in Herald County defined as needing Alternative Education. However given not only this reality, but also guided by my experience at Prospect School and informed by formal studies on Alternative Schools, I believe there is a better answer for the at-risk Herald County school children.
The response of Herald County to highly disruptive children typically falls into three categories: keep the child in his or her classroom, keep suspending (or expel) the child or send the child to a privately run Alternative School. None of these are good answers. TRAC (Temporary Removal from Assigned Classes) offers a better solution, for the children, their families and the schools.
TRAC differs in three key elements from the typical approaches for dealing with disruptive children. Most importantly, children would remain on their school campus and continue to be enrolled in the public school system. This will allow them to receive the full complement of services the public school provides as well as preventing them from becoming invisible in a parallel system where school laws and regulations often do not apply. The other differences are the extended day schedule and the using a diverse team to develop and modify a prescriptive plan tailored to each child’s unique needs and situation.
TRAC Scheduling
TRAC scheduling and staffing would differ from the mainstream school program. The extended day would permit the child to receive the counseling and additional tutoring she or he needs, plus keeps the child “off the streets” during the prime time for juvenile crime, 3:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m. With few exceptions, children who have been disruptive in school are behind academically. While experts argue whether poor academic performance is a cause or effect of highly disruptive students, the additional schooling will serve to improve academic performance. These double long school days could also be viewed as a punishment, molifying the pro-punishment advocates and the extended days may serve as a deterrent (assuming children of this age think about consequences before they act, an uncertain proposition at best). The staffing for this extended day should include two TRAC teachers with overlapping shifts at mid-day for example, one teacher might arrive at 7:00 am and work until 2:00 while the second teacher would arrive at noon and work until 7:00 pm. The teachers should be certified public school teachers employed by the child’s school providing individualized or small group instruction in all subjects using the same texts and curriculum used by the child’s regular teachers.
TRAC Classrooms
Each portable classroom should be designed to accommodate ten to twelve TRAC students at a time. When there are fewer children, the TRAC staff can spend some of their days working with those difficult children identified by the principal as heading down the path to removal from assigned classes (pre-TRAC). If the numbers on any given campus increase, more staff and portables need to be made available. Since it is difficult to predict with certainty the number of children on any given campus who will require TRAC during the school year, it could be necessary to shift these human and physical resources from one campus to another. Children however, should not be transferred. The classrooms wiould thus be staffed with three adults, the two teachers with overlapping shifts and a counselor. The TRAC counselor would be present in the portable to provide structured, scheduled counseling, as well as counseling on an as-needed basis (on everything from anger control to peer relations) and to accompany the child to class when she or he first returns.
TRAC Team
The first phase for TRAC, would be a meeting, organized by the Director of Alternative Education, with all the vital players:
• the child
• the child’s parents or guardian
• DCF caseworker
• the child’s minister
• the school principal
• the child’s teachers
• the school counselor
• the school resource officer
• the child’s bus driver
• representatives from relevant social agencies – drug rehab, sexual abstinence, anger control
• representatives from the child’s outside activities both current and potential, such a football coach, gymnastics instructor, piano teacher etcetera.
• If the child has a probation officer, she or he should attend. The director of alternative education should be the organizer for this meeting.
• the TRAC teachers and counselor
Why would these people be considered necessary at this TRAC meeting? The child and his/her parents or guardians must be present. This seems so obvious, but all too often decisions are made about students in their absence. It is vital for parents to be present and flexibility should be shown in scheduling the meeting and in helping with transportation. If necessary, pressure can and should be brought to bear to get parents to attend, and this is one role the DCF representative should play.
It should become regular practice to open a DCF case every time a child is referred to TRAC (assuming the child doesn’t already have a DCF caseworker). Is neglectful or abusive parenting what lies behind the troubling behaviors? Any referral to remove a child from the educational mainstream, implies the principal and parent were unable to form a team to help the child.
DCF should use the carrot/stick approach. Parents need to fear termination of parental rights but also need to be made aware of affordable treatment options and support services to help them cope with their out-of-control child. The threat of termination of parental rights may help inspire reluctant parents to attend the conference. DCF cannot be present in name only. This ailing agency needs to locate, develop and incent more and better foster homes including therapeutic foster homes to provide viable options for these highly disruptive children found living in neglectful or abusive situations. If DCF decides to place the child in a relative’s care, more frequent and substantial monitoring and support than currently exists, needs to be provided. Moreover, DCF needs to make referrals to support current family structures which although dysfunctional, don’t require removing the child from the home.
A minister or other religious leader should be present. At first blush this may sound like a strange request that possibly blurs the lines between church and state. However religion plays a large role in American life. This is especially true in the culture of the south, including Florida and very much so in Herald County. Religious institutions whether churches, temples or mosques, serve an important function in creating communities and like a village, can help raise a child.
If the child’s family belongs to a religious institution, even if they are not regular attendees, their religious leader should be present at the conference. This religious leader would attend to be made aware of the problem, to become part of the solution and to encourage and if necessary pressure the child to become involved in youth group and other religious sponsored activities which promote the values seemingly missing based on the child’s misbehavior. In the event the child does not identify with a religion, a religious leader could still be present. In Herald County there is a movement called: One church, One child. The idea is that every church should “adopt” a troubled child and his/her family regardless of their religious beliefs, and mentor and assist the child with all the resources the church can bring to the table.
The school principal and all the child’s teachers should to be present. The presence of parents and teachers will strengthen the home / school connection showing the child a united front and helping the child understand that these parties will continue to communicate in the future. Moreover by having all the teachers present there can be no chance for a miscommunication, no teacher will be left in the dark. In most cases the classroom teacher was, intentionally or unintentionally, shown disrespect by the child. Thus it is the teacher who can best deliver the message telling the child she or he must not only by attend all mandatory counseling sessions, required meetings and activities, but more importantly, the child must refrain from engaging in inappropriate behavior in the classroom. The teachers and principal are best suited for clarifying the school rules and expectations and helping the child understand that at least in the short term, he or she is now viewed as untrustworthy.
The school counselor, SRO (school resource officer, aka Deputy) and a bus driver should be present at the conference. Part of the treatment plan for the child would involve regular, frequent counseling sessions. Initially these should be daily tapering off to no fewer than once a week until all parties are convinced the child can be released from the contract. The SRO assigned to the school, should be present both to become aware of the status of this student and for clear communication. The presence of the deputy would help the child realize that she or he has become “one of the usual suspects” and will need to avoid any perception of and association with wrong doing. The bus driver is present because with few exceptions, these highly disruptive children should not be permitted on their regular school bus. However the public schools should still provide transportation via a separate bus. It will not be necessary to hire a new driver or purchase another bus due to the requirement that the TRAC schedule be for an extended day program.
Representatives from social service agencies outside the school should be present. If the child’s misbehavior involved sex, the volunteers from a sex education program should not only be present but the child should be mandated to complete their program. Similarly if the offense involved drugs, the child should be required to complete an anti-drug program with random drug testing. With few exceptions, all of these troubled children will require anger control classes. Children should receive anger control training at school but also outside of school along with other family members. The family life of most of these troubled children is stressful and too often their families respond to stress with anger. We have neither the resources nor the ability to provide these families with cars that don’t break down, well paying jobs with reasonable bosses, good health and satisfying relationships with significant others. But we can teach parents and children how to respond to the stress caused by the lack of these essentials with something other than anger. Thus a counselor from a local anger control program should be present. If the child is academically deficient, as are most children currently referred to alternative schools, then a tutor or representative from a tutoring program should be present with the stipulation that the contract calls for daily after school tutoring. These social service interventions ideally would take place on the school campus before or after regular school hours. If that is not feasible, transportation should be arranged so the child’s success isn’t dependent on a parent who can’t or won’t comply.
The conference and subsequent contract should not be exclusively punitive. The child’s strengths should be noted – artistic abilities, musical talents, athletic prowess. If the child isn’t already involved in sports, activities or classes to exploit these strengths, arrangements should be made to include these but again a timeline needs to be devised. “We’ve signed you up for a ten month gymnastic course at a private gym. Classes are three times a week. But they won’t begin until you meet all the criteria of this contract for two months and since the contract runs for twelve months, if you start gymnastics and then fail to comply with the contract, gymnastics classes will be put on hold.”
All team members should anticipate and in fact expect the child to progress with two steps forward, one step back. Children will “fall off the wagon,” there will be recidivism. While these slips are depressing and disheartening to all involved, they must not cause the key players to view the child as a failure or the situation as hopeless. A meeting should be held to analyze the situation and determine what went well and what went wrong and why, then a new timetable devised and the program started anew.
After the initial meeting, the second and most difficult phase of TRAC involves trust. The child should be made to understand that while all academic expectations and materials including lessons, textbooks, assignments and homework will remain the same, some things will change. The child would now be required always be within arm’s length of a teacher or counselor. This identifies the child as a risk, as a person in need of extra supervision and requiring accommodations such as an assigned seat near the teacher and no privileges such as delivering messages to the office. The clear message should be that this child cannot be trusted. The stigmatizing effect would help satisfy those who cry for punishment while simultaneously serving a safety and security purpose. The written contract would specify how much time must elapse and what behaviors must be demonstrated for the child to be worthy of trust and thus released from arm’s length status.
The stigmatizing and ostracizing of the child may be anathema from a psychological perspective, but it is important to remember the emotions regarding these very troubled and troublesome children: school administrators and the school board want them out of their schools, parents don’t want these “bad” children near their offspring and everyone is looking for sanctions and punishments. However, revoking all privileges and putting a child on arm’s length status are not merely a sop to placate the angry mob, these children really do jeopardize safety and security and in order to achieve rapid reintegration into their regular classrooms, they need to be easily and obviously identified. Individual schools could design rules and privileges regarding the students who must be within arms length of an adult at all times, they may get served last at lunch and not be permitted to use the bathroom without an escort. It is important to make the rules for getting off arm’s length status clear and not too difficult to achieve. The objective is for the child to want to be trusted and to slowly move the child toward regaining trust. The goal is to move rapidly to a time when we can start adding positive activities that speak to a child’s strengths.
Once the child is off “arm’s length status”, the third phase of TRAC begins. During the initial meeting, the child’s interests and strengths were identified. Now is the time to get the child involved in activities that capitalize on those interests and abilities (artistic, musical and athletic). If the child isn’t already involved in sports, activities or classes to exploit these strengths, then this is the time to make it happen.
TRAC Completion
The final phase of TRAC is reintegration. The return to regular classes should be done very slowly and with much discussion and support. At the team conference a determination should be made as to in which class the child had the fewest problems and devise a timeline listing that class as the first for reintegration. Prior to returning, a meeting should take place with that teacher, the TRAC teachers, counselor and the student to be sure expectations are clear. Just before class, the counselor would remind the student of the goals and accompanies the child to class. If the child successfully attends class, the counselor would continue to attend but slowly taper off, remaining in the classroom for fewer and fewer minutes until the child is attending on his or her own but still working on the feedback loop to insure frequent and clear communication regarding the child’s return to that class. After a time a second class is added using the same procedure. Careful monitoring and immediate feedback is necessary to catch small problems before they escalate. Once the child is attending mainstream classes full-time, support systems should remain to prevent recidivism. This is a child at-risk and as long as the child is at this school, she or he will need a school-centered safety net.
Not just a Florida Problem
School Board members, politicians and educators, in Herald County and across the United States, proudly tout their Zero Tolerance policies. Zero Tolerance continues to help fuel the national growth in suspensions and expulsions. Enacted in response to several well-publicized school shootings, Zero Tolerance became the law of the land in 1994 when President Bill Clinton signed the Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA). By then, New York, California and Kentucky already had Zero Tolerance laws on the books mandating expulsion for gang violence, fighting and drugs.
While GFSA required expulsion of students who brought a weapon to school, educators pushed for, and legislators and school boards eagerly supported, expanding the definition of “weapon” to include not only firearms, but also knives, illegal drugs, water pistols, prescription and over-the-counter medication. But Zero Tolerance isn’t limited to “weapons,” (no matter how broadly defined) the Zero Tolerance list now includes expulsion for alcohol, fighting, swearing, disrupting class, disobedience, truancy and more than a dozen other forms of misbehavior.
In 2005, media attention on arrests of children in Florida and Nevada turned up the heat on Zero Tolerance policies. Eyebrows were raised when two elementary school children were arrested in Ocala, Florida, for drawing threatening stick figures in class, a 6-year-old in Florida's Brevard County was handcuffed and removed from school for hitting his teacher and a police officer with a book and in Nevada, Clark County School District officials tried to expel a student who drew a comic strip depicting the death of his teacher.
Ruth Zweifler, executive director of Michigan's Student Advocacy Center (SAC), doesn't mince words. "Zero tolerance," she says, "has become a full-blown war on children. Instead of being targeted for reform, students are being targeted for expulsion. School districts have a duty to find children who have special problems and address their needs before it's too late. Instead, they're engaged in a 'child hunt.'"
"Clearly I think there are incidents that are so excessive that the facts show that this (Zero Tolerance) is a mindless policy in most places," said Mark Soler, president of the Youth Law Center, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm that works on child-welfare and juvenile justice system issues.
But Zero Tolerance is more than “mindless.” In school districts across the United States, Zero Tolerance has been shown to primarily victimize poor, black children.
“In Texas, zero-tolerance policies have resulted in a disproportionate number of low-income, disabled and minority students being sent to alternative disciplinary schools, most of which have few books or computers and substandard teachers . . .. What makes me really concerned is that the majority of kids sent to disciplinary schools are poor kids, almost all black and brown children," - Texas state Rep. Dora Olivo.
Beverly Cross, an urban education specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who contributed to a 2001 study of racial profiling and punishment in U.S. public schools published by the Applied Research Center's ERASE Initiative, found Zero Tolerance has created many rule-bound "maximum security schools" where students of color are suspended and expelled at increasing rates, often for nonviolent and subjectively defined offenses. "Racism rests just beneath the surface of zero-tolerance decisions."
In their 2001 report Zero Tolerance: Unfair, with Little Recourse, Dan Losen and Johanna Wald of Harvard University's Civil Rights Project and Judith Browne, senior attorney at the Advancement Project, report that although black students make up only 17 percent of all U.S. students, they account for 33 percent of all out-of-school suspensions and 31 percent of all expulsions. By contrast, 63 percent of all students are white, but they account for only 50 percent of out-of-school suspensions. What's more, the Civil Rights Project reports, students of color are more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled for willful acts, often labeled as disobedience, disruption, or disrespect for authority.
National trends show a significant increase in the number of students who are expelled and suspended each year as well as an increase in the amount of time these students are excluded from school. While some of these children are victims of misapplied Zero Tolerance policies, many are very troubled and highly disruptive students and their numbers are challenging school boards and legislators across the United States.
Massachusetts: "It's become acceptable to push students out of the classroom rather than addressing the underlying issue."
Emily Anthes Boston Globe “Academic discipline actions on rise” 4/6/2004
Texas: “The law states that every student in an alternative learning center (ALC) is required to receive a comparable education to that of regular schools. But after hearing the complaints of parents who had children in one of the ALC schools in my district, I found otherwise I visited the [ALC] school, and the school still had no textbooks [and] there was a lack of adequate materials for the teachers. Clearly, and not through the fault of the teachers, this was a clear-cut picture of ‘warehousing.’ It is very irresponsible to allow such a situation to exist and totally disregards the best interest of the children.” Dora Olivo, Texas State Representative, District 27
North Carolina: “Regular schools reduce their efforts to address discipline and behavior problems by changing the school culture, finding it easier simply to exclude “problem” students. Alternative schools become a dumping ground for unwanted students. A disproportionate number of African American students are placed in alternative schools, resulting in racial resegregation of public schools. Few students sent to alternative schools ever return to their regular schools, and their likelihood of dropping out may even increase. Ineffective alternative schools consume resources that would have been better spent to improve regular schools.”
Ohio: Steve Rosenthal, the director of information and resources at the Alternative Education Resource Organization, expressed concern that alternative education in the Cleveland Schools could become a warehouse for kids who did not fit well at traditional schools. “A lot of (alternative) schools are just a dumping ground for kids who are not fitting in, administrators want to get them out of the population and don’t do much for the kids after removing them from traditional school.”
Arkansas: When the Arkansas Interim Committee on Education asked educators for input on how to cope with violent students, many teachers loudly demanded more Alternative Schools so they can “get these bad children out of the classroom” while others, more familiar with Alternative Schools objected saying these are nothing more than “discipline dumps.”
In May 1999, 47 states had laws permitting or mandating Alternative Schools, by 2004 virtually every state offered Alternative Schooling for disruptive students. Although educators may use the term “Alternative School,” meanings differ dramatically between states, and even between school districts within each state.
Alternative School can mean:
• a shortened school day or a later school start time
• classes on Saturdays
• a classroom within the school for part or all of the day
• a school within a school program
• a work-study program
• home instruction
• a separate school run by the public school
• a boarding school
• an innovative school not primarily discipline oriented
• a separate school run by a private non-profit or for profit company
There is more agreement about what makes a successful Alternative School. Although due to financial and political considerations, the practice rarely mirrors the research. Studies point to a dozen characteristics necessary for a successful Alternative School.
1. School Size: The school should have a teacher/student ratio of no more than 1:10 and the student population should not exceed 250 students.
2. Mission and Purpose: The school should have a well-defined mission and purpose along with a clearly articulated discipline code.
3. Faculty: The school must recruit, train and retain qualified and highly trained staff with special expertise in alternative education. The faculty needs to be caring, competent and committed to the philosophy of alternative schooling. They must volunteer, not get assigned, to teach in the Alternative School. Faculty must receive continual staff development. One of the most critical factors in the success of an alternative school is the personal relationship that exists between the students and their teachers.
4. Safety and Security: The school must promote a sense of belonging. Students should feel cared for, respected and safe (academically, physically, emotionally and socially).
5. Counseling: Students need regular and frequent access to effective social services and counseling. The school must provide and integrate into the school program, community mental health, health and social services with other collaborating agencies in the community.
6. Parental Involvement: To the maximum extent possible, parents need to be actively engaged in the Alternative School.
7. The School Building: The Alternative School should be a modern, welcoming physical environment well stocked with the books, furniture and technology equivalent to the mainstream school.
8. Voluntary Participation: Students must not feel they have been sentenced to the Alternative School. Attending the school should be viewed by students, parents, faculty and the community as a privilege rather than a punishment.
9. Curriculum: The curriculum should mirror the mainstream school but with a student-centered approach allowing for student input and tailored to diverse learning styles. Clear, well-defined learning objectives are mandatory. The faculty must maintain high expectations for student achievement, promoting high standards, student accountability and a variety of assessment tools for measuring student progress.
10. School to School Relationship: Frequent, regular communication between the mainstream (sending) school and the Alternative School is required along with strong support from the school board and school district. The Alternative School must be a part of, and have a close working relationship with, all parts of the school system.
11. Community: Efforts must be made to reach out to, gain the support of and involve the local community in the Alternative School.
12. Hope: The single most critical factor in the success of the Alternative School is the total commitment to have every student be a success. A clearly defined plan for each student’s future, including when appropriate, the criteria to reenter the mainstream school is the roadmap to hope
Given Herald County School System’s support and enthusiasm for punishment, Zero Tolerance policies and “getting the bad kids out of the classroom,” there is little hope, in the short run, of decreasing the number of children in Herald County defined as needing Alternative Education. However given not only this reality, but also guided by my experience at Prospect School and informed by formal studies on Alternative Schools, I believe there is a better answer for the at-risk Herald County school children.
The response of Herald County to highly disruptive children typically falls into three categories: keep the child in his or her classroom, keep suspending (or expel) the child or send the child to a privately run Alternative School. None of these are good answers. TRAC (Temporary Removal from Assigned Classes) offers a better solution, for the children, their families and the schools.
