Bombshell Friday

Yesterday I found out my principal was re-retiring (she already retired once and came back). I've worked with her at 3 different schools for 11 of the 22 years I've been teaching (that's 50% of my career). I really can't blame her, but it's going to be weird getting used to a new principal. For the last 10 years, every principal I've worked with has been someone I'd worked with before and knew what to expect. Depending on who they assign to my school, I may be moving again.

On the positive side, lately I’ve been thinking about taking a 1 year leave-of-absence from my district and teaching in one of the many small towns in Utah.   I’ve got a friend that lives in Salt Lake but works in Price.  She’s got a 2 bedroom apartment there (they are cheap in Price) and she is willing to rent me the second bedroom if I decide to teach there.

It might be fun, and if nothing else, it’ll be an experience.

Good news and an old picture

First the good news.  Most of the faculty meeting today was spent on what will happen to us if the school is closed down.  Like I said before, I'll go on the surplus list and take the position of whatever school picks me up. I had thought I'd be stuck there for at least next year, but my principal told us today that is not necessarily the case.  Every Friday for the next 4 weeks new postings will come out, and we will be free to apply and interview for any of those positions.  We are not obligated to stay where we are assigned, that is just the only position that we are guaranteed.  Then, if I don't get my choice over the next 4 weeks, I can put myself on the summer transfer list, and as positions