Light at the end of the tunnel, or oncoming train?

March30

Well, my recession notice came in the mail yesterday. Much more exciting than the new phone book because for those of you who don’t know California Education labor rules, my pink slip is no more. Magic wand waved, and I still have a position guaranteed for next year. There is a part of the Education Code that has not been explored since the days of Prop 13, which will allow districts to send out a round of layoff notices in August if there is a “fiscal emergency” (something one can not rule out in these tough times), but for now, I’m good.

While I am very relieved to have this “burden” lifted, I need to put things in context.

  • One hundred and seventy of the 700 layoff notices were rescinded. The majority of layoffs are still slated to go, and the ultimate goal currently is to cut almost 400 positions.
  • The local paper has become a de facto PR arm of the superintendent (more on this below), even as he adds new $150k “communications” positions.
  • The local paper is printing stories fed to it by the superintendent trying to split the union.
  • The TFA issue may not be dead, although the board was very chilly to the idea. I’ll be looking for the agenda for the next board meeting on April 8th to see if it’s back.
  • Oh, and my school is still slated for reconstitution from a central administration that seemed to feel we needed a young energetic staff (when part of our problem has been a turnover of low-tenure teachers), and are using Duncan-esque terms like, “blueprint“.

As someone wise once said, one problem at a time, one problem at a time.

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