TRAC differs in three key elements from the typical approaches for dealing with disruptive children. Most importantly, children would remain on their school campus and continue to be enrolled in the public school system. This will allow them to receive the full complement of services the public school provides as well as preventing them from becoming invisible in a parallel system where school laws and regulations often do not apply. The other differences are the extended day schedule and the using a diverse team to develop and modify a prescriptive plan tailored to each child’s unique needs and situation.
TRAC Scheduling
TRAC scheduling and staffing would differ from the mainstream school program. The extended day would permit the child to receive the counseling and additional tutoring she or he needs, plus keeps the child “off the streets” during the prime time for juvenile crime, 3:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m. With few exceptions, children who have been disruptive in school are behind academically. While experts argue whether poor academic performance is a cause or effect of highly disruptive students, the additional schooling will serve to improve academic performance. These double long school days could also be viewed as a punishment, molifying the pro-punishment advocates and the extended days may serve as a deterrent (assuming children of this age think about consequences before they act, an uncertain proposition at best). The staffing for this extended day should include two TRAC teachers with overlapping shifts at mid-day for example, one teacher might arrive at 7:00 am and work until 2:00 while the second teacher would arrive at noon and work until 7:00 pm. The teachers should be certified public school teachers employed by the child’s school providing individualized or small group instruction in all subjects using the same texts and curriculum used by the child’s regular teachers.
TRAC Classrooms
Each portable classroom should be designed to accommodate ten to twelve TRAC students at a time. When there are fewer children, the TRAC staff can spend some of their days working with those difficult children identified by the principal as heading down the path to removal from assigned classes (pre-TRAC). If the numbers on any given campus increase, more staff and portables need to be made available. Since it is difficult to predict with certainty the number of children on any given campus who will require TRAC during the school year, it could be necessary to shift these human and physical resources from one campus to another. Children however, should not be transferred. The classrooms wiould thus be staffed with three adults, the two teachers with overlapping shifts and a counselor. The TRAC counselor would be present in the portable to provide structured, scheduled counseling, as well as counseling on an as-needed basis (on everything from anger control to peer relations) and to accompany the child to class when she or he first returns.
TRAC Team
The first phase for TRAC, would be a meeting, organized by the Director of Alternative Education, with all the vital players:
• the child
• the child’s parents or guardian
• DCF caseworker
• the child’s minister
• the school principal
• the child’s teachers
• the school counselor
• the school resource officer
• the child’s bus driver
• representatives from relevant social agencies – drug rehab, sexual abstinence, anger control
• representatives from the child’s outside activities both current and potential, such a football coach, gymnastics instructor, piano teacher etcetera.
• If the child has a probation officer, she or he should attend. The director of alternative education should be the organizer for this meeting.
• the TRAC teachers and counselor
Why would these people be considered necessary at this TRAC meeting? The child and his/her parents or guardians must be present. This seems so obvious, but all too often decisions are made about students in their absence. It is vital for parents to be present and flexibility should be shown in scheduling the meeting and in helping with transportation. If necessary, pressure can and should be brought to bear to get parents to attend, and this is one role the DCF representative should play.
It should become regular practice to open a DCF case every time a child is referred to TRAC (assuming the child doesn’t already have a DCF caseworker). Is neglectful or abusive parenting what lies behind the troubling behaviors? Any referral to remove a child from the educational mainstream, implies the principal and parent were unable to form a team to help the child.
DCF should use the carrot/stick approach. Parents need to fear termination of parental rights but also need to be made aware of affordable treatment options and support services to help them cope with their out-of-control child. The threat of termination of parental rights may help inspire reluctant parents to attend the conference. DCF cannot be present in name only. This ailing agency needs to locate, develop and incent more and better foster homes including therapeutic foster homes to provide viable options for these highly disruptive children found living in neglectful or abusive situations. If DCF decides to place the child in a relative’s care, more frequent and substantial monitoring and support than currently exists, needs to be provided. Moreover, DCF needs to make referrals to support current family structures which although dysfunctional, don’t require removing the child from the home.
A minister or other religious leader should be present. At first blush this may sound like a strange request that possibly blurs the lines between church and state. However religion plays a large role in American life. This is especially true in the culture of the south, including Florida and very much so in Herald County. Religious institutions whether churches, temples or mosques, serve an important function in creating communities and like a village, can help raise a child.
If the child’s family belongs to a religious institution, even if they are not regular attendees, their religious leader should be present at the conference. This religious leader would attend to be made aware of the problem, to become part of the solution and to encourage and if necessary pressure the child to become involved in youth group and other religious sponsored activities which promote the values seemingly missing based on the child’s misbehavior. In the event the child does not identify with a religion, a religious leader could still be present. In Herald County there is a movement called: One church, One child. The idea is that every church should “adopt” a troubled child and his/her family regardless of their religious beliefs, and mentor and assist the child with all the resources the church can bring to the table.
The school principal and all the child’s teachers should to be present. The presence of parents and teachers will strengthen the home / school connection showing the child a united front and helping the child understand that these parties will continue to communicate in the future. Moreover by having all the teachers present there can be no chance for a miscommunication, no teacher will be left in the dark. In most cases the classroom teacher was, intentionally or unintentionally, shown disrespect by the child. Thus it is the teacher who can best deliver the message telling the child she or he must not only by attend all mandatory counseling sessions, required meetings and activities, but more importantly, the child must refrain from engaging in inappropriate behavior in the classroom. The teachers and principal are best suited for clarifying the school rules and expectations and helping the child understand that at least in the short term, he or she is now viewed as untrustworthy.
The school counselor, SRO (school resource officer, aka Deputy) and a bus driver should be present at the conference. Part of the treatment plan for the child would involve regular, frequent counseling sessions. Initially these should be daily tapering off to no fewer than once a week until all parties are convinced the child can be released from the contract. The SRO assigned to the school, should be present both to become aware of the status of this student and for clear communication. The presence of the deputy would help the child realize that she or he has become “one of the usual suspects” and will need to avoid any perception of and association with wrong doing. The bus driver is present because with few exceptions, these highly disruptive children should not be permitted on their regular school bus. However the public schools should still provide transportation via a separate bus. It will not be necessary to hire a new driver or purchase another bus due to the requirement that the TRAC schedule be for an extended day program.
Representatives from social service agencies outside the school should be present. If the child’s misbehavior involved sex, the volunteers from a sex education program should not only be present but the child should be mandated to complete their program. Similarly if the offense involved drugs, the child should be required to complete an anti-drug program with random drug testing. With few exceptions, all of these troubled children will require anger control classes. Children should receive anger control training at school but also outside of school along with other family members. The family life of most of these troubled children is stressful and too often their families respond to stress with anger. We have neither the resources nor the ability to provide these families with cars that don’t break down, well paying jobs with reasonable bosses, good health and satisfying relationships with significant others. But we can teach parents and children how to respond to the stress caused by the lack of these essentials with something other than anger. Thus a counselor from a local anger control program should be present. If the child is academically deficient, as are most children currently referred to alternative schools, then a tutor or representative from a tutoring program should be present with the stipulation that the contract calls for daily after school tutoring. These social service interventions ideally would take place on the school campus before or after regular school hours. If that is not feasible, transportation should be arranged so the child’s success isn’t dependent on a parent who can’t or won’t comply.
The conference and subsequent contract should not be exclusively punitive. The child’s strengths should be noted – artistic abilities, musical talents, athletic prowess. If the child isn’t already involved in sports, activities or classes to exploit these strengths, arrangements should be made to include these but again a timeline needs to be devised. “We’ve signed you up for a ten month gymnastic course at a private gym. Classes are three times a week. But they won’t begin until you meet all the criteria of this contract for two months and since the contract runs for twelve months, if you start gymnastics and then fail to comply with the contract, gymnastics classes will be put on hold.”
All team members should anticipate and in fact expect the child to progress with two steps forward, one step back. Children will “fall off the wagon,” there will be recidivism. While these slips are depressing and disheartening to all involved, they must not cause the key players to view the child as a failure or the situation as hopeless. A meeting should be held to analyze the situation and determine what went well and what went wrong and why, then a new timetable devised and the program started anew.
After the initial meeting, the second and most difficult phase of TRAC involves trust. The child should be made to understand that while all academic expectations and materials including lessons, textbooks, assignments and homework will remain the same, some things will change. The child would now be required always be within arm’s length of a teacher or counselor. This identifies the child as a risk, as a person in need of extra supervision and requiring accommodations such as an assigned seat near the teacher and no privileges such as delivering messages to the office. The clear message should be that this child cannot be trusted. The stigmatizing effect would help satisfy those who cry for punishment while simultaneously serving a safety and security purpose. The written contract would specify how much time must elapse and what behaviors must be demonstrated for the child to be worthy of trust and thus released from arm’s length status.
The stigmatizing and ostracizing of the child may be anathema from a psychological perspective, but it is important to remember the emotions regarding these very troubled and troublesome children: school administrators and the school board want them out of their schools, parents don’t want these “bad” children near their offspring and everyone is looking for sanctions and punishments. However, revoking all privileges and putting a child on arm’s length status are not merely a sop to placate the angry mob, these children really do jeopardize safety and security and in order to achieve rapid reintegration into their regular classrooms, they need to be easily and obviously identified. Individual schools could design rules and privileges regarding the students who must be within arms length of an adult at all times, they may get served last at lunch and not be permitted to use the bathroom without an escort. It is important to make the rules for getting off arm’s length status clear and not too difficult to achieve. The objective is for the child to want to be trusted and to slowly move the child toward regaining trust. The goal is to move rapidly to a time when we can start adding positive activities that speak to a child’s strengths.
Once the child is off “arm’s length status”, the third phase of TRAC begins. During the initial meeting, the child’s interests and strengths were identified. Now is the time to get the child involved in activities that capitalize on those interests and abilities (artistic, musical and athletic). If the child isn’t already involved in sports, activities or classes to exploit these strengths, then this is the time to make it happen.
TRAC Completion
The final phase of TRAC is reintegration. The return to regular classes should be done very slowly and with much discussion and support. At the team conference a determination should be made as to in which class the child had the fewest problems and devise a timeline listing that class as the first for reintegration. Prior to returning, a meeting should take place with that teacher, the TRAC teachers, counselor and the student to be sure expectations are clear. Just before class, the counselor would remind the student of the goals and accompanies the child to class. If the child successfully attends class, the counselor would continue to attend but slowly taper off, remaining in the classroom for fewer and fewer minutes until the child is attending on his or her own but still working on the feedback loop to insure frequent and clear communication regarding the child’s return to that class. After a time a second class is added using the same procedure. Careful monitoring and immediate feedback is necessary to catch small problems before they escalate. Once the child is attending mainstream classes full-time, support systems should remain to prevent recidivism. This is a child at-risk and as long as the child is at this school, she or he will need a school-centered safety net.
Not just a Florida Problem
School Board members, politicians and educators, in Herald County and across the United States, proudly tout their Zero Tolerance policies. Zero Tolerance continues to help fuel the national growth in suspensions and expulsions. Enacted in response to several well-publicized school shootings, Zero Tolerance became the law of the land in 1994 when President Bill Clinton signed the Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA). By then, New York, California and Kentucky already had Zero Tolerance laws on the books mandating expulsion for gang violence, fighting and drugs.
While GFSA required expulsion of students who brought a weapon to school, educators pushed for, and legislators and school boards eagerly supported, expanding the definition of “weapon” to include not only firearms, but also knives, illegal drugs, water pistols, prescription and over-the-counter medication. But Zero Tolerance isn’t limited to “weapons,” (no matter how broadly defined) the Zero Tolerance list now includes expulsion for alcohol, fighting, swearing, disrupting class, disobedience, truancy and more than a dozen other forms of misbehavior.
In 2005, media attention on arrests of children in Florida and Nevada turned up the heat on Zero Tolerance policies. Eyebrows were raised when two elementary school children were arrested in Ocala, Florida, for drawing threatening stick figures in class, a 6-year-old in Florida's Brevard County was handcuffed and removed from school for hitting his teacher and a police officer with a book and in Nevada, Clark County School District officials tried to expel a student who drew a comic strip depicting the death of his teacher.
Ruth Zweifler, executive director of Michigan's Student Advocacy Center (SAC), doesn't mince words. "Zero tolerance," she says, "has become a full-blown war on children. Instead of being targeted for reform, students are being targeted for expulsion. School districts have a duty to find children who have special problems and address their needs before it's too late. Instead, they're engaged in a 'child hunt.'"
"Clearly I think there are incidents that are so excessive that the facts show that this (Zero Tolerance) is a mindless policy in most places," said Mark Soler, president of the Youth Law Center, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm that works on child-welfare and juvenile justice system issues.
But Zero Tolerance is more than “mindless.” In school districts across the United States, Zero Tolerance has been shown to primarily victimize poor, black children.
“In Texas, zero-tolerance policies have resulted in a disproportionate number of low-income, disabled and minority students being sent to alternative disciplinary schools, most of which have few books or computers and substandard teachers . . .. What makes me really concerned is that the majority of kids sent to disciplinary schools are poor kids, almost all black and brown children," - Texas state Rep. Dora Olivo.
Beverly Cross, an urban education specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who contributed to a 2001 study of racial profiling and punishment in U.S. public schools published by the Applied Research Center's ERASE Initiative, found Zero Tolerance has created many rule-bound "maximum security schools" where students of color are suspended and expelled at increasing rates, often for nonviolent and subjectively defined offenses. "Racism rests just beneath the surface of zero-tolerance decisions."
In their 2001 report Zero Tolerance: Unfair, with Little Recourse, Dan Losen and Johanna Wald of Harvard University's Civil Rights Project and Judith Browne, senior attorney at the Advancement Project, report that although black students make up only 17 percent of all U.S. students, they account for 33 percent of all out-of-school suspensions and 31 percent of all expulsions. By contrast, 63 percent of all students are white, but they account for only 50 percent of out-of-school suspensions. What's more, the Civil Rights Project reports, students of color are more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled for willful acts, often labeled as disobedience, disruption, or disrespect for authority.
National trends show a significant increase in the number of students who are expelled and suspended each year as well as an increase in the amount of time these students are excluded from school. While some of these children are victims of misapplied Zero Tolerance policies, many are very troubled and highly disruptive students and their numbers are challenging school boards and legislators across the United States.
Massachusetts: "It's become acceptable to push students out of the classroom rather than addressing the underlying issue."
Emily Anthes Boston Globe “Academic discipline actions on rise” 4/6/2004
Texas: “The law states that every student in an alternative learning center (ALC) is required to receive a comparable education to that of regular schools. But after hearing the complaints of parents who had children in one of the ALC schools in my district, I found otherwise I visited the [ALC] school, and the school still had no textbooks [and] there was a lack of adequate materials for the teachers. Clearly, and not through the fault of the teachers, this was a clear-cut picture of ‘warehousing.’ It is very irresponsible to allow such a situation to exist and totally disregards the best interest of the children.” Dora Olivo, Texas State Representative, District 27
North Carolina: “Regular schools reduce their efforts to address discipline and behavior problems by changing the school culture, finding it easier simply to exclude “problem” students. Alternative schools become a dumping ground for unwanted students. A disproportionate number of African American students are placed in alternative schools, resulting in racial resegregation of public schools. Few students sent to alternative schools ever return to their regular schools, and their likelihood of dropping out may even increase. Ineffective alternative schools consume resources that would have been better spent to improve regular schools.”
Ohio: Steve Rosenthal, the director of information and resources at the Alternative Education Resource Organization, expressed concern that alternative education in the Cleveland Schools could become a warehouse for kids who did not fit well at traditional schools. “A lot of (alternative) schools are just a dumping ground for kids who are not fitting in, administrators want to get them out of the population and don’t do much for the kids after removing them from traditional school.”
Arkansas: When the Arkansas Interim Committee on Education asked educators for input on how to cope with violent students, many teachers loudly demanded more Alternative Schools so they can “get these bad children out of the classroom” while others, more familiar with Alternative Schools objected saying these are nothing more than “discipline dumps.”
In May 1999, 47 states had laws permitting or mandating Alternative Schools, by 2004 virtually every state offered Alternative Schooling for disruptive students. Although educators may use the term “Alternative School,” meanings differ dramatically between states, and even between school districts within each state.
Alternative School can mean:
• a shortened school day or a later school start time
• classes on Saturdays
• a classroom within the school for part or all of the day
• a school within a school program
• a work-study program
• home instruction
• a separate school run by the public school
• a boarding school
• an innovative school not primarily discipline oriented
• a separate school run by a private non-profit or for profit company
There is more agreement about what makes a successful Alternative School. Although due to financial and political considerations, the practice rarely mirrors the research. Studies point to a dozen characteristics necessary for a successful Alternative School.
1. School Size: The school should have a teacher/student ratio of no more than 1:10 and the student population should not exceed 250 students.
2. Mission and Purpose: The school should have a well-defined mission and purpose along with a clearly articulated discipline code.
3. Faculty: The school must recruit, train and retain qualified and highly trained staff with special expertise in alternative education. The faculty needs to be caring, competent and committed to the philosophy of alternative schooling. They must volunteer, not get assigned, to teach in the Alternative School. Faculty must receive continual staff development. One of the most critical factors in the success of an alternative school is the personal relationship that exists between the students and their teachers.
4. Safety and Security: The school must promote a sense of belonging. Students should feel cared for, respected and safe (academically, physically, emotionally and socially).
5. Counseling: Students need regular and frequent access to effective social services and counseling. The school must provide and integrate into the school program, community mental health, health and social services with other collaborating agencies in the community.
6. Parental Involvement: To the maximum extent possible, parents need to be actively engaged in the Alternative School.
7. The School Building: The Alternative School should be a modern, welcoming physical environment well stocked with the books, furniture and technology equivalent to the mainstream school.
8. Voluntary Participation: Students must not feel they have been sentenced to the Alternative School. Attending the school should be viewed by students, parents, faculty and the community as a privilege rather than a punishment.
9. Curriculum: The curriculum should mirror the mainstream school but with a student-centered approach allowing for student input and tailored to diverse learning styles. Clear, well-defined learning objectives are mandatory. The faculty must maintain high expectations for student achievement, promoting high standards, student accountability and a variety of assessment tools for measuring student progress.
10. School to School Relationship: Frequent, regular communication between the mainstream (sending) school and the Alternative School is required along with strong support from the school board and school district. The Alternative School must be a part of, and have a close working relationship with, all parts of the school system.
11. Community: Efforts must be made to reach out to, gain the support of and involve the local community in the Alternative School.
12. Hope: The single most critical factor in the success of the Alternative School is the total commitment to have every student be a success. A clearly defined plan for each student’s future, including when appropriate, the criteria to reenter the mainstream school is the roadmap to hope
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Life Guards: Epilogues of Hope
Life Guards: epilogues of hope
A river ran through the village. One day a villager heard cries coming from the river and saw a child struggling and floundering in the rushing water. The villager leapt into the icy current and with much effort pulled the child to safety.
The next day two other villagers heard cries from the river and they too worked to pull several children out of the swiftly flowing water.
Day after day it continued. Little and big, boys and girls, the children kept coming. They tumbled down the river, nearly downing, gasping for breath, needing to be rescued.
The villagers called a meeting. They honored the brave rescuers and then began to discuss better ways to save the children, more efficient techniques and procedures. They talked about how to get more rescuers and to start a campaign to raise money for rescue training. They talked late into the night until one villager raised her hand and asked a question:
“I was wondering, how did these children come to be in the river in the first place?”
The Children’s Alliance, with my mentor, Rex Stewart as Chair and Dr. Mike Jordan (his real name) as Program Coordinator, is working to keep children from venturing near the riverbank, and helping to pull them out when they are drowning. The Children’s Alliance is a non-profit organization whose vision is to create, in Herald County, “a community that values all children and families, accomplished by nurturing a family environment while providing safe, effective services of the highest quality.” In 2004 the Children’s Alliance obtained $568,000 in grants to fund programs for children. One area of concern has been the lack of after school programs. Currently the Children’s Alliance funds 17 after school programs reaching over 700 children. In 2005 the Children’s Alliance identified child abuse and family violence as posing the greatest risk to Herald County children. The Children’s Alliance partnered with the Herald County Sheriff’s department, formed a task force, then hired and trained people to combat all types of domestic violence.
Readers who wish to help the children in mentioned in this book and hundreds of others like them, are encouraged to donate generously to the Children’s Alliance. For more information:
The web site is: www.mcchildrensalliance.com
The email address is: mcpsalliance@marion.k12.fl.us
The phone number for Dr. Mike Jordan is: (352) 671-7237
A river ran through the village. One day a villager heard cries coming from the river and saw a child struggling and floundering in the rushing water. The villager leapt into the icy current and with much effort pulled the child to safety.
The next day two other villagers heard cries from the river and they too worked to pull several children out of the swiftly flowing water.
Day after day it continued. Little and big, boys and girls, the children kept coming. They tumbled down the river, nearly downing, gasping for breath, needing to be rescued.
The villagers called a meeting. They honored the brave rescuers and then began to discuss better ways to save the children, more efficient techniques and procedures. They talked about how to get more rescuers and to start a campaign to raise money for rescue training. They talked late into the night until one villager raised her hand and asked a question:
“I was wondering, how did these children come to be in the river in the first place?”
The Children’s Alliance, with my mentor, Rex Stewart as Chair and Dr. Mike Jordan (his real name) as Program Coordinator, is working to keep children from venturing near the riverbank, and helping to pull them out when they are drowning. The Children’s Alliance is a non-profit organization whose vision is to create, in Herald County, “a community that values all children and families, accomplished by nurturing a family environment while providing safe, effective services of the highest quality.” In 2004 the Children’s Alliance obtained $568,000 in grants to fund programs for children. One area of concern has been the lack of after school programs. Currently the Children’s Alliance funds 17 after school programs reaching over 700 children. In 2005 the Children’s Alliance identified child abuse and family violence as posing the greatest risk to Herald County children. The Children’s Alliance partnered with the Herald County Sheriff’s department, formed a task force, then hired and trained people to combat all types of domestic violence.
Readers who wish to help the children in mentioned in this book and hundreds of others like them, are encouraged to donate generously to the Children’s Alliance. For more information:
The web site is: www.mcchildrensalliance.com
The email address is: mcpsalliance@marion.k12.fl.us
The phone number for Dr. Mike Jordan is: (352) 671-7237
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Epilogue: All Children Left Behind - or is there Another Way?
Epilogue: All Children Left Behind – or is there Another Way?
What should be done with the children who are currently sent to alternative schools, the children who are left behind? Given the intensity and multiplicity of challenges these children present, along with the host of deep rooted problems from which they suffer, it is clear that very few will somehow just outgrow or “get over” their problems. It is equally clear that we cannot continue the practice of depriving children of their right to an education under the veil of reassigning them to privately run alternative schools. Separate but equal was a lie for black children sentenced to “negro” schools and it is a lie for misbehaving children sent to “alternative” schools.
But what is the solution?
Here’s the system I would create. First and foremost, highly disruptive children would remain under the direct care of the public schools, on their home campus, with formalized support systems to help them change their behavior and develop their deficient skills. While most of these children would need to be temporarily removed from their regular classrooms, the goal would be to begin the process of reintegrating them as quickly as possible.
The costs associated with keeping children in public school but in specialized programs would be paid, in large part, with the money currently given to the private companies running alternative schools.
The current set-up in which a public school employee (such as Henry) oversees and approves the identification of children in need of alternative education, generally works. While this “Director of Alternative Education” would no longer manage contracts, he or she would be able to ensure consistency across the school district regarding which behaviors merit temporary removal from assigned classes, to share best practices and to reallocate resources as needed.
Once a child has been identified as requiring Temporary Removal from Assigned Classes (I’ll call it TRAC, since every good policy needs an acronym or two!) the treatment would begin with a written contract developed at a conference attended by all key stakeholders who will play a role on the child’s treatment team. These vital players include the child, his or her parents or guardian, the school principal, the child’s teachers, the school counselor, the school resource officer, the child’s bus driver, the TRAC teachers, the TRAC counselor, a DCF caseworker, the child’s minister and representatives from relevant social agencies – drug rehab, sexual abstinence, anger control. Also present should be any representatives from the child’s outside activities both current and potential, such a football coach, gymnastics instructor, piano teacher etcetera. If the child has a probation officer, she or he should attend. The director of alternative education should be the organizer for this meeting.
The TRAC plan has special staffing needs and for maximum effectiveness, requires an extended day program. The TRAC plan has four phases. The meeting with the all the key players and identification of their roles, begins the plan. The second phase is the shortest but also the most controversial as it combines a punitive element with a risk identifier. The third phase focuses on accentuating the child’s strengths and interests. The final phase reintegrates the child into the mainstream school program.
The TRAC model for treating and educating troubled children would, of course, be more difficult and expensive than the current practice of transferring children to an alternative “school.” It would require bringing more people to the table and taking more time to focus on the troubled child. Given the level of animosity these children provoke in adults, especially teachers, and knowing that the children will relapse before they succeed, such an approach is likely to be a pretty hard sell. But while few would advocate throwing these children in a dumpster, that is effectively what happens with the current scheme. The public school spends millions, but few of the children get educated. In addition to being morally wrong, this approach doesn’t make financial sense. Uneducated, emotionally troubled children grow up to be uneducated troubled adults who will likely need public assistance and will probably get in trouble with the law and eventually mistreat their own children starting the circle all over again. The bill for the money, time and energy we don’t spend on these children today will come due in a few years.
This model will likely invoke the wrath of those who rail at the unfairness of the “bad” children getting more resources than the “good” kids. This plan will provide more attention, counseling, tutoring, extra-curricular activities and other “benefits” all of which cost more money. In the fiscal conservatism of the south, there is a reluctance to spend more on education, moreover this model will be viewed as robbing the good to “throw money” at the bad and let’s face it, the parents of these children don’t vote for the school board and these children are not seen as savable. To succeed, this model will require a “tough on crime” champion to sell the financial advantages of effectively educating disrupted youths.
This model will also meet opposition by from private companies such as Ebencorp as well as from public school administrators. NIH anticipated this problem in its findings: “The barriers to implementing clearly effective programs inevitably include the resistance of the individuals operating ineffective programs to have their institutions closed and their jobs abolished. Furthermore, despite evidence for intensive multisystem therapy, communities are probably apprehensive at having delinquent youngsters treated in their midst as opposed to segregating them in detention centers that have the appearance of being safer and keep the children invisible.”
Educator John Dewey once wrote: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children.”
When parents can’t or won’t provide an environment that permits their children to succeed in school, the community (the village) must rally and provide what is necessary to give every child a chance at an education, a chance for a future.
What should be done with the children who are currently sent to alternative schools, the children who are left behind? Given the intensity and multiplicity of challenges these children present, along with the host of deep rooted problems from which they suffer, it is clear that very few will somehow just outgrow or “get over” their problems. It is equally clear that we cannot continue the practice of depriving children of their right to an education under the veil of reassigning them to privately run alternative schools. Separate but equal was a lie for black children sentenced to “negro” schools and it is a lie for misbehaving children sent to “alternative” schools.
But what is the solution?
Here’s the system I would create. First and foremost, highly disruptive children would remain under the direct care of the public schools, on their home campus, with formalized support systems to help them change their behavior and develop their deficient skills. While most of these children would need to be temporarily removed from their regular classrooms, the goal would be to begin the process of reintegrating them as quickly as possible.
The costs associated with keeping children in public school but in specialized programs would be paid, in large part, with the money currently given to the private companies running alternative schools.
The current set-up in which a public school employee (such as Henry) oversees and approves the identification of children in need of alternative education, generally works. While this “Director of Alternative Education” would no longer manage contracts, he or she would be able to ensure consistency across the school district regarding which behaviors merit temporary removal from assigned classes, to share best practices and to reallocate resources as needed.
Once a child has been identified as requiring Temporary Removal from Assigned Classes (I’ll call it TRAC, since every good policy needs an acronym or two!) the treatment would begin with a written contract developed at a conference attended by all key stakeholders who will play a role on the child’s treatment team. These vital players include the child, his or her parents or guardian, the school principal, the child’s teachers, the school counselor, the school resource officer, the child’s bus driver, the TRAC teachers, the TRAC counselor, a DCF caseworker, the child’s minister and representatives from relevant social agencies – drug rehab, sexual abstinence, anger control. Also present should be any representatives from the child’s outside activities both current and potential, such a football coach, gymnastics instructor, piano teacher etcetera. If the child has a probation officer, she or he should attend. The director of alternative education should be the organizer for this meeting.
The TRAC plan has special staffing needs and for maximum effectiveness, requires an extended day program. The TRAC plan has four phases. The meeting with the all the key players and identification of their roles, begins the plan. The second phase is the shortest but also the most controversial as it combines a punitive element with a risk identifier. The third phase focuses on accentuating the child’s strengths and interests. The final phase reintegrates the child into the mainstream school program.
The TRAC model for treating and educating troubled children would, of course, be more difficult and expensive than the current practice of transferring children to an alternative “school.” It would require bringing more people to the table and taking more time to focus on the troubled child. Given the level of animosity these children provoke in adults, especially teachers, and knowing that the children will relapse before they succeed, such an approach is likely to be a pretty hard sell. But while few would advocate throwing these children in a dumpster, that is effectively what happens with the current scheme. The public school spends millions, but few of the children get educated. In addition to being morally wrong, this approach doesn’t make financial sense. Uneducated, emotionally troubled children grow up to be uneducated troubled adults who will likely need public assistance and will probably get in trouble with the law and eventually mistreat their own children starting the circle all over again. The bill for the money, time and energy we don’t spend on these children today will come due in a few years.
This model will likely invoke the wrath of those who rail at the unfairness of the “bad” children getting more resources than the “good” kids. This plan will provide more attention, counseling, tutoring, extra-curricular activities and other “benefits” all of which cost more money. In the fiscal conservatism of the south, there is a reluctance to spend more on education, moreover this model will be viewed as robbing the good to “throw money” at the bad and let’s face it, the parents of these children don’t vote for the school board and these children are not seen as savable. To succeed, this model will require a “tough on crime” champion to sell the financial advantages of effectively educating disrupted youths.
This model will also meet opposition by from private companies such as Ebencorp as well as from public school administrators. NIH anticipated this problem in its findings: “The barriers to implementing clearly effective programs inevitably include the resistance of the individuals operating ineffective programs to have their institutions closed and their jobs abolished. Furthermore, despite evidence for intensive multisystem therapy, communities are probably apprehensive at having delinquent youngsters treated in their midst as opposed to segregating them in detention centers that have the appearance of being safer and keep the children invisible.”
Educator John Dewey once wrote: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children.”
When parents can’t or won’t provide an environment that permits their children to succeed in school, the community (the village) must rally and provide what is necessary to give every child a chance at an education, a chance for a future.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Chapter Sixty-Three: Whatever Happened to...
Chapter 63: Whatever Happened to…?
I am always asking for news of my former students, staff and coworkers. Sometimes I wish I didn’t ask. I am usually dismayed by what I hear, though not surprised. I didn’t need a crystal ball to predict some of the outcomes.
A UPS chasing substitute teacher? About two months before I left, Lynne handed me a pile of phone messages from someone who called half a dozen times that day seemingly desperate to teach at Prospect. With a straight face Lynne watched me read the messages. “The name of this wanna-be teacher was vaguely familiar. Should I know her?” Lynne’s curly red hair is standing on end and her eyes are bulging as she takes her hands as if to strangle me, saying, “It’s The Prison Guard!” I rapidly discard the stack of phone messages as if they were flaming and advise Lynne to throw away any subsequent phone messages from this caller.
Oscar, the principal of Haven Hill? He almost lost his job again for incompetence (again) but he begged the Superintendent to let him stay, saying he only has a few years before he retires. So the Superintendent made him principal at the public school for the ESE (Special Education) students with disabilities so debilitating they can’t function in a regular classroom. Once again, the children who need the most get the least….
Agnes, Oscar’s secretary at Haven Hill? She is the receptionist at a Herald County Public School building. Unclear as to whether she hung her Confederate flag in her new office.
Vince, the custodian? He retired.
Mr. Ericson, the owner of Ericson’s Speedy Mart who made a racist comment about the music? He and his wife sold the gas station to a family from India and are now customers rather than owners of Ericsons.
Stone, the teacher who wanted to be a Baptist Minister? After I left, he was groomed by The Boss to become principal and was put in that position temporarily, but the promotion never came to pass. Stone was furious and shortly thereafter, in September 2004, his name appeared in the local section of the newspaper: “An alternative school teacher was arrested Wednesday after fighting with a student, authorities said…. (He) was charged with physical child abuse after witnesses said he attacked a Prospect School student.”
Witnesses say Stone was heaping insults on the boy and poking him in the chest when the boy punched Stone. Stone shoved the boy, the boy hit back and Stone began to punch the boy violently in the face. Marci, the permanent substitute teacher, was standing nearby. Stone asked her to say he didn’t hit the boy. She refused, telling me later she couldn’t tell whether Stone, in his fit of rage. really didn’t remember hitting the boy or whether he was asking her to lie. Stone turned in his resignation, was handcuffed and taken away in the squad car to the county jail where he was later released after posting $2000 bond. Two months later Stone phoned asking me to write him a recommendation for a job that did not involve working with children.
Noreen, the math teacher with a criminal background who altered the hospital discharge papers for which she was subsequently fired? She was hired in 2004 as a teacher at ESAK and two weeks later was promoted to Director of Education at ESAK where she works today.
Marci the substitute teacher? After my departure she was made a teacher with the largest class despite only having a two year degree in criminology. During the Stone incident, Marci tried to break up the fight. In the course of this action, two of Stone’s punches connected with her head. Marci resigned shortly after the Stone incident and took a position at ESAK in their “outdoors” program. She will soon complete her BA in criminal justice and wants to earn an MA in counseling.
Buffy, the certified elementary teacher who never hung anything on her walls? Buffy was hired by Herald County Public Schools to teach the most at-risk third graders – those who were repeating third grade for the first or second time due to failing the FCAT. The principal who hired her without soliciting any feedback from me, is reportedly very unhappy with Buffy. She struggles with classroom management, the children aren’t learning, and their parents complained to him that when they came to open house night, they were upset to see bleak, bare classroom walls.
Henry, my public school liaison? Henry still has his job as liaison to the alternative schools and he is still of the opinion that these troubled children don’t deserve any more than they are getting.
Lucy, my fellow Prospect principal who resigned before me? She is an art teacher at a public school in a poor neighborhood in Tampa.
Lynne, my business manager? She is the receptionist at a Herald County Public elementary school. She is very overqualified for the position and the pay is much less than her former salary, but it is a job without the daily stress she experienced at Prospect. She reports that no parents curse at her and she never has to deal with anyone like The Boss. She does report that the principal at her new school has staff hold hands and pray before meetings.
Jordan, the teacher? After he and his new wife returned to his home in Alabama to care for his terminally ill father, they now have three daughters and he is working as a middle school social studies teacher in the public schools.
Rosie, my counselor? Initially She was working for a private counseling firm that contracts with the public schools to work with Medicaid-eligible children who need counseling. She had an office in a school in the north east corner of the county – the very white section where black people are discouraged from living. Boyd, the former Prospect student who didn’t bathe often enough, ran up to her in the hall, gave Rosie a big hug and told her how happy he is to be out of that awful school. He said his worst day was when Ernie slammed him up against a wall. Rosie said he just kept hugging her and hugging her. Rosie is now a teacher in a Special Education class.
Rex Stewart, my mentor? Rex moved from middle school principal to elementary school principal and just retired this year. He continues his work for local child advocacy as Chair of a local social services agency.
Lorayne, of tongue ring fame, who lives with her grandmother except for her stay in a foster home after she was found living with her forty-something “boy friend”?
Lorayne was sent to ESAK (the Ebencorp High School in Herald County) where she often missed classes due to her pregnancy.
Robyn, the girl who couldn’t find a quiet place to do her homework and was sent to live with her grandmother in Cincinnati? After she crawled out the bathroom window to play hooky one time too many, Grandma returned her to Florida. But her stepmother refused to let her live in the family’s trailer. The receptionist at the office where Robyn’s father works offered to have Robyn live with her. Robyn was sleeping on the receptionist’s couch and not going to school.
DerMarr, the 5th grader we put in a middle school classroom where his teacher, Jana, helped him grow from the student we almost rejected to our most improved student until his mother transferred him to public school prematurely? He spent most of the last two academic quarters suspended from school and thus failed to be promoted to 6th grade and, despite a previous retention and his large size, he was held back in 5th grade.
Tyryona, the aspiring actress living with her cousin? Tyryona did star in the play and my husband and I saw her stunning performance. There was one interruption half-way through the play when a very dressed up woman with a fancy hat made an entrance so dramatic it distracted from the performance. It was Tyryona’s mother. Tyryona didn’t last long with her cousin and shortly after the play, I heard Tyryona was bouncing from foster home to foster home.
Luke, with the hoop earrings and mother at McDonalds? Luke was sent to ESAK where he spends his afternoons in a “job training program” working in a fast food restaurant. I believe he is now at Popeye’s.
Darius, the gifted boy who lived in so many foster homes? The Boss had him arrested for throwing balled up paper at the bus driver. His foster mother washed her hands of him when she heard he was arrested so he was released to the Cressler House where he was involved in a fight, arrested again and found to have enough points to be held in the JDC (Juvenile Detention Center). When he was released he was sent to yet another foster home, this one in another county.
Perry, the boy who was raped as a preschooler? Perry spent 6 months in a boot camp and upon release was sent back to Prospect where he will stay until The Boss feels he is ready to return to public school. I think the odds are against that happening.
Warenita, the girl whose mother only needed one friend, Jesus? Mom lost her battle with drug addiction and also lost custody of her daughter. Warenita is living in a foster home attending ESAK.
Glenn, the unappealing boy who choked in our Geography Bee? His mother decided she couldn’t handle him and “gave him up to the system.” He has been moved from foster home to foster home. So far no foster family wants him.
Karla, the girl whose mother lives with the Rainbow People? Mom sent Karla to live with an aunt in Georgia. Karla and her cousin, the aunt’s daughter, ran away with the cousin’s boyfriend, a 24 year old man. They went to Ohio. The police followed them. The man was arrested. The cousin was sent home and her aunt promptly pulled her out of public school and sent her to a Catholic school. And Karla, she was arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center then onto a “program.” After three months she returned to Lakeboro and Prospect. For a few weeks she attended school regularly. Then she began getting on the bus and watching out the window intently for Lorayne illegally driving her boyfriend’s pick-up truck. At the next stop she’d dash off the bus as the sleepy eyed children tried to get on and run to join Lorayne. She did this on and off for a couple weeks, then stopped attending school at all. No one seemed to care or notice.
Mookie, the boy whose parents died of AIDS and who felt he had no future? We returned Mookie to public school at the end of the 2002-03 school year and so far he has not returned to Prospect. Fingers crossed, Mookie might just have a future after all.
I am always asking for news of my former students, staff and coworkers. Sometimes I wish I didn’t ask. I am usually dismayed by what I hear, though not surprised. I didn’t need a crystal ball to predict some of the outcomes.
A UPS chasing substitute teacher? About two months before I left, Lynne handed me a pile of phone messages from someone who called half a dozen times that day seemingly desperate to teach at Prospect. With a straight face Lynne watched me read the messages. “The name of this wanna-be teacher was vaguely familiar. Should I know her?” Lynne’s curly red hair is standing on end and her eyes are bulging as she takes her hands as if to strangle me, saying, “It’s The Prison Guard!” I rapidly discard the stack of phone messages as if they were flaming and advise Lynne to throw away any subsequent phone messages from this caller.
Oscar, the principal of Haven Hill? He almost lost his job again for incompetence (again) but he begged the Superintendent to let him stay, saying he only has a few years before he retires. So the Superintendent made him principal at the public school for the ESE (Special Education) students with disabilities so debilitating they can’t function in a regular classroom. Once again, the children who need the most get the least….
Agnes, Oscar’s secretary at Haven Hill? She is the receptionist at a Herald County Public School building. Unclear as to whether she hung her Confederate flag in her new office.
Vince, the custodian? He retired.
Mr. Ericson, the owner of Ericson’s Speedy Mart who made a racist comment about the music? He and his wife sold the gas station to a family from India and are now customers rather than owners of Ericsons.
Stone, the teacher who wanted to be a Baptist Minister? After I left, he was groomed by The Boss to become principal and was put in that position temporarily, but the promotion never came to pass. Stone was furious and shortly thereafter, in September 2004, his name appeared in the local section of the newspaper: “An alternative school teacher was arrested Wednesday after fighting with a student, authorities said…. (He) was charged with physical child abuse after witnesses said he attacked a Prospect School student.”
Witnesses say Stone was heaping insults on the boy and poking him in the chest when the boy punched Stone. Stone shoved the boy, the boy hit back and Stone began to punch the boy violently in the face. Marci, the permanent substitute teacher, was standing nearby. Stone asked her to say he didn’t hit the boy. She refused, telling me later she couldn’t tell whether Stone, in his fit of rage. really didn’t remember hitting the boy or whether he was asking her to lie. Stone turned in his resignation, was handcuffed and taken away in the squad car to the county jail where he was later released after posting $2000 bond. Two months later Stone phoned asking me to write him a recommendation for a job that did not involve working with children.
Noreen, the math teacher with a criminal background who altered the hospital discharge papers for which she was subsequently fired? She was hired in 2004 as a teacher at ESAK and two weeks later was promoted to Director of Education at ESAK where she works today.
Marci the substitute teacher? After my departure she was made a teacher with the largest class despite only having a two year degree in criminology. During the Stone incident, Marci tried to break up the fight. In the course of this action, two of Stone’s punches connected with her head. Marci resigned shortly after the Stone incident and took a position at ESAK in their “outdoors” program. She will soon complete her BA in criminal justice and wants to earn an MA in counseling.
Buffy, the certified elementary teacher who never hung anything on her walls? Buffy was hired by Herald County Public Schools to teach the most at-risk third graders – those who were repeating third grade for the first or second time due to failing the FCAT. The principal who hired her without soliciting any feedback from me, is reportedly very unhappy with Buffy. She struggles with classroom management, the children aren’t learning, and their parents complained to him that when they came to open house night, they were upset to see bleak, bare classroom walls.
Henry, my public school liaison? Henry still has his job as liaison to the alternative schools and he is still of the opinion that these troubled children don’t deserve any more than they are getting.
Lucy, my fellow Prospect principal who resigned before me? She is an art teacher at a public school in a poor neighborhood in Tampa.
Lynne, my business manager? She is the receptionist at a Herald County Public elementary school. She is very overqualified for the position and the pay is much less than her former salary, but it is a job without the daily stress she experienced at Prospect. She reports that no parents curse at her and she never has to deal with anyone like The Boss. She does report that the principal at her new school has staff hold hands and pray before meetings.
Jordan, the teacher? After he and his new wife returned to his home in Alabama to care for his terminally ill father, they now have three daughters and he is working as a middle school social studies teacher in the public schools.
Rosie, my counselor? Initially She was working for a private counseling firm that contracts with the public schools to work with Medicaid-eligible children who need counseling. She had an office in a school in the north east corner of the county – the very white section where black people are discouraged from living. Boyd, the former Prospect student who didn’t bathe often enough, ran up to her in the hall, gave Rosie a big hug and told her how happy he is to be out of that awful school. He said his worst day was when Ernie slammed him up against a wall. Rosie said he just kept hugging her and hugging her. Rosie is now a teacher in a Special Education class.
Rex Stewart, my mentor? Rex moved from middle school principal to elementary school principal and just retired this year. He continues his work for local child advocacy as Chair of a local social services agency.
Lorayne, of tongue ring fame, who lives with her grandmother except for her stay in a foster home after she was found living with her forty-something “boy friend”?
Lorayne was sent to ESAK (the Ebencorp High School in Herald County) where she often missed classes due to her pregnancy.
Robyn, the girl who couldn’t find a quiet place to do her homework and was sent to live with her grandmother in Cincinnati? After she crawled out the bathroom window to play hooky one time too many, Grandma returned her to Florida. But her stepmother refused to let her live in the family’s trailer. The receptionist at the office where Robyn’s father works offered to have Robyn live with her. Robyn was sleeping on the receptionist’s couch and not going to school.
DerMarr, the 5th grader we put in a middle school classroom where his teacher, Jana, helped him grow from the student we almost rejected to our most improved student until his mother transferred him to public school prematurely? He spent most of the last two academic quarters suspended from school and thus failed to be promoted to 6th grade and, despite a previous retention and his large size, he was held back in 5th grade.
Tyryona, the aspiring actress living with her cousin? Tyryona did star in the play and my husband and I saw her stunning performance. There was one interruption half-way through the play when a very dressed up woman with a fancy hat made an entrance so dramatic it distracted from the performance. It was Tyryona’s mother. Tyryona didn’t last long with her cousin and shortly after the play, I heard Tyryona was bouncing from foster home to foster home.
Luke, with the hoop earrings and mother at McDonalds? Luke was sent to ESAK where he spends his afternoons in a “job training program” working in a fast food restaurant. I believe he is now at Popeye’s.
Darius, the gifted boy who lived in so many foster homes? The Boss had him arrested for throwing balled up paper at the bus driver. His foster mother washed her hands of him when she heard he was arrested so he was released to the Cressler House where he was involved in a fight, arrested again and found to have enough points to be held in the JDC (Juvenile Detention Center). When he was released he was sent to yet another foster home, this one in another county.
Perry, the boy who was raped as a preschooler? Perry spent 6 months in a boot camp and upon release was sent back to Prospect where he will stay until The Boss feels he is ready to return to public school. I think the odds are against that happening.
Warenita, the girl whose mother only needed one friend, Jesus? Mom lost her battle with drug addiction and also lost custody of her daughter. Warenita is living in a foster home attending ESAK.
Glenn, the unappealing boy who choked in our Geography Bee? His mother decided she couldn’t handle him and “gave him up to the system.” He has been moved from foster home to foster home. So far no foster family wants him.
Karla, the girl whose mother lives with the Rainbow People? Mom sent Karla to live with an aunt in Georgia. Karla and her cousin, the aunt’s daughter, ran away with the cousin’s boyfriend, a 24 year old man. They went to Ohio. The police followed them. The man was arrested. The cousin was sent home and her aunt promptly pulled her out of public school and sent her to a Catholic school. And Karla, she was arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center then onto a “program.” After three months she returned to Lakeboro and Prospect. For a few weeks she attended school regularly. Then she began getting on the bus and watching out the window intently for Lorayne illegally driving her boyfriend’s pick-up truck. At the next stop she’d dash off the bus as the sleepy eyed children tried to get on and run to join Lorayne. She did this on and off for a couple weeks, then stopped attending school at all. No one seemed to care or notice.
Mookie, the boy whose parents died of AIDS and who felt he had no future? We returned Mookie to public school at the end of the 2002-03 school year and so far he has not returned to Prospect. Fingers crossed, Mookie might just have a future after all.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Chapter Sixty-Two: Rumor Mill
Chapter 62: Rumor Mill
After I left Prospect, for a while my email box was full with stories from my former coworkers. Since they all knew I was writing about the experience, often the subject line would read: “Here’s one for your journal.” Frequently the emails would detail the same incident from with different points of view. Here’s what I hear:
On the first day at Prospect without me, The Boss arrived late, at 8:40, with an entourage of “Enforcers”, several large and muscular Ebencorp employees from other residential programs. He gathered everyone in the parking lot and told the team he didn’t know I was going to resign and didn’t want me to do so, but he and his boss Clyde, felt I was not taking this program (note his word choice: program, not school!) in the direction Ebencorp wants it to go, thus he is taking over. At 3:30 he gathered all the students in the parking lot and tells the children too that he didn’t want me to leave. One of the girls reportedly yells “bullshit.”
The Boss then announced some changes effective immediately: no more blue jeans, no more Activity Period and no more Friday Career Days. (He later told the staff he didn’t like Career Days because he was not comfortable with the public “coming on campus and sticking their noses in our business.” Lynne wondered what he had to hide.) He also announced he is starting a new punishment program with both after school and Saturday detention sessions.
The Boss’s unveiling of his plan was interrupted by Tiombe, a student not known for self-control. He began to loudly vent his opinion with some profanity-laced statements regarding these changes. Immediately two Ebencorp Enforcers flanked Tiombe. One grabbed his shirt and spun him around. The other slammed him against the fence by the ball field then both “got in his face” and began to shout at him. The other students watched in stunned silence. The Boss went on to announce that he was shortening the school day. Prospect would no longer run from 9:00-4:00. The new school hours would be 9:00-2:50. The students didn’t cheer but the staff did.
Tiombe was the first but not the last. The following day as students were getting off the bus in the morning, The Boss decided, seemingly impulsively, that boys could no longer wear any earrings. When Antwonn stepped off the bus, The Boss had two Ebencorp Enforcers demand Antwonn give up his earrings. Antwonn protested saying it was written in the Prospect handbook that two stud earrings were acceptable. Antwonn then bent over his three ring binder to find that paragraph in the handbook. One of the Ebencorp men grabbed Antwonn’s arms and pulled them behind his back while the other started to shout very close to his face. Antwonn dropped his notebook. Counselor Rusty, witnessing this, interceded and said he would take Antwonn’s earrings whispering to Antwonn that he was right about the rule, but better to give the earrings to Rusty now than … Antwonn handed Rusty his earrings.
Maybe when The Boss said I didn’t follow the Ebencorp way it was because I didn’t physically intimidate the children….
Odis arrived at school wearing blue jeans. When the Ebencorp duo began to yell at him he said his mother was angry that the dress code was changing in the middle of the year and she had bought him new blue jeans for school. This made the Ebencorp Enforcers angrier and Odis received the Tiombe treatment complete with up close shouting and fence slamming. In addition he was kept after school. When The Boss called Odis’s mother, she said she had no car and couldn’t come get him. The Boss had to drive Odis home in his car and got lost (Odis claims he “was playing” with The Boss and provided incorrect directions.) Odis got home at 7:00 pm.
On Friday The Boss kept five children after school for detention and was surprised again when none of their parents could or would come pick them up and he had to spend hours transporting them to all corners of Herald County. Funny about The Boss driving the students home in his car since Ebencorp’s own policy states that transporting students in a personal vehicle should be avoided.
Although I am no longer principal, I made promises to some of the boys about attending their football games that weekend, so on Saturday morning, off to Berke Jungers I go. The first Prospect person I run into is Rusty. He tells me he resigned the day before. The Boss asked him to reconsider but Rusty refused. He didn’t give The Boss an explanation beyond saying it was for his health, but Rusty says he couldn’t stand by and watch the abuse.
Rusty and I watch several football games. When Parker sees me he waves and at the end of his game the sweaty equipment-laden boy gives me a big hug saying “We miss you Ms. Smee.”
My wonderful business manager, Lynne, emails me daily for some time:
Monday:
The Boss has decided he will take attendance himself since he wants the data before 10:00 am and feels our method is too slow. I think he isn’t used to a school with so many students! He first tried to take attendance as the children got off the busses. That didn’t work! He didn’t have a headcount for Shasta in time for her to pick up lunches and when she asked he got mad.
Tuesday:
The Boss told Rosie she is not a good teacher and she should look for work elsewhere and if she did he would write her a recommendation. Rosie cried.
The Boss left campus and returned with rakes, dozens of rakes. All day kids are out raking. There are no lessons, no counseling, just raking.
Wednesday:
The Boss told the team no more morning meetings and they don’t need to arrive to work at 8:00 anymore. He says “you can arrive whenever, just be here by 9:00.”
The Boss isn’t getting the attendance done until early afternoon and Henry’s secretary has been phoning saying they need me to input the attendance earlier. I explained about the “new” procedure…
Thursday:
Most of the team decided they still wanted to have morning meetings even if The Boss didn’t mandate them or chair them. They arrive at 8:00 and start the meeting, but when The Boss comes in (about 8:30) he tells them they are not to meet and he doesn’t want them coming into this portable because they disturb him.
That new math teacher you hired to replace Valerie called in sick. (That would be ZG, the zany guy.) The Boss called him at home and insisted he come to work right away, sick or not. Later I find a note taped to the door from the new math teacher – it is his resignation! The Boss told me we need to hire staff and I should put an advertisement in the local paper. I printed the text from one you and I developed but he crossed out the part about “college degree and teacher certification required.” He said to describe the job as “redirection.” I guess you don’t need a college degree to supervise raking.
Friday:
The Boss forgot to call the Career Day people on the list you gave him so they showed up this morning and he told them Career Days are cancelled. As far as I can see everything is cancelled. All the kids do is rake. Oh and The Boss suggested if they do a good job raking then teachers should show movies!
When I asked The Boss for the attendance today he told me he isn’t going to do it anymore and we’ll go back to the old way, but since we don’t have meetings anymore, none of the teachers know this and so no attendance was taken today. Oh and The Boss hired his first new employee today: Ernie! I started to tell The Boss about some of the Ernie problems but he told me Ernie is a big, muscular man and that you, Kathleen, just didn’t know how to handle him!
Monday:
The Boss has left Ernie in charge of the campus! Ernie is strutting around making up policies and threatening children. The kids rake and no one takes attendance.
Tuesday:
Rosie was trying to hold classes this morning. It’s hard since the girls would rather be raking. Ernie came in the class and decided to remove six girls for rake duty. They were happy to go. The Boss showed up on campus about 2:00 and told Rosie how pleased he was that she was starting to kick more girls out of class for misbehavior. Rosie told him she hadn’t kicked them out and she wasn’t sure why or how Ernie chose them for rake duty. The Boss looked disappointed.
Wednesday:
I gave my resignation to The Boss today. Now both my husband and I are unemployed but I just can’t take this anymore!
After I left Prospect, for a while my email box was full with stories from my former coworkers. Since they all knew I was writing about the experience, often the subject line would read: “Here’s one for your journal.” Frequently the emails would detail the same incident from with different points of view. Here’s what I hear:
On the first day at Prospect without me, The Boss arrived late, at 8:40, with an entourage of “Enforcers”, several large and muscular Ebencorp employees from other residential programs. He gathered everyone in the parking lot and told the team he didn’t know I was going to resign and didn’t want me to do so, but he and his boss Clyde, felt I was not taking this program (note his word choice: program, not school!) in the direction Ebencorp wants it to go, thus he is taking over. At 3:30 he gathered all the students in the parking lot and tells the children too that he didn’t want me to leave. One of the girls reportedly yells “bullshit.”
The Boss then announced some changes effective immediately: no more blue jeans, no more Activity Period and no more Friday Career Days. (He later told the staff he didn’t like Career Days because he was not comfortable with the public “coming on campus and sticking their noses in our business.” Lynne wondered what he had to hide.) He also announced he is starting a new punishment program with both after school and Saturday detention sessions.
The Boss’s unveiling of his plan was interrupted by Tiombe, a student not known for self-control. He began to loudly vent his opinion with some profanity-laced statements regarding these changes. Immediately two Ebencorp Enforcers flanked Tiombe. One grabbed his shirt and spun him around. The other slammed him against the fence by the ball field then both “got in his face” and began to shout at him. The other students watched in stunned silence. The Boss went on to announce that he was shortening the school day. Prospect would no longer run from 9:00-4:00. The new school hours would be 9:00-2:50. The students didn’t cheer but the staff did.
Tiombe was the first but not the last. The following day as students were getting off the bus in the morning, The Boss decided, seemingly impulsively, that boys could no longer wear any earrings. When Antwonn stepped off the bus, The Boss had two Ebencorp Enforcers demand Antwonn give up his earrings. Antwonn protested saying it was written in the Prospect handbook that two stud earrings were acceptable. Antwonn then bent over his three ring binder to find that paragraph in the handbook. One of the Ebencorp men grabbed Antwonn’s arms and pulled them behind his back while the other started to shout very close to his face. Antwonn dropped his notebook. Counselor Rusty, witnessing this, interceded and said he would take Antwonn’s earrings whispering to Antwonn that he was right about the rule, but better to give the earrings to Rusty now than … Antwonn handed Rusty his earrings.
Maybe when The Boss said I didn’t follow the Ebencorp way it was because I didn’t physically intimidate the children….
Odis arrived at school wearing blue jeans. When the Ebencorp duo began to yell at him he said his mother was angry that the dress code was changing in the middle of the year and she had bought him new blue jeans for school. This made the Ebencorp Enforcers angrier and Odis received the Tiombe treatment complete with up close shouting and fence slamming. In addition he was kept after school. When The Boss called Odis’s mother, she said she had no car and couldn’t come get him. The Boss had to drive Odis home in his car and got lost (Odis claims he “was playing” with The Boss and provided incorrect directions.) Odis got home at 7:00 pm.
On Friday The Boss kept five children after school for detention and was surprised again when none of their parents could or would come pick them up and he had to spend hours transporting them to all corners of Herald County. Funny about The Boss driving the students home in his car since Ebencorp’s own policy states that transporting students in a personal vehicle should be avoided.
Although I am no longer principal, I made promises to some of the boys about attending their football games that weekend, so on Saturday morning, off to Berke Jungers I go. The first Prospect person I run into is Rusty. He tells me he resigned the day before. The Boss asked him to reconsider but Rusty refused. He didn’t give The Boss an explanation beyond saying it was for his health, but Rusty says he couldn’t stand by and watch the abuse.
Rusty and I watch several football games. When Parker sees me he waves and at the end of his game the sweaty equipment-laden boy gives me a big hug saying “We miss you Ms. Smee.”
My wonderful business manager, Lynne, emails me daily for some time:
Monday:
The Boss has decided he will take attendance himself since he wants the data before 10:00 am and feels our method is too slow. I think he isn’t used to a school with so many students! He first tried to take attendance as the children got off the busses. That didn’t work! He didn’t have a headcount for Shasta in time for her to pick up lunches and when she asked he got mad.
Tuesday:
The Boss told Rosie she is not a good teacher and she should look for work elsewhere and if she did he would write her a recommendation. Rosie cried.
The Boss left campus and returned with rakes, dozens of rakes. All day kids are out raking. There are no lessons, no counseling, just raking.
Wednesday:
The Boss told the team no more morning meetings and they don’t need to arrive to work at 8:00 anymore. He says “you can arrive whenever, just be here by 9:00.”
The Boss isn’t getting the attendance done until early afternoon and Henry’s secretary has been phoning saying they need me to input the attendance earlier. I explained about the “new” procedure…
Thursday:
Most of the team decided they still wanted to have morning meetings even if The Boss didn’t mandate them or chair them. They arrive at 8:00 and start the meeting, but when The Boss comes in (about 8:30) he tells them they are not to meet and he doesn’t want them coming into this portable because they disturb him.
That new math teacher you hired to replace Valerie called in sick. (That would be ZG, the zany guy.) The Boss called him at home and insisted he come to work right away, sick or not. Later I find a note taped to the door from the new math teacher – it is his resignation! The Boss told me we need to hire staff and I should put an advertisement in the local paper. I printed the text from one you and I developed but he crossed out the part about “college degree and teacher certification required.” He said to describe the job as “redirection.” I guess you don’t need a college degree to supervise raking.
Friday:
The Boss forgot to call the Career Day people on the list you gave him so they showed up this morning and he told them Career Days are cancelled. As far as I can see everything is cancelled. All the kids do is rake. Oh and The Boss suggested if they do a good job raking then teachers should show movies!
When I asked The Boss for the attendance today he told me he isn’t going to do it anymore and we’ll go back to the old way, but since we don’t have meetings anymore, none of the teachers know this and so no attendance was taken today. Oh and The Boss hired his first new employee today: Ernie! I started to tell The Boss about some of the Ernie problems but he told me Ernie is a big, muscular man and that you, Kathleen, just didn’t know how to handle him!
Monday:
The Boss has left Ernie in charge of the campus! Ernie is strutting around making up policies and threatening children. The kids rake and no one takes attendance.
Tuesday:
Rosie was trying to hold classes this morning. It’s hard since the girls would rather be raking. Ernie came in the class and decided to remove six girls for rake duty. They were happy to go. The Boss showed up on campus about 2:00 and told Rosie how pleased he was that she was starting to kick more girls out of class for misbehavior. Rosie told him she hadn’t kicked them out and she wasn’t sure why or how Ernie chose them for rake duty. The Boss looked disappointed.
Wednesday:
I gave my resignation to The Boss today. Now both my husband and I are unemployed but I just can’t take this anymore!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Chapter Sixty-One: Game Over
Chapter 61: Game Over
I park the Saturn, loaded with the contents of my office (minus the books and games that wouldn’t fit) outside Books-a-Million and I phone my husband. I coach myself on being brave but when I tell him, I cry.
I try to stop because I can hear the pain in his voice, a pain that he isn’t here to hold me, hug me or comfort me. He works to reassure me with his words: it will be okay, this is for the best, now you can write your book. I choke back the rest of the crying to keep my husband from hurting more.
When I get home, and unpack the car and sit alone on the bed in my beautiful new Florida home that now I might not be able to afford, I cry the rest of the tears, surprised to find there are so many. All the sobs I stifled and swallowed whole, all the unwept tears I trapped and denied, they all rush forward like the opening of a lock on a canal. I cry tears of self-pity, tears of boss loathing and tears of suffering children. I cry tears of frustration, failure and confusion, tears of anger, hate, loss and even loneliness. I cry tears of despair, desperation and the deep depths of depression. I cry me a river.
Then I stop. I have heard that crying depletes the immune system and I don’t want to get sick – I force this somewhat specious notion to triumph over my out-of-control emotions. The tears, like the rushing water in the canal locks, make changes to ensure smooth sailing forward on my journey. I reshape the rest of my tears into words: words for my journal, words for my book, words for emails, words to cope.
I park the Saturn, loaded with the contents of my office (minus the books and games that wouldn’t fit) outside Books-a-Million and I phone my husband. I coach myself on being brave but when I tell him, I cry.
I try to stop because I can hear the pain in his voice, a pain that he isn’t here to hold me, hug me or comfort me. He works to reassure me with his words: it will be okay, this is for the best, now you can write your book. I choke back the rest of the crying to keep my husband from hurting more.
When I get home, and unpack the car and sit alone on the bed in my beautiful new Florida home that now I might not be able to afford, I cry the rest of the tears, surprised to find there are so many. All the sobs I stifled and swallowed whole, all the unwept tears I trapped and denied, they all rush forward like the opening of a lock on a canal. I cry tears of self-pity, tears of boss loathing and tears of suffering children. I cry tears of frustration, failure and confusion, tears of anger, hate, loss and even loneliness. I cry tears of despair, desperation and the deep depths of depression. I cry me a river.
Then I stop. I have heard that crying depletes the immune system and I don’t want to get sick – I force this somewhat specious notion to triumph over my out-of-control emotions. The tears, like the rushing water in the canal locks, make changes to ensure smooth sailing forward on my journey. I reshape the rest of my tears into words: words for my journal, words for my book, words for emails, words to cope.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Chapter Sixty: The Last Epiphany
Chapter 60: The Last Epiphany
I ran a 10K race recently and somehow in the course of running, I got this mistaken idea that a 10K race was equivalent to 6.4 miles. Maybe all the blood was being rerouted to my legs rather than to my brain, but whatever my excuse, when I turned a corner and suddenly saw the finish line, I was upset. If it hadn’t been a hidden finish and if I had realized a 10K equals only 6.2, not 6.4 miles, I could have run a better time. I still had a reserve of unused energy and moreover I’d been practicing my sprints to the finish line. While I was annoyed at the race organizers for hiding the finish line around a corner, I was more annoyed at myself for not realizing the end was so near.
When the 2003 school year started, I hoped my principalship at Prospect would last at least the academic year. But I was wrong and, as with the 10K, I just couldn’t see the finish line.
But first, Valerie, Rita Mae and Jordan give me their two week notice.
Valerie, who I hired last year as the Title One Math teacher, returned this year to be a classroom teacher only because I begged her to do so. She teaches math and science but keeps telling me to look for a replacement. I find this sort of zany guy (ZG) who might work out, but I keep hoping Valerie will stay. Today she makes it clear, she won’t. Okay, I can get a grip and hire ZG.
I had no warning and can’t get a grip about Rita Mae. My all-girl teacher is leaving Prospect to go teach at ESAK?! When she tells me I am speechless. At first I think it is a joke, but her face and tone are anything but joking. Henry, my public school liaison, has frequently quoted Rocky, (principal of ESAK) as saying he is impressed by the caliber of the teachers I hire. I give Henry my “secret” of posting job openings on the web site “teach-in-florida.com” but Rocky doesn’t use it – he continues to rely on ads in the local paper with predictably poor results. But now I guess Rocky found a new technique: recruit my Prospect teachers.
A couple weeks ago, Marci, my permanent substitute, told me Rocky called her and asked if she would come to ESAK. She told him no and reported the conversation to me. He then apparently contacted Rita Mae and offered her more pay. She is a single parent; he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. I call The Boss. ESAK and Prospect share the same parent company, is this ethical? The Boss tells me Rocky denies contacting Rita Mae, one of his employees did it. I just need to deal with it.
Rita Mae is overheard saying she is leaving because the girls are so bad and she doesn’t get any support from Rusty, Rosie or me. Maybe she feels guilty saying she is leaving for more money; maybe there is truth in both tales. But sadly, not only do I overhear her but, the girls hear it as well. Girl wars break out in Rita Mae’s classroom. One group of girls shouts they hate her and they are glad she is leaving, the rest of the girls shout how much they love her and never before has a teacher cared so much for them and they love the all-girls class and they know Rita Mae is leaving because of those other girls, the bad ones. Different days different girls join different sides of this argument. I do a lot of running to Rita Mae’s class and suddenly it is rare not to have a surly group of misbehaving girls scowling in my office. I am mad at Rita Mae for revealing her intentions to her class so soon. I am mad at her for leaving. I am mad.
Meanwhile, for future daughter-in-law Sarah’s last two weeks at Prospect she is never without another adult in the classroom and thus survives to her wedding date without any further violence. She departs on a Wednesday. I leave the following evening, feeling guilty at taking off even one day to attend the wedding of my son and Sarah in Maryland. But before I leave, Jordan, my brave and brilliant elementary teacher, tells me he and his wife have decided to move back to Alabama to care for his dying father. How can you beg someone to stay who is prioritizing his family over his career? I fly north wondering how to find a Title One Reading teacher to replace Sarah, an all-girls teacher to replace Rita Mae, an elementary teacher to replace Jordan and worrying whether ZG will work out with Valerie’s class.
My day off for the wedding was approved in advance by The Boss, but that doesn’t stop him from phoning me Friday morning. I tell him I am in the church in the middle of my son’s wedding rehearsal. He says fine, this is urgent, then proceeds to discuss Rusty’s health problems. As he talks I picture my insides turning to dust, crumbling and raining down to my feet so that when he is done I am just a pile of small pebbles and sand.
The morning of the wedding of my only child, I go to a college track and run. It is cold in Maryland in October, but I run fast and faster, twenty times around the track. A track lets you run without thinking about running, no cars to dodge or people who wave. I run and ruminate to the rhythm of my Asics on the rubbery synthetic-surface track.
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
First lap and I calculate that for nearly a year and a half I have been searching for solutions, now I am searching for an exit. As principal at Prospect, I am perpetrating the myth of the acceptability of a separate education. I am part of the problem. I think of that saying “when you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas.” What I am doing is not good for my students, my staff or for me. I need to work to abolish this system, not tweak it and make superficial improvements. It is wrong to remove the troubled children from school and put them all in a separate, non-public school. No two ways about it, it is wrong. Prospect is not now, nor ever can be, a good place for children or teachers. I’ve left jobs before, but never without another job lined up. But how much longer can I stay in this situation?
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
Next lap I envision trying to explain my departure to Darius, Karla, Mookie. How can I abandon them? Am I trying to rationalize quitting because the job is too hard, The Boss too difficult? I’ve had hard jobs before. I should not give up.
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
Around the track again, each lap takes less than two minutes. Now I am thinking about my family. The husband I only see on weekends because I took this crazy job. The son who has a distracted empty shell of a mother at his wedding, the same mother who allowed his young bride to be assaulted.
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
I see bills. The bills for the mortgage on our new house. The bills for student loans for our son’s Ivy league education. The bills for all those flights up and down the east coast so my husband and I could see each other. How do we pay these bills if I’m not getting paid? While both of the two alternative schools that wanted to open in Herald County have expressed a strong desire to hire me as their principal, the school board rejected their applications and insisted some unrealistic demands be met before either could reapply. Thus it is unlikely either of these companies will choose to open a school in Herald County. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and I want to write about this experience, but such a risk, such a leap of faith!
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
Running on this track is a relief for my pavement-pounded knees and feet. I could ease the wear and tear by running on trails, but I’m afraid I’ll lose my footing on a root, hole or stone and I don’t want to fall. Several years ago a boss told me I wasn’t a risk taker. That criticism has stuck with me. Am I utterly stodgy? A stick-in-the-mud old lady who needs her half glass of milk at 3:00 p.m. and can’t sleep without her own pillow? That isn’t how I see myself, but now I worry I’ve taken too big a risk, too many risks, and I am scared. Suddenly my life is riddled with roots, holes and stones and I find myself deep in the woods on a trail far from any paved road. And I am so scared of falling.
When I return to Prospect, Rita Mae leaves, then Valerie (ZG can’t start yet). Shortly thereafter, Jordan leaves.
Rosie volunteers to cover the all girls’ class temporarily but she makes it clear she got her Master’s degree in Social Work because she wants to be a counselor, not a teacher. The teachers are all upset because without a Title One teacher they aren’t getting their breaks and now with only one Counselor, they are having a harder time getting students removed from their classroom. Rusty is upset since with Rosie teaching, he has to handle all the troubled students alone. Things are falling apart and the center cannot hold. In my search for solutions I stop sleeping. I reluctantly call on The Boss for help. He promises to send counselors from other programs, but forgets his promise. I call him again. The Boss sends a counselor and then he comes to campus too. He delivers an ultimatum: he is going to take over the school. I can resign or I can work under him and if I choose the latter that means I will no longer be the principal and I must do everything he says and never question him.
I resign.
I ran a 10K race recently and somehow in the course of running, I got this mistaken idea that a 10K race was equivalent to 6.4 miles. Maybe all the blood was being rerouted to my legs rather than to my brain, but whatever my excuse, when I turned a corner and suddenly saw the finish line, I was upset. If it hadn’t been a hidden finish and if I had realized a 10K equals only 6.2, not 6.4 miles, I could have run a better time. I still had a reserve of unused energy and moreover I’d been practicing my sprints to the finish line. While I was annoyed at the race organizers for hiding the finish line around a corner, I was more annoyed at myself for not realizing the end was so near.
When the 2003 school year started, I hoped my principalship at Prospect would last at least the academic year. But I was wrong and, as with the 10K, I just couldn’t see the finish line.
But first, Valerie, Rita Mae and Jordan give me their two week notice.
Valerie, who I hired last year as the Title One Math teacher, returned this year to be a classroom teacher only because I begged her to do so. She teaches math and science but keeps telling me to look for a replacement. I find this sort of zany guy (ZG) who might work out, but I keep hoping Valerie will stay. Today she makes it clear, she won’t. Okay, I can get a grip and hire ZG.
I had no warning and can’t get a grip about Rita Mae. My all-girl teacher is leaving Prospect to go teach at ESAK?! When she tells me I am speechless. At first I think it is a joke, but her face and tone are anything but joking. Henry, my public school liaison, has frequently quoted Rocky, (principal of ESAK) as saying he is impressed by the caliber of the teachers I hire. I give Henry my “secret” of posting job openings on the web site “teach-in-florida.com” but Rocky doesn’t use it – he continues to rely on ads in the local paper with predictably poor results. But now I guess Rocky found a new technique: recruit my Prospect teachers.
A couple weeks ago, Marci, my permanent substitute, told me Rocky called her and asked if she would come to ESAK. She told him no and reported the conversation to me. He then apparently contacted Rita Mae and offered her more pay. She is a single parent; he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. I call The Boss. ESAK and Prospect share the same parent company, is this ethical? The Boss tells me Rocky denies contacting Rita Mae, one of his employees did it. I just need to deal with it.
Rita Mae is overheard saying she is leaving because the girls are so bad and she doesn’t get any support from Rusty, Rosie or me. Maybe she feels guilty saying she is leaving for more money; maybe there is truth in both tales. But sadly, not only do I overhear her but, the girls hear it as well. Girl wars break out in Rita Mae’s classroom. One group of girls shouts they hate her and they are glad she is leaving, the rest of the girls shout how much they love her and never before has a teacher cared so much for them and they love the all-girls class and they know Rita Mae is leaving because of those other girls, the bad ones. Different days different girls join different sides of this argument. I do a lot of running to Rita Mae’s class and suddenly it is rare not to have a surly group of misbehaving girls scowling in my office. I am mad at Rita Mae for revealing her intentions to her class so soon. I am mad at her for leaving. I am mad.
Meanwhile, for future daughter-in-law Sarah’s last two weeks at Prospect she is never without another adult in the classroom and thus survives to her wedding date without any further violence. She departs on a Wednesday. I leave the following evening, feeling guilty at taking off even one day to attend the wedding of my son and Sarah in Maryland. But before I leave, Jordan, my brave and brilliant elementary teacher, tells me he and his wife have decided to move back to Alabama to care for his dying father. How can you beg someone to stay who is prioritizing his family over his career? I fly north wondering how to find a Title One Reading teacher to replace Sarah, an all-girls teacher to replace Rita Mae, an elementary teacher to replace Jordan and worrying whether ZG will work out with Valerie’s class.
My day off for the wedding was approved in advance by The Boss, but that doesn’t stop him from phoning me Friday morning. I tell him I am in the church in the middle of my son’s wedding rehearsal. He says fine, this is urgent, then proceeds to discuss Rusty’s health problems. As he talks I picture my insides turning to dust, crumbling and raining down to my feet so that when he is done I am just a pile of small pebbles and sand.
The morning of the wedding of my only child, I go to a college track and run. It is cold in Maryland in October, but I run fast and faster, twenty times around the track. A track lets you run without thinking about running, no cars to dodge or people who wave. I run and ruminate to the rhythm of my Asics on the rubbery synthetic-surface track.
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
First lap and I calculate that for nearly a year and a half I have been searching for solutions, now I am searching for an exit. As principal at Prospect, I am perpetrating the myth of the acceptability of a separate education. I am part of the problem. I think of that saying “when you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas.” What I am doing is not good for my students, my staff or for me. I need to work to abolish this system, not tweak it and make superficial improvements. It is wrong to remove the troubled children from school and put them all in a separate, non-public school. No two ways about it, it is wrong. Prospect is not now, nor ever can be, a good place for children or teachers. I’ve left jobs before, but never without another job lined up. But how much longer can I stay in this situation?
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
Next lap I envision trying to explain my departure to Darius, Karla, Mookie. How can I abandon them? Am I trying to rationalize quitting because the job is too hard, The Boss too difficult? I’ve had hard jobs before. I should not give up.
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
Around the track again, each lap takes less than two minutes. Now I am thinking about my family. The husband I only see on weekends because I took this crazy job. The son who has a distracted empty shell of a mother at his wedding, the same mother who allowed his young bride to be assaulted.
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
I see bills. The bills for the mortgage on our new house. The bills for student loans for our son’s Ivy league education. The bills for all those flights up and down the east coast so my husband and I could see each other. How do we pay these bills if I’m not getting paid? While both of the two alternative schools that wanted to open in Herald County have expressed a strong desire to hire me as their principal, the school board rejected their applications and insisted some unrealistic demands be met before either could reapply. Thus it is unlikely either of these companies will choose to open a school in Herald County. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and I want to write about this experience, but such a risk, such a leap of faith!
plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap - plap - plap -plap - plap
Running on this track is a relief for my pavement-pounded knees and feet. I could ease the wear and tear by running on trails, but I’m afraid I’ll lose my footing on a root, hole or stone and I don’t want to fall. Several years ago a boss told me I wasn’t a risk taker. That criticism has stuck with me. Am I utterly stodgy? A stick-in-the-mud old lady who needs her half glass of milk at 3:00 p.m. and can’t sleep without her own pillow? That isn’t how I see myself, but now I worry I’ve taken too big a risk, too many risks, and I am scared. Suddenly my life is riddled with roots, holes and stones and I find myself deep in the woods on a trail far from any paved road. And I am so scared of falling.
When I return to Prospect, Rita Mae leaves, then Valerie (ZG can’t start yet). Shortly thereafter, Jordan leaves.
Rosie volunteers to cover the all girls’ class temporarily but she makes it clear she got her Master’s degree in Social Work because she wants to be a counselor, not a teacher. The teachers are all upset because without a Title One teacher they aren’t getting their breaks and now with only one Counselor, they are having a harder time getting students removed from their classroom. Rusty is upset since with Rosie teaching, he has to handle all the troubled students alone. Things are falling apart and the center cannot hold. In my search for solutions I stop sleeping. I reluctantly call on The Boss for help. He promises to send counselors from other programs, but forgets his promise. I call him again. The Boss sends a counselor and then he comes to campus too. He delivers an ultimatum: he is going to take over the school. I can resign or I can work under him and if I choose the latter that means I will no longer be the principal and I must do everything he says and never question him.
I resign.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Chapter 59: The Beginning of the End
Section VI: Autumn 2003 – the last academic quarter
Chapter 59: The Beginning of the End
The First Day of School: the phrase is pregnant with possibilities. It speaks of second chances and fresh starts, anxiety about the new and joy at reuniting with the familiar. At Prospect, the first day of school in August 2003 starts inauspiciously. In fact things that day foreshadow what’s to come in this academic quarter.
On the first day of school, thirty minutes before the first bus arrives, I receive a phone call from Agnes, the secretary at Haven High, telling us to go into lockdown mode. While I go to find out what “lockdown mode” entails, a police helicopter repeatedly circles overhead, the rhythmic, thumping blades forcing all conversations to be SHOUTED to no avail. All our words, stolen by the chopper’s roar. Teachers begin to arrive reporting they saw police cars on every corner. RitaMae says she saw deputies with bloodhounds on 36th Avenue. Our very own Deputy (OVOD) arrives, (this year we no longer have the ever changing Deputy on Duty, but one Deputy assigned exclusively to our campus! I have Henry to thank him for this “gift.”). OVOD tells us the police were searching for an escaped prisoner from Hillsborough County described as 5’9”, 150 pounds wearing a black shirt and black underpants. I figure the weight, height and shirt color are pretty irrelevant if the guy is running around in his underwear.
While the minutes tick by counting down to the 9:00 arrival of our students, we are treated to a play-by-play of the police chase as we gather around OVOD and hear the transmissions from his walkie-talkie. Suspect in black boxers spotted running behind a church. Officers in pursuit. Running through backyards in Red Creek subdivision. One officer loses him, another has him in sight. Transmissions of breathless panting, then silence – we hold our breath. The radio crackles: the suspect has been apprehended! Cheers and relief. The lockdown is lifted and we don’t have to start our school year by detaining all the busses and bus drivers on campus and herding all the students into darkened classrooms in the cinderblock building.
The busses arrive and with them 75 students - well 74, since Boyd has head lice and must go home as soon as we can awaken his nocturnal mother. As the girls line up in front of their brand new all-girl classroom, one girl says she wants to go home complaining that her throat is sore. I somewhat sarcastically tell her to be brave and try not to swallow. The girls in line go crazy at this comment and I am bombarded with remarks such as: “Ms. Smee, how can you say that in front of our virgin ears.” And “I don’t swallow I spit.” Delightful girls.
Before the day is over, two violent, truant bothers (Iggy and Pedro) transfer back to public school against my better judgment mostly because I can’t effectively communicate with their non-english speaking parents. A bus driver reports to me that a child (Perry) was masturbating on the bus this morning and kissing himself at the same time. Before I can question Perry I learn he has run off-campus and is able to cover many miles before OVOD in his squad car can locate him. Another child (Ethan) has a wild tantrum and although OVOD handcuffs him, I’m relieved when he does not make an arrest. A new boy (Fenton) arrives with his mother who tearfully tells me her baby doesn’t belong with all these bad, black kids - he is here because he brought a gun to school but wait, she can explain. A new girl (Alexa) and her aunt want to talk to me, the aunt is Alexa’s guardian and they tell me Alexa was raped this year and is relieved we have an all-girl classroom since she is scared of boys. Alexa tells me “I can’t sleep now unless I have my feet touching someone safe and I think I might be gay now.” I have two irate parents in my office recycling last year’s complaints regarding their daughter (TobyBeth). A boy (Tyrell) who was told to stand by the tree, starts to “hump” the tree and is sent to class where he interrupts the placement testing by announcing he has an erection. In Orientation, one boy who is not new but was absent so often we put him in Orientation (Tiombe) , throws another boy who is new (Buster) over a desk, across the room and into a computer where the new boy gashes his head. Also in Orientation, a new elementary boy (Forrest) who was kicked out of a local charter school, defecates in his pants and his mother and grandmother come to yell at me and to blame Stone, who now runs Orientation, for not letting him use the bathroom. In the course of the discussion, they lecture me on different types of bowel movements and the relative immediacy of each. One counselor (Rusty) has to leave right away with a toothache but knows no dentist, I refer him to mine and the other counselor (Rosie) has to leave early too because of an issue at her daughter’s school. It is a long first day of school.
During the first quarter of my second year at Prospect here is what works very well: the Book Mobile, the employee handbooks I wrote and had printed over the summer and, joy of joys, the all-girls classroom. In fact all of these changes are so successful I kick myself for not implementing them sooner although I know the delay was not due to procrastination on my part.
The Book Mobile is just great. Once every other week this oversized mobile home pulls into our driveway filled with shelves of books. We insisted all our students apply for a library card before school started. Each class has 15-20 minutes to browse and check out books. As the students spill out of the Book Mobile they are eager to show me their selections. The friendly but firm librarian is willing to order books for teachers on upcoming subjects. I struggle to get the teachers to take advantage of this service.
Our morning meetings now begin with everyone opening their spanking bright red binders and reading or rereading various pages in our new handbook. Sometimes there is an issue or information not contained in the handbook we need to discuss, but mostly we focus on the same old stuff: use of walkie-talkies, walking in line protocol, teachers leaving before students etc.
As for the all-girls classroom, the girls love it, the boys hate it. One boy, Darnell, asks Rosie what would happen if a gay boy came to Prospect – would we assign him to the girl’s class? Rosie tells him no. Darnell is disappointed. He planned to tell Rosie he was gay so he could get reassigned!
Here is what does not work well: the elementary classroom and hiring my future daughter-in-law. Over the summer two of my best teachers, Jordan and Sam, asked to teach the elementary students. They both volunteered in the Public School’s elementary summer reading program and thus received extensive training in teaching reading to struggling readers. Sam’s wife is an elementary school teacher and she helped him set up his classroom. Our opening enrollment for the elementary students is low so Sam and Jordan decide to team-teach their class of six boys. My initial concern is that my middle school teachers will complain that it isn’t fair for them to have fifteen students while Jordan and Sam share half a dozen. No middle school teachers complain. Jordan and Sam complain, especially Sam. Their six boys are very difficult.
Eight-year-old Anfernee says he misses his mother in Virginia and he can’t phone her because it costs too much money but his grandfather says if he keeps misbehaving he’ll send him back to live with his mother so Anfernee asks Jordan and Sam to tell his grandfather how bad he is. Kareem interrupts to say that Anfernee is so poor his grandfather has to work at Winn Dixie to get the free food they throw out, which causes Anfernee to jump on Kareem and, in a flash, all six boys are fighting, throwing, running and screaming. This scene repeats, with slightly varying dialogue, every few minutes. The two to six teacher-student ratio is not enough. I arrange to have a behavior specialist from the public schools observe the class and give feedback. He writes two pages of recommendations but the bottom line is that Sam and Jordan are doing everything right, it is the kids who are wrong. Sam demands I transfer him to a middle school classroom. I do. Jordan redesigns the point cards for the elementary boys so they get a happy or sad face every fifteen minutes. It is a tough procedure to administer but when he can stay on top of it he has fewer riots. Even so, we never make it through a morning without two or more elementary boys removed from class.
When Hannah resigned the day before school opened, not only did I lose a valuable teacher, I lost my Title One teacher which meant my students would lose their extra reading classes and my teachers would lose their planning periods (I scheduled the Title One reading teacher work with every class twice a week, thus insuring some breaks for classroom teachers). In addition, my gifted readers are losing their daily gifted reading class, my lowest readers are losing their small group extra reading instruction and I am wasting my Title One funding by not having a teacher in place as per my approved grant plan. I feel frantic and desperate. I make phone calls to potential teachers but no luck. I think about who I know who can teach reading, who loves literature, who can cope with Prospect students. Then I think of my future daughter-in-law, Sarah.
In August 2003 Sarah, who like my son had recently graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English, was living at home in Maryland preparing for her October wedding. I knew she was very familiar with and loved children’s literature. And while at Columbia she tutored at-risk youths. I also knew, but tried not to think about the fact, that Sarah was a sweet, innocent, 21 year-old with no teaching experience and thus no classroom management skills. After I lost Hannah, I offered Sarah the job. She accepted and I made a decision that in retrospect, was one of my worst and would break my heart ten times over.
Sarah enjoys and is good at working with one or two children at a time, but when she works with half a dozen gifted or remedial kids or whole classrooms for enrichment reading, it doesn’t go well. The classes are loud, no one listens and there are fights. The counselors and OVOD are called to Sarah’s classroom nearly every time she has a class. We meet frequently to talk about strategies but after a month she gives me her two week notice and tells me she will not return after the wedding. I feel terrible, my choice was bad for the school, the staff, the students and for Sarah. But wait, it gets worse.
The day after Sarah gives me her notice, she is teaching Jana’s class when it is clear a fight is about to erupt. Sarah approaches the potential combatants but before she can get to them, two students grab Sarah to hold her back and thus permit the fight to take place. The two boys are brothers, new to Prospect this year but whose father is well-known: he is on trial for the murder of Selma’s brother. Sarah is unable to reach for her walkie-talkie as these brothers restrain her.
The brothers are arrested and charged with a felony attack on a teacher. My future daughter-in-law is in my office crying. In addition to my other errors in judgment, I have failed to protect my own family. I am wildly angry at the brothers and want to perform some bodily harm. They stare their apathetic, blank stares as they are stuffed into the back seat of the squad car. Mostly I am angry at myself. Really angry
Chapter 59: The Beginning of the End
The First Day of School: the phrase is pregnant with possibilities. It speaks of second chances and fresh starts, anxiety about the new and joy at reuniting with the familiar. At Prospect, the first day of school in August 2003 starts inauspiciously. In fact things that day foreshadow what’s to come in this academic quarter.
On the first day of school, thirty minutes before the first bus arrives, I receive a phone call from Agnes, the secretary at Haven High, telling us to go into lockdown mode. While I go to find out what “lockdown mode” entails, a police helicopter repeatedly circles overhead, the rhythmic, thumping blades forcing all conversations to be SHOUTED to no avail. All our words, stolen by the chopper’s roar. Teachers begin to arrive reporting they saw police cars on every corner. RitaMae says she saw deputies with bloodhounds on 36th Avenue. Our very own Deputy (OVOD) arrives, (this year we no longer have the ever changing Deputy on Duty, but one Deputy assigned exclusively to our campus! I have Henry to thank him for this “gift.”). OVOD tells us the police were searching for an escaped prisoner from Hillsborough County described as 5’9”, 150 pounds wearing a black shirt and black underpants. I figure the weight, height and shirt color are pretty irrelevant if the guy is running around in his underwear.
While the minutes tick by counting down to the 9:00 arrival of our students, we are treated to a play-by-play of the police chase as we gather around OVOD and hear the transmissions from his walkie-talkie. Suspect in black boxers spotted running behind a church. Officers in pursuit. Running through backyards in Red Creek subdivision. One officer loses him, another has him in sight. Transmissions of breathless panting, then silence – we hold our breath. The radio crackles: the suspect has been apprehended! Cheers and relief. The lockdown is lifted and we don’t have to start our school year by detaining all the busses and bus drivers on campus and herding all the students into darkened classrooms in the cinderblock building.
The busses arrive and with them 75 students - well 74, since Boyd has head lice and must go home as soon as we can awaken his nocturnal mother. As the girls line up in front of their brand new all-girl classroom, one girl says she wants to go home complaining that her throat is sore. I somewhat sarcastically tell her to be brave and try not to swallow. The girls in line go crazy at this comment and I am bombarded with remarks such as: “Ms. Smee, how can you say that in front of our virgin ears.” And “I don’t swallow I spit.” Delightful girls.
Before the day is over, two violent, truant bothers (Iggy and Pedro) transfer back to public school against my better judgment mostly because I can’t effectively communicate with their non-english speaking parents. A bus driver reports to me that a child (Perry) was masturbating on the bus this morning and kissing himself at the same time. Before I can question Perry I learn he has run off-campus and is able to cover many miles before OVOD in his squad car can locate him. Another child (Ethan) has a wild tantrum and although OVOD handcuffs him, I’m relieved when he does not make an arrest. A new boy (Fenton) arrives with his mother who tearfully tells me her baby doesn’t belong with all these bad, black kids - he is here because he brought a gun to school but wait, she can explain. A new girl (Alexa) and her aunt want to talk to me, the aunt is Alexa’s guardian and they tell me Alexa was raped this year and is relieved we have an all-girl classroom since she is scared of boys. Alexa tells me “I can’t sleep now unless I have my feet touching someone safe and I think I might be gay now.” I have two irate parents in my office recycling last year’s complaints regarding their daughter (TobyBeth). A boy (Tyrell) who was told to stand by the tree, starts to “hump” the tree and is sent to class where he interrupts the placement testing by announcing he has an erection. In Orientation, one boy who is not new but was absent so often we put him in Orientation (Tiombe) , throws another boy who is new (Buster) over a desk, across the room and into a computer where the new boy gashes his head. Also in Orientation, a new elementary boy (Forrest) who was kicked out of a local charter school, defecates in his pants and his mother and grandmother come to yell at me and to blame Stone, who now runs Orientation, for not letting him use the bathroom. In the course of the discussion, they lecture me on different types of bowel movements and the relative immediacy of each. One counselor (Rusty) has to leave right away with a toothache but knows no dentist, I refer him to mine and the other counselor (Rosie) has to leave early too because of an issue at her daughter’s school. It is a long first day of school.
During the first quarter of my second year at Prospect here is what works very well: the Book Mobile, the employee handbooks I wrote and had printed over the summer and, joy of joys, the all-girls classroom. In fact all of these changes are so successful I kick myself for not implementing them sooner although I know the delay was not due to procrastination on my part.
The Book Mobile is just great. Once every other week this oversized mobile home pulls into our driveway filled with shelves of books. We insisted all our students apply for a library card before school started. Each class has 15-20 minutes to browse and check out books. As the students spill out of the Book Mobile they are eager to show me their selections. The friendly but firm librarian is willing to order books for teachers on upcoming subjects. I struggle to get the teachers to take advantage of this service.
Our morning meetings now begin with everyone opening their spanking bright red binders and reading or rereading various pages in our new handbook. Sometimes there is an issue or information not contained in the handbook we need to discuss, but mostly we focus on the same old stuff: use of walkie-talkies, walking in line protocol, teachers leaving before students etc.
As for the all-girls classroom, the girls love it, the boys hate it. One boy, Darnell, asks Rosie what would happen if a gay boy came to Prospect – would we assign him to the girl’s class? Rosie tells him no. Darnell is disappointed. He planned to tell Rosie he was gay so he could get reassigned!
Here is what does not work well: the elementary classroom and hiring my future daughter-in-law. Over the summer two of my best teachers, Jordan and Sam, asked to teach the elementary students. They both volunteered in the Public School’s elementary summer reading program and thus received extensive training in teaching reading to struggling readers. Sam’s wife is an elementary school teacher and she helped him set up his classroom. Our opening enrollment for the elementary students is low so Sam and Jordan decide to team-teach their class of six boys. My initial concern is that my middle school teachers will complain that it isn’t fair for them to have fifteen students while Jordan and Sam share half a dozen. No middle school teachers complain. Jordan and Sam complain, especially Sam. Their six boys are very difficult.
Eight-year-old Anfernee says he misses his mother in Virginia and he can’t phone her because it costs too much money but his grandfather says if he keeps misbehaving he’ll send him back to live with his mother so Anfernee asks Jordan and Sam to tell his grandfather how bad he is. Kareem interrupts to say that Anfernee is so poor his grandfather has to work at Winn Dixie to get the free food they throw out, which causes Anfernee to jump on Kareem and, in a flash, all six boys are fighting, throwing, running and screaming. This scene repeats, with slightly varying dialogue, every few minutes. The two to six teacher-student ratio is not enough. I arrange to have a behavior specialist from the public schools observe the class and give feedback. He writes two pages of recommendations but the bottom line is that Sam and Jordan are doing everything right, it is the kids who are wrong. Sam demands I transfer him to a middle school classroom. I do. Jordan redesigns the point cards for the elementary boys so they get a happy or sad face every fifteen minutes. It is a tough procedure to administer but when he can stay on top of it he has fewer riots. Even so, we never make it through a morning without two or more elementary boys removed from class.
When Hannah resigned the day before school opened, not only did I lose a valuable teacher, I lost my Title One teacher which meant my students would lose their extra reading classes and my teachers would lose their planning periods (I scheduled the Title One reading teacher work with every class twice a week, thus insuring some breaks for classroom teachers). In addition, my gifted readers are losing their daily gifted reading class, my lowest readers are losing their small group extra reading instruction and I am wasting my Title One funding by not having a teacher in place as per my approved grant plan. I feel frantic and desperate. I make phone calls to potential teachers but no luck. I think about who I know who can teach reading, who loves literature, who can cope with Prospect students. Then I think of my future daughter-in-law, Sarah.
In August 2003 Sarah, who like my son had recently graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English, was living at home in Maryland preparing for her October wedding. I knew she was very familiar with and loved children’s literature. And while at Columbia she tutored at-risk youths. I also knew, but tried not to think about the fact, that Sarah was a sweet, innocent, 21 year-old with no teaching experience and thus no classroom management skills. After I lost Hannah, I offered Sarah the job. She accepted and I made a decision that in retrospect, was one of my worst and would break my heart ten times over.
Sarah enjoys and is good at working with one or two children at a time, but when she works with half a dozen gifted or remedial kids or whole classrooms for enrichment reading, it doesn’t go well. The classes are loud, no one listens and there are fights. The counselors and OVOD are called to Sarah’s classroom nearly every time she has a class. We meet frequently to talk about strategies but after a month she gives me her two week notice and tells me she will not return after the wedding. I feel terrible, my choice was bad for the school, the staff, the students and for Sarah. But wait, it gets worse.
The day after Sarah gives me her notice, she is teaching Jana’s class when it is clear a fight is about to erupt. Sarah approaches the potential combatants but before she can get to them, two students grab Sarah to hold her back and thus permit the fight to take place. The two boys are brothers, new to Prospect this year but whose father is well-known: he is on trial for the murder of Selma’s brother. Sarah is unable to reach for her walkie-talkie as these brothers restrain her.
The brothers are arrested and charged with a felony attack on a teacher. My future daughter-in-law is in my office crying. In addition to my other errors in judgment, I have failed to protect my own family. I am wildly angry at the brothers and want to perform some bodily harm. They stare their apathetic, blank stares as they are stuffed into the back seat of the squad car. Mostly I am angry at myself. Really angry
Monday, April 21, 2008
Chapter Fifty-Eight: There Must be 50 Ways to Leave
Chapter 58: There Must be 50 Ways to Leave….
Then suddenly it is late May and the school year is ending. Many of the students bring cards and gifts for their teachers and there are hugs and tears on the last days of school. But as the last bus pulls away there is also a feeling of relief. I think we worried that the year would end with an unforeseen disaster. It didn’t and we all seem to utter “phew” in unison.
Two days before the end of school Neeley had told me he had accepted a job as a reporter for a local newspaper and he started in a week. I was relieved and pleased for both of us: Neeley is not a good teacher. But I am not so pleased when Neeley goes to lunch on the last day of school and never returns. He isn’t around to input or even hand us his students’ grades, let alone to clean and inventory his classroom or to say goodbye. I try, unsuccessfully, to contact Neeley to get his grade book. Rita Mae, Neeley’s teammate is livid. She suggests she and PE teacher Billie, extrapolate Neeley’s grades from the grades they have for those same students in the classes they teach: PE & Health (Billie), and Social Studies & Math (RitaMae). We all know this is not the way it is supposed to be but my repeated attempts to phone and email Neeley are for naught.
Midge is leaving too. She has fallen back in love with a high school sweetheart who, over 30 years ago, her father forbade her to date because he was from the wrong side of the tracks. Given her recent hospitalizations, I think teaching at-risk children has put Midge’s health at risk and her decision to leave this job for romance is wise.
Theo, the former military man who teaches math, applied for a position in Herald County public schools. A principal calls me for a reference check and tells me he plans to hire Theo.
On a rainy morning in June, Billie arrives late, again. Clearly with our students gone there is less pressure to arrive on-time, but we still have our 8:00 a.m. meetings to plan our summer work days and Billie is consistently late. I know she has a long drive but I am frustrated by her frequent lateness. When she arrives, interrupting the morning meeting and with great fanfare but no acknowledgement of her tardiness, I suggest we talk after the meeting. I open the discussion saying we need to discuss her on-time arrival problem. Billie starts with her usual litany of excuses, the weather, the dog, her unemployed husband, her college bound son, she concludes with a pronouncement that she is not really late and she “knows” I manipulate the clock to make her look late. Wearily I begin to respond when Billie leaps from her seat, announces she quits, throws her keys at Lynne and departs. I am speechless and dumbfounded. Lynne, who overheard the whole discussion over the make-believe walls in our portable, is as mystified as I am. But I learned my lesson many months ago with Ernie: never beg a quitter to reconsider.
Even with all these teachers departing, my budget cannot support all the staff on my payroll. The nature of Prospect is that since the school year starts with fewer children, one must employ fewer teachers in August and hire only when more children arrive. Ebencorp’s HR department advises me to layoff the last hired: that would be The Mime. I don’t like telling anyone they are losing their job, even The Mime. A couple days after I give her the news, she tells me she has a new job teaching in Herald County public schools. I am surprised but relieved the principal didn’t call for a reference check. I would have struggled to discuss the strengths of The Mime.
Another principal hires Buffy to teach third graders who are repeating third grade, and he doesn’t call for a reference check on her either. I am relieved both that she is gone and that I didn’t have to lie to help her land a new job.
But to balance the budget I have to layoff even more people. I eliminate the position of cafeteria worker and orientation leader. I decide we can make do with teachers serving students the food since the food is packaged into individual servings and Shasta, my transportation coordinator can help oversee the program. I don’t want to do this, but I have to prioritize classroom teachers. Similarly I need the person who runs orientation to be a certified teacher so when the enrollment in the orientation class is low, I can redeploy the orientation leader in a classroom. Stephanie did not go to college and thus isn’t comfortable with or qualified to teach academics. Both Stephanie and Ruth are very upset and the layoff conversations are stressful. Stephanie tells me now she will have to move back in with her abusive husband since she is unemployed.
Goodbye Neeley, Midge, Theo, Billie, Mime, Buffy, Ruth and Stephanie.
I am frustrated by the Ebencorp policy for balancing the budget for Prospect Schools: eviscerate a coherent staff every summer and then rehire new teachers in the fall, winter and spring as the student population grows. This system may make for a tidy spreadsheet, but it isn’t good for my teachers, students or for me.
With Stephanie gone, I make Stone my Orientation leader and decide to make Orientation a combination of Orientation and re-orientation. The idea is that some children may need to go through orientation a second time. It would be a stretch to say Stone is pleased, he is never pleased, but he seems not terribly unhappy.
I continue to work at Prospect over the summer, supervising staff, developing behavior plans, curricula and a faculty handbook. The handbook has been my dream project all year. I’ve been saving my meeting agendas, staff memos and random notes to compile a definitive guide on everything including consistent grading practices, guidelines for Activity Period, line protocol, rules on bus arrival and walkie-talkie use. I meet with my mentor, Rex, to solicit his input. As I complete each section, I share it with my staff for feedback. They are atypically enthusiastic and ask why I didn’t publish it sooner! Writing the handbook gives me a real sense of accomplishment and I am excited about using it in the fall. I imagine our morning meetings guided not by yet another hastily prepared agenda, but by “turn to page 17 and let’s review the procedure for fire drills.”
The Boss informs me we must run a summer school program. Without money for busses I am pessimistic about enrollment. The Boss is not interested in my assessment. We advertise summer school. On the first day, three children come. We call it individual tutoring and teachers take turns working one-on-one with the students. These children only come a couple days a week for a couple weeks. Meanwhile the teachers work on lesson plans and complain about having to work all summer for a lower salary than their public school counterparts.
Corinna, the Title One woman, arrives bearing strange but very good news. We still have over a thousand dollars to spend and we must spend it fast. Can I spend it at Books-a-million and at Barnes & Noble? Absolutely, but time is running out, so hurry! The staff divides into two teams and we buy hundreds of books for all our classrooms.
The best part about the summer: Rita Mae’s enthusiasm as she prepares to teach an all-girl class in the fall. She reads books on the subject, paints the walls lavender, buys pillows and beanbag chairs for her classroom, decorates the walls with posters and makes up a bulletin board with photos and mementos of her life with plenty of room for her students to add theirs. I find her working late at night, sometimes with her adolescent daughter, sometimes with her Mother who is visiting from out of town. She takes the books aimed at girls who are reluctant readers, recently purchased with the Title One windfall, and arranges them in fabric lined baskets and displays them on top of cabinets. Her classroom is transformed into a cozy nook for “her girls.” Rita Mae’s energy and positive attitude are infectious. Soon we have a steady parade of teachers, staff and visitors checking out her room.
The most unnerving part of the summer: Billie’s Revenge. Apparently the day Billie resigned in anger, she expected me to chase after her and beg her to stay. When I didn’t she began a disturbing campaign. The first salvos were by email. Guessing I wouldn’t open email addressed from her, she went to on-line greeting card sites and sent me hate mail using RitaMae’s and Hannah’s return addresses. In some of the email cards she called me names, in others she threatened to get a gun and shoot me. Rita Mae and Hannah reported receiving similar emails. I forwarded a selection to The Boss and asked for help, support and advice from Ebencorp. When The Boss did nothing, Billie began the second phase of her revenge. She began calling people and describing me as unethical, evil and incompetent. She called the woman who administers one of our grants, she called school board members, she called Henry, my public school liaison, she called The Boss and his boss, Clyde. The School Board was due to vote on renewing our contract and now they were receiving these strange phone calls. The Boss finally took action. He launched an investigation – into my behavior to see if Billie’s claims were true. When I went to the School Board meeting the night of the vote, sitting across the aisle from me I found Billie and former Prospect counselor, Ernie. Blasts from the past. The Boss intended to attend but arrived late, after the meeting adjourned. Billie hissed that she was going to make a public statement about my incompetence, but she didn’t. In the meantime I felt rather like vomiting. The School Board renewed the contract. The Ebencorp investigation lasted all summer and despite my phone calls asking for results, I never heard their findings. The Boss and I never had a follow-up discussion after the worm tree talk. I try to ignore it all and move forward. It is easy enough to be fully engaged with my summer projects such as writing the faculty handbook, but like a case of poison oak, it’s hard to ignore the itching.
During the summer Dana, my wonderful Title One Reading teacher, phoned to say that with four children under age 12, she felt she couldn’t work full-time in the fall. She said if I started a night school to let her know. I wished her luck and offered Hannah, I’m-even-mean-to-my-cat, the Title One Reading position. She had expressed an interest and, with her degree in English, it looked like a good fit. Her enthusiasm about becoming the Reading teacher nearly matched that of all-girl teacher Rita Mae!
Then, the day before school was to open, Hannah quits. Months earlier Hannah told me a public school principal (the same one who hired Buffy) was trying to hire her, but after she was chosen to be the Title One Reading teacher for the fall, she was so excited she didn’t want to leave Prospect. The day before school opens Hannah tells me something different. She says that same principal phoned her and offered her more money and she couldn’t say no. Sorry, thanks, bye. Déjà vu all over again, my memories of teachers quitting right before opening day 2002 come rushing back.
I am starting this school year with only four teachers: one teacher for the girls – RitaMae, one teacher for the boys – Jana (who gave birth to her baby boy over the summer), two elementary teachers: Jordan and Sam (formerly middle school teachers, but up for this challenge) along with one permanent substitute – Marci. I am desperately looking for a Title One Reading teacher to replace Hannah and at least one more middle school teacher. I have been working on getting Valerie, last year’s Title One math teacher, to return as a middle school teacher.
I know it is futile, but I whine to Henry about his public school principals stealing my teachers at the last minute. He expresses empathy. And the summer ends as it began, with staff departures.
Then suddenly it is late May and the school year is ending. Many of the students bring cards and gifts for their teachers and there are hugs and tears on the last days of school. But as the last bus pulls away there is also a feeling of relief. I think we worried that the year would end with an unforeseen disaster. It didn’t and we all seem to utter “phew” in unison.
Two days before the end of school Neeley had told me he had accepted a job as a reporter for a local newspaper and he started in a week. I was relieved and pleased for both of us: Neeley is not a good teacher. But I am not so pleased when Neeley goes to lunch on the last day of school and never returns. He isn’t around to input or even hand us his students’ grades, let alone to clean and inventory his classroom or to say goodbye. I try, unsuccessfully, to contact Neeley to get his grade book. Rita Mae, Neeley’s teammate is livid. She suggests she and PE teacher Billie, extrapolate Neeley’s grades from the grades they have for those same students in the classes they teach: PE & Health (Billie), and Social Studies & Math (RitaMae). We all know this is not the way it is supposed to be but my repeated attempts to phone and email Neeley are for naught.
Midge is leaving too. She has fallen back in love with a high school sweetheart who, over 30 years ago, her father forbade her to date because he was from the wrong side of the tracks. Given her recent hospitalizations, I think teaching at-risk children has put Midge’s health at risk and her decision to leave this job for romance is wise.
Theo, the former military man who teaches math, applied for a position in Herald County public schools. A principal calls me for a reference check and tells me he plans to hire Theo.
On a rainy morning in June, Billie arrives late, again. Clearly with our students gone there is less pressure to arrive on-time, but we still have our 8:00 a.m. meetings to plan our summer work days and Billie is consistently late. I know she has a long drive but I am frustrated by her frequent lateness. When she arrives, interrupting the morning meeting and with great fanfare but no acknowledgement of her tardiness, I suggest we talk after the meeting. I open the discussion saying we need to discuss her on-time arrival problem. Billie starts with her usual litany of excuses, the weather, the dog, her unemployed husband, her college bound son, she concludes with a pronouncement that she is not really late and she “knows” I manipulate the clock to make her look late. Wearily I begin to respond when Billie leaps from her seat, announces she quits, throws her keys at Lynne and departs. I am speechless and dumbfounded. Lynne, who overheard the whole discussion over the make-believe walls in our portable, is as mystified as I am. But I learned my lesson many months ago with Ernie: never beg a quitter to reconsider.
Even with all these teachers departing, my budget cannot support all the staff on my payroll. The nature of Prospect is that since the school year starts with fewer children, one must employ fewer teachers in August and hire only when more children arrive. Ebencorp’s HR department advises me to layoff the last hired: that would be The Mime. I don’t like telling anyone they are losing their job, even The Mime. A couple days after I give her the news, she tells me she has a new job teaching in Herald County public schools. I am surprised but relieved the principal didn’t call for a reference check. I would have struggled to discuss the strengths of The Mime.
Another principal hires Buffy to teach third graders who are repeating third grade, and he doesn’t call for a reference check on her either. I am relieved both that she is gone and that I didn’t have to lie to help her land a new job.
But to balance the budget I have to layoff even more people. I eliminate the position of cafeteria worker and orientation leader. I decide we can make do with teachers serving students the food since the food is packaged into individual servings and Shasta, my transportation coordinator can help oversee the program. I don’t want to do this, but I have to prioritize classroom teachers. Similarly I need the person who runs orientation to be a certified teacher so when the enrollment in the orientation class is low, I can redeploy the orientation leader in a classroom. Stephanie did not go to college and thus isn’t comfortable with or qualified to teach academics. Both Stephanie and Ruth are very upset and the layoff conversations are stressful. Stephanie tells me now she will have to move back in with her abusive husband since she is unemployed.
Goodbye Neeley, Midge, Theo, Billie, Mime, Buffy, Ruth and Stephanie.
I am frustrated by the Ebencorp policy for balancing the budget for Prospect Schools: eviscerate a coherent staff every summer and then rehire new teachers in the fall, winter and spring as the student population grows. This system may make for a tidy spreadsheet, but it isn’t good for my teachers, students or for me.
With Stephanie gone, I make Stone my Orientation leader and decide to make Orientation a combination of Orientation and re-orientation. The idea is that some children may need to go through orientation a second time. It would be a stretch to say Stone is pleased, he is never pleased, but he seems not terribly unhappy.
I continue to work at Prospect over the summer, supervising staff, developing behavior plans, curricula and a faculty handbook. The handbook has been my dream project all year. I’ve been saving my meeting agendas, staff memos and random notes to compile a definitive guide on everything including consistent grading practices, guidelines for Activity Period, line protocol, rules on bus arrival and walkie-talkie use. I meet with my mentor, Rex, to solicit his input. As I complete each section, I share it with my staff for feedback. They are atypically enthusiastic and ask why I didn’t publish it sooner! Writing the handbook gives me a real sense of accomplishment and I am excited about using it in the fall. I imagine our morning meetings guided not by yet another hastily prepared agenda, but by “turn to page 17 and let’s review the procedure for fire drills.”
The Boss informs me we must run a summer school program. Without money for busses I am pessimistic about enrollment. The Boss is not interested in my assessment. We advertise summer school. On the first day, three children come. We call it individual tutoring and teachers take turns working one-on-one with the students. These children only come a couple days a week for a couple weeks. Meanwhile the teachers work on lesson plans and complain about having to work all summer for a lower salary than their public school counterparts.
Corinna, the Title One woman, arrives bearing strange but very good news. We still have over a thousand dollars to spend and we must spend it fast. Can I spend it at Books-a-million and at Barnes & Noble? Absolutely, but time is running out, so hurry! The staff divides into two teams and we buy hundreds of books for all our classrooms.
The best part about the summer: Rita Mae’s enthusiasm as she prepares to teach an all-girl class in the fall. She reads books on the subject, paints the walls lavender, buys pillows and beanbag chairs for her classroom, decorates the walls with posters and makes up a bulletin board with photos and mementos of her life with plenty of room for her students to add theirs. I find her working late at night, sometimes with her adolescent daughter, sometimes with her Mother who is visiting from out of town. She takes the books aimed at girls who are reluctant readers, recently purchased with the Title One windfall, and arranges them in fabric lined baskets and displays them on top of cabinets. Her classroom is transformed into a cozy nook for “her girls.” Rita Mae’s energy and positive attitude are infectious. Soon we have a steady parade of teachers, staff and visitors checking out her room.
The most unnerving part of the summer: Billie’s Revenge. Apparently the day Billie resigned in anger, she expected me to chase after her and beg her to stay. When I didn’t she began a disturbing campaign. The first salvos were by email. Guessing I wouldn’t open email addressed from her, she went to on-line greeting card sites and sent me hate mail using RitaMae’s and Hannah’s return addresses. In some of the email cards she called me names, in others she threatened to get a gun and shoot me. Rita Mae and Hannah reported receiving similar emails. I forwarded a selection to The Boss and asked for help, support and advice from Ebencorp. When The Boss did nothing, Billie began the second phase of her revenge. She began calling people and describing me as unethical, evil and incompetent. She called the woman who administers one of our grants, she called school board members, she called Henry, my public school liaison, she called The Boss and his boss, Clyde. The School Board was due to vote on renewing our contract and now they were receiving these strange phone calls. The Boss finally took action. He launched an investigation – into my behavior to see if Billie’s claims were true. When I went to the School Board meeting the night of the vote, sitting across the aisle from me I found Billie and former Prospect counselor, Ernie. Blasts from the past. The Boss intended to attend but arrived late, after the meeting adjourned. Billie hissed that she was going to make a public statement about my incompetence, but she didn’t. In the meantime I felt rather like vomiting. The School Board renewed the contract. The Ebencorp investigation lasted all summer and despite my phone calls asking for results, I never heard their findings. The Boss and I never had a follow-up discussion after the worm tree talk. I try to ignore it all and move forward. It is easy enough to be fully engaged with my summer projects such as writing the faculty handbook, but like a case of poison oak, it’s hard to ignore the itching.
During the summer Dana, my wonderful Title One Reading teacher, phoned to say that with four children under age 12, she felt she couldn’t work full-time in the fall. She said if I started a night school to let her know. I wished her luck and offered Hannah, I’m-even-mean-to-my-cat, the Title One Reading position. She had expressed an interest and, with her degree in English, it looked like a good fit. Her enthusiasm about becoming the Reading teacher nearly matched that of all-girl teacher Rita Mae!
Then, the day before school was to open, Hannah quits. Months earlier Hannah told me a public school principal (the same one who hired Buffy) was trying to hire her, but after she was chosen to be the Title One Reading teacher for the fall, she was so excited she didn’t want to leave Prospect. The day before school opens Hannah tells me something different. She says that same principal phoned her and offered her more money and she couldn’t say no. Sorry, thanks, bye. Déjà vu all over again, my memories of teachers quitting right before opening day 2002 come rushing back.
I am starting this school year with only four teachers: one teacher for the girls – RitaMae, one teacher for the boys – Jana (who gave birth to her baby boy over the summer), two elementary teachers: Jordan and Sam (formerly middle school teachers, but up for this challenge) along with one permanent substitute – Marci. I am desperately looking for a Title One Reading teacher to replace Hannah and at least one more middle school teacher. I have been working on getting Valerie, last year’s Title One math teacher, to return as a middle school teacher.
I know it is futile, but I whine to Henry about his public school principals stealing my teachers at the last minute. He expresses empathy. And the summer ends as it began, with staff departures.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Second of Three Epiphanies
Chapter 57 – The Second of Three Epiphanies
There’s nothing like a funeral, a graduation and the threat of unemployment to make a person reexamine her priorities. My second epiphany: if I am going to help the troubled children of Central Florida I need a different relationship with The Boss or a different boss. This second Epiphany leads me to do two things: meet with Clyde, the boss of The Boss and begin looking for another job.
The year before, just after Thanksgiving 2002, I spent a night at Clyde’s house. It was strange. Clyde invited me to be on a “select team of rising leaders” to help guide policies at Ebencorp. Clyde’s secretary called before the meeting to tell me Clyde insisted that after the meeting I not drive “all the way home” but rather that I spend the night with him and his family. I assured her the drive from Tampa to my home was not a problem but she said it wasn’t just the drive, Clyde wanted to get to know me better. I was pretty uncomfortable but I obeyed. Now in May 2003, I feel I might have some “money in the bank” with Clyde and maybe he’ll be willing to listen to me about The Boss. I act on this despite my former boss, Stephen, warning against going to Clyde about The Boss.
I call Clyde’s secretary and make an appointment to meet with him at 11:00 am. When I arrive he greets me saying he is starving and wants to go to lunch immediately. I’m not hungry, but assume he feels more comfortable talking candidly away from the office. Curiously he doesn’t ask me what cuisine I like. He drives us to a tiny Argentine restaurant with a menu featuring meat, meat and meat – even the salad is meat salad. Clyde speaks Spanish to the waitress and I try to order something with less meat. Luckily I’m not hungry.
Clyde begins by asking me why I scheduled this meeting, but before I can utter a complete sentence, he launches into a monologue on the wonders of The Boss. When I try to ask questions to determine whether the focus on punishment is coming from The Boss or is an Ebencorp value, Clyde is evasive and continues to lavish praise on The Boss. I stir my meat soup and try to approach the subject from a different angle – the dichotomy between what Herald County wants from me and what The Boss wants. Clyde doesn’t nibble. His riff on The Boss ends when he finishes his meal, looks at his watch and announces he has to get back to work.
Driving back to Lakeboro, I feel frustrated, defeated and hungry. Back in my apartment I stay up late refining my resume and writing cover letters. It’s time to search for a new job. Two charter schools have advertised their plans to open in Herald County. I apply for principal positions at both. One company runs a school 150 miles south of here. I drive down and spend the day touring and talking with the principal. I go to interviews and wait while they process the paperwork necessary for the Herald County school board to determine whether to approve their schools. Both schools seem to want to hire me, but without the Herald County School Board ‘s approval, there will be no schools.
In May the Herald County School Board meets and rejects all applications for new alternative charter schools. The Board especially doesn’t want any school that will compete with ESAK, Ebencorp’s alternative high school. The fact that one of the School Board members also sits on the board of ESAK isn’t deemed significant enough for him to recuse himself from the voting.
There’s nothing like a funeral, a graduation and the threat of unemployment to make a person reexamine her priorities. My second epiphany: if I am going to help the troubled children of Central Florida I need a different relationship with The Boss or a different boss. This second Epiphany leads me to do two things: meet with Clyde, the boss of The Boss and begin looking for another job.
The year before, just after Thanksgiving 2002, I spent a night at Clyde’s house. It was strange. Clyde invited me to be on a “select team of rising leaders” to help guide policies at Ebencorp. Clyde’s secretary called before the meeting to tell me Clyde insisted that after the meeting I not drive “all the way home” but rather that I spend the night with him and his family. I assured her the drive from Tampa to my home was not a problem but she said it wasn’t just the drive, Clyde wanted to get to know me better. I was pretty uncomfortable but I obeyed. Now in May 2003, I feel I might have some “money in the bank” with Clyde and maybe he’ll be willing to listen to me about The Boss. I act on this despite my former boss, Stephen, warning against going to Clyde about The Boss.
I call Clyde’s secretary and make an appointment to meet with him at 11:00 am. When I arrive he greets me saying he is starving and wants to go to lunch immediately. I’m not hungry, but assume he feels more comfortable talking candidly away from the office. Curiously he doesn’t ask me what cuisine I like. He drives us to a tiny Argentine restaurant with a menu featuring meat, meat and meat – even the salad is meat salad. Clyde speaks Spanish to the waitress and I try to order something with less meat. Luckily I’m not hungry.
Clyde begins by asking me why I scheduled this meeting, but before I can utter a complete sentence, he launches into a monologue on the wonders of The Boss. When I try to ask questions to determine whether the focus on punishment is coming from The Boss or is an Ebencorp value, Clyde is evasive and continues to lavish praise on The Boss. I stir my meat soup and try to approach the subject from a different angle – the dichotomy between what Herald County wants from me and what The Boss wants. Clyde doesn’t nibble. His riff on The Boss ends when he finishes his meal, looks at his watch and announces he has to get back to work.
Driving back to Lakeboro, I feel frustrated, defeated and hungry. Back in my apartment I stay up late refining my resume and writing cover letters. It’s time to search for a new job. Two charter schools have advertised their plans to open in Herald County. I apply for principal positions at both. One company runs a school 150 miles south of here. I drive down and spend the day touring and talking with the principal. I go to interviews and wait while they process the paperwork necessary for the Herald County school board to determine whether to approve their schools. Both schools seem to want to hire me, but without the Herald County School Board ‘s approval, there will be no schools.
In May the Herald County School Board meets and rejects all applications for new alternative charter schools. The Board especially doesn’t want any school that will compete with ESAK, Ebencorp’s alternative high school. The fact that one of the School Board members also sits on the board of ESAK isn’t deemed significant enough for him to recuse himself from the voting.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Chapter Fifty-Six: The Worms Crawl In
Chapter 56 – The Worms Crawl In
Recently I have not had any headache inducing-encounters with The Boss.
Admittedly there was the post-marathon incident and shortly thereafter I did receive a couple e-mails mandating all Prospect principals to attend a week-long retreat in April and a four-day “convention” in May and there was that e-mail in which he decreed a new policy saying he wants to interview all new hires after I interview them.
When I read these e-mails my first reaction was to clench my teeth and hyperventilate, then I remembered my resolution not to waste my limited psychic energy. So rather than respond, I print, file and forget about his e-mail. Passive aggressiveness is not my usual style, but in this case, intentional amnesia seemed to be my wisest response.
The explanation for the dearth of e-mails, phone calls or surprise visits from The Boss is that he has been focused on another principal, Lucy and her Prospect School in Naples. While The Boss is busy micromanaging Lucy’s campus and making her miserable, he is leaving me alone.
I am sorry for Lucy, but I am happy for me. I have enough on my plate with Prospect faculty, students and their parents.
My “vacation” from the boss starts to unravel a few weeks into May. In the early morning when I get on-line, the first email that pops up is from Lucy. It is written to The Boss, and I am blind copied. Lucy is submitting her resignation today. She feels she has no choice. I feel really sad about losing Lucy as my fellow Prospect principal and I want to phone her right away but, as always, the campus is already hopping. I decide to call her tonight.
When I return to my office at mid-day, The Boss is sitting at my desk. Surprise. I haven’t had any Boss-related problems since he turned his focus to Lucy’s campus. I guess he is done with that project and back to me. The Boss says he wants to talk privately. He suggests we sit outside. It is a hot day in mid-May. We end up at a dilapidated picnic table under a huge oak festooned with hatching worms. Lynne warned me about these worms, they look a little like fuzzy caterpillars but they sting. As The Boss talks worms drop from the tree onto the grass near our feet and occasionally, onto the picnic table.
Thinking about the email from Lucy, I wonder whether The Boss is going to ask me to be the principal at both Prospect schools until he can find a replacement. As it turns out, I could not be further from the truth.
The Boss has a yellow legal pad covered with pages and pages of writing. He reads from it beginning with a statement that my campus is a mad house and the children show a lack of respect, are defiant and profane. He says Prospect students aren’t ready for classroom experiences when they come to us and we need to focus instead on behavior and punishment. We need to develop more “uncomfortable consequences.” He tells me my counselors, Rusty and Rosie, are not the right people for their jobs. Moreover he doesn’t like my priorities, for example why do I spend time chasing down truant students? If children don’t come to school that is one less student to trouble our staff.
He continues, saying I am insubordinate, guarded, aloof, protective and not a team player. He plans to make changes on my campus and he can do it with me or without me. The Boss says he does not enjoy our working relationship, it causes him discomfort and distress and he is ready to resolve it or end it.
He goes on and on making the same points over and over while the worms drop from the branches. I take notes to maintain control over my emotions. The Boss talks for nearly two hours. When he permits me to speak I ask him for specifics on how he feels I should deal with our disrespectful, defiant and profane students. He tells me this is what I was hired to do and reminds me he feels my focus on academics is misguided.
I then ask how I have been insubordinate. The Boss refers to his legal pad and lists off five examples of my insubordination. The first item he cites is that just this morning I accepted a bcc email from Lucy on a subject that was neither my business nor related to me. Here The Boss stops and points his finger at me for emphasis admonishing, “You are NEVER to accept bcc emails.” The next example happened several months ago when I tried to set up a meeting with my fellow Prospect principals. The Boss says he knows I was attempting to organize a meeting that would exclude him. Thirdly, I didn’t remind him of my days off for the Marathon. My fourth indiscretion is that I have “engaged in conversations which have negatively impacted the morale of others.” And the final example of my insubordination was that I did not attend the week-long training last fall and I am using my son’s college graduation as an excuse to not attend the week long training later this month.
For over three hours, sweat running down his face, The Boss persists in what he thinks of as “providing feedback,” which isn’t quite how I view it. I try to keep a frozen expression that reveals no emotion while inside a battle rages. I want to yell and shout at this man, my boss. I want to argue each of his points, the half-truths, misinterpretations and lies. I want to ask him why he is working so hard to crush me rather than support me. But fear paralyzes me.
At the same time I want to cry. I am afraid I am going to lose my job and we just moved into our new house two months ago and how will we pay our bills without my income? I want to cry because my school is not the way I want it and listening to The Boss I am afraid maybe it really is my fault. Maybe the students aren’t ready to learn and if that is the case I am not sure I have the skills or desire to change from running an academic institution to a work camp. I remember that when The Boss was a Prospect principal he had the students walking in circles carrying five or ten pound buckets of concrete or scrubbing the building with toothbrushes. I am no more interested in implementing those punishments than I am in administering corporal punishment to the children.
In May 2003, sitting under that worm tree, what I knew to be true but couldn’t prove, was that the boot camp approach advocated by The Boss was not the answer and that removing the “bad” children from public school and segregating them at Prospect was not in the children’s best interests. Had I been able to time travel to October 2004, I could have supported my contentions with a report published by a 13-member panel convened by the National Institutes of Health to review scientific evidence on the causes and prevention of youth violence. A key finding was that boot camps and other “get tough” programs for adolescents do not prevent criminal behavior and may make the problem worse since they bring together teens who are inclined toward violence and they often teach each other how to commit more.
But in May 2003, The Boss departs (after promising to put “all this” in an email to make it a formal letter of reprimand) and I am upset with myself for not being more assertive. After all, don’t I constantly receive positive feedback from all the people with whom I work in the public schools, especially from Henry, my liaison and Rex, my mentor and fellow middle school principal? These educators keep telling me Prospect has never run so well and been so academically oriented and so much like “a real school.” They share with me horror stories of Prospect’s past. Prospect may be far from the school I want to create, but I also know it is better now than it ever has been. I should be empowered to call the bluff of The Boss. Would he really fire the best principal Prospect has ever had? Would he risk incurring the wrath of the Herald County Public Schools, a key stakeholder, our customer? Would he risk them pulling the contract or not renewing the contract? And finally and perhaps most perplexing I keep asking myself: why is my relationship with The Boss so toxic?
As far as my thoughts about confronting The Boss, it is just as well I didn’t because I am not sure I would have had much back up. About a year after I left Prospect, Henry and I got together for breakfast. I listened to him complain about The Boss. Since his job is to negotiate and manage the contract with Prospect, I asked him directly: why does he tolerate this man? Henry admitted that not only would he avoid wasting hard-won political capital on the children of Prospect (who he really doesn’t believe will ever be productive members of society) but he wouldn’t even bother spending money on them if it were politically “free.” So if a Kathleen comes along and creates a fantastic program on a shoestring budget, great. But Henry won’t lose a minute of sleep if Prospect children spend their days carrying buckets of concrete, just as long as they aren’t in “his” classrooms, as long as they aren’t creating headaches in “his” public schools.
While I was the principal at Prospect I missed this pragmatism of Henry’s. I saw him as an ally, a partner in my crusade to “save the children.” But I see now that despite our professional friendship and mutual admiration, Henry would not, and will not, recommend that the School Board “pull the contract” even if the children of Prospect aren’t learning or even being taught.
About a week after the al fresco Boss meeting, I flew to New York for my son’s graduation from Columbia. He graduated on a Wednesday but fearing for my job, I was back at work on Thursday.
I wanted to revel in my son’s success. I wanted to feel proud and happy and be fully present. To use a Verizon training slogan, I wanted “to be here now.” But it was a struggle. Worries about Prospect and The Boss invaded my thoughts. I felt nervous, distracted and irritable. I did have some relief when John (an old college friend of ours) and his girlfriend, joined us. For a few hours The Boss and Prospect vanished from my consciousness as my husband, son, son’s fiancé, John, his girlfriend and I ran around New York City eating edamame (green soy beans) and m&ms while talking about our lives and dreams. John told us about resigning from his corporate job at Verizon, about his trip to Uzbekistan building homes as part of Habitat for Humanity and his future plans: he and his girlfriend rented a house in Italy for July. John couldn’t believe we have a son graduating college, it seems like only yesterday my husband, John and I were doing the graduating. We talk about running. John ran a marathon several years ago. He wanted to hear all about our marathon experience. We share training tips and injury prevention. John’s foot is bothering him, my ham is sore. Too soon the sun sets and John and his girlfriend leave.
That was the last time we saw John. A week later, at age 47, John died of an undiagnosed heart problem.
The Boss gave me permission to attend the funeral but made it clear he expected me to dial into his all-principal conference call the day before the funeral, after I arrived at my motel in Michigan.
Recently I have not had any headache inducing-encounters with The Boss.
Admittedly there was the post-marathon incident and shortly thereafter I did receive a couple e-mails mandating all Prospect principals to attend a week-long retreat in April and a four-day “convention” in May and there was that e-mail in which he decreed a new policy saying he wants to interview all new hires after I interview them.
When I read these e-mails my first reaction was to clench my teeth and hyperventilate, then I remembered my resolution not to waste my limited psychic energy. So rather than respond, I print, file and forget about his e-mail. Passive aggressiveness is not my usual style, but in this case, intentional amnesia seemed to be my wisest response.
The explanation for the dearth of e-mails, phone calls or surprise visits from The Boss is that he has been focused on another principal, Lucy and her Prospect School in Naples. While The Boss is busy micromanaging Lucy’s campus and making her miserable, he is leaving me alone.
I am sorry for Lucy, but I am happy for me. I have enough on my plate with Prospect faculty, students and their parents.
My “vacation” from the boss starts to unravel a few weeks into May. In the early morning when I get on-line, the first email that pops up is from Lucy. It is written to The Boss, and I am blind copied. Lucy is submitting her resignation today. She feels she has no choice. I feel really sad about losing Lucy as my fellow Prospect principal and I want to phone her right away but, as always, the campus is already hopping. I decide to call her tonight.
When I return to my office at mid-day, The Boss is sitting at my desk. Surprise. I haven’t had any Boss-related problems since he turned his focus to Lucy’s campus. I guess he is done with that project and back to me. The Boss says he wants to talk privately. He suggests we sit outside. It is a hot day in mid-May. We end up at a dilapidated picnic table under a huge oak festooned with hatching worms. Lynne warned me about these worms, they look a little like fuzzy caterpillars but they sting. As The Boss talks worms drop from the tree onto the grass near our feet and occasionally, onto the picnic table.
Thinking about the email from Lucy, I wonder whether The Boss is going to ask me to be the principal at both Prospect schools until he can find a replacement. As it turns out, I could not be further from the truth.
The Boss has a yellow legal pad covered with pages and pages of writing. He reads from it beginning with a statement that my campus is a mad house and the children show a lack of respect, are defiant and profane. He says Prospect students aren’t ready for classroom experiences when they come to us and we need to focus instead on behavior and punishment. We need to develop more “uncomfortable consequences.” He tells me my counselors, Rusty and Rosie, are not the right people for their jobs. Moreover he doesn’t like my priorities, for example why do I spend time chasing down truant students? If children don’t come to school that is one less student to trouble our staff.
He continues, saying I am insubordinate, guarded, aloof, protective and not a team player. He plans to make changes on my campus and he can do it with me or without me. The Boss says he does not enjoy our working relationship, it causes him discomfort and distress and he is ready to resolve it or end it.
He goes on and on making the same points over and over while the worms drop from the branches. I take notes to maintain control over my emotions. The Boss talks for nearly two hours. When he permits me to speak I ask him for specifics on how he feels I should deal with our disrespectful, defiant and profane students. He tells me this is what I was hired to do and reminds me he feels my focus on academics is misguided.
I then ask how I have been insubordinate. The Boss refers to his legal pad and lists off five examples of my insubordination. The first item he cites is that just this morning I accepted a bcc email from Lucy on a subject that was neither my business nor related to me. Here The Boss stops and points his finger at me for emphasis admonishing, “You are NEVER to accept bcc emails.” The next example happened several months ago when I tried to set up a meeting with my fellow Prospect principals. The Boss says he knows I was attempting to organize a meeting that would exclude him. Thirdly, I didn’t remind him of my days off for the Marathon. My fourth indiscretion is that I have “engaged in conversations which have negatively impacted the morale of others.” And the final example of my insubordination was that I did not attend the week-long training last fall and I am using my son’s college graduation as an excuse to not attend the week long training later this month.
For over three hours, sweat running down his face, The Boss persists in what he thinks of as “providing feedback,” which isn’t quite how I view it. I try to keep a frozen expression that reveals no emotion while inside a battle rages. I want to yell and shout at this man, my boss. I want to argue each of his points, the half-truths, misinterpretations and lies. I want to ask him why he is working so hard to crush me rather than support me. But fear paralyzes me.
At the same time I want to cry. I am afraid I am going to lose my job and we just moved into our new house two months ago and how will we pay our bills without my income? I want to cry because my school is not the way I want it and listening to The Boss I am afraid maybe it really is my fault. Maybe the students aren’t ready to learn and if that is the case I am not sure I have the skills or desire to change from running an academic institution to a work camp. I remember that when The Boss was a Prospect principal he had the students walking in circles carrying five or ten pound buckets of concrete or scrubbing the building with toothbrushes. I am no more interested in implementing those punishments than I am in administering corporal punishment to the children.
In May 2003, sitting under that worm tree, what I knew to be true but couldn’t prove, was that the boot camp approach advocated by The Boss was not the answer and that removing the “bad” children from public school and segregating them at Prospect was not in the children’s best interests. Had I been able to time travel to October 2004, I could have supported my contentions with a report published by a 13-member panel convened by the National Institutes of Health to review scientific evidence on the causes and prevention of youth violence. A key finding was that boot camps and other “get tough” programs for adolescents do not prevent criminal behavior and may make the problem worse since they bring together teens who are inclined toward violence and they often teach each other how to commit more.
But in May 2003, The Boss departs (after promising to put “all this” in an email to make it a formal letter of reprimand) and I am upset with myself for not being more assertive. After all, don’t I constantly receive positive feedback from all the people with whom I work in the public schools, especially from Henry, my liaison and Rex, my mentor and fellow middle school principal? These educators keep telling me Prospect has never run so well and been so academically oriented and so much like “a real school.” They share with me horror stories of Prospect’s past. Prospect may be far from the school I want to create, but I also know it is better now than it ever has been. I should be empowered to call the bluff of The Boss. Would he really fire the best principal Prospect has ever had? Would he risk incurring the wrath of the Herald County Public Schools, a key stakeholder, our customer? Would he risk them pulling the contract or not renewing the contract? And finally and perhaps most perplexing I keep asking myself: why is my relationship with The Boss so toxic?
As far as my thoughts about confronting The Boss, it is just as well I didn’t because I am not sure I would have had much back up. About a year after I left Prospect, Henry and I got together for breakfast. I listened to him complain about The Boss. Since his job is to negotiate and manage the contract with Prospect, I asked him directly: why does he tolerate this man? Henry admitted that not only would he avoid wasting hard-won political capital on the children of Prospect (who he really doesn’t believe will ever be productive members of society) but he wouldn’t even bother spending money on them if it were politically “free.” So if a Kathleen comes along and creates a fantastic program on a shoestring budget, great. But Henry won’t lose a minute of sleep if Prospect children spend their days carrying buckets of concrete, just as long as they aren’t in “his” classrooms, as long as they aren’t creating headaches in “his” public schools.
While I was the principal at Prospect I missed this pragmatism of Henry’s. I saw him as an ally, a partner in my crusade to “save the children.” But I see now that despite our professional friendship and mutual admiration, Henry would not, and will not, recommend that the School Board “pull the contract” even if the children of Prospect aren’t learning or even being taught.
About a week after the al fresco Boss meeting, I flew to New York for my son’s graduation from Columbia. He graduated on a Wednesday but fearing for my job, I was back at work on Thursday.
I wanted to revel in my son’s success. I wanted to feel proud and happy and be fully present. To use a Verizon training slogan, I wanted “to be here now.” But it was a struggle. Worries about Prospect and The Boss invaded my thoughts. I felt nervous, distracted and irritable. I did have some relief when John (an old college friend of ours) and his girlfriend, joined us. For a few hours The Boss and Prospect vanished from my consciousness as my husband, son, son’s fiancé, John, his girlfriend and I ran around New York City eating edamame (green soy beans) and m&ms while talking about our lives and dreams. John told us about resigning from his corporate job at Verizon, about his trip to Uzbekistan building homes as part of Habitat for Humanity and his future plans: he and his girlfriend rented a house in Italy for July. John couldn’t believe we have a son graduating college, it seems like only yesterday my husband, John and I were doing the graduating. We talk about running. John ran a marathon several years ago. He wanted to hear all about our marathon experience. We share training tips and injury prevention. John’s foot is bothering him, my ham is sore. Too soon the sun sets and John and his girlfriend leave.
That was the last time we saw John. A week later, at age 47, John died of an undiagnosed heart problem.
The Boss gave me permission to attend the funeral but made it clear he expected me to dial into his all-principal conference call the day before the funeral, after I arrived at my motel in Michigan.
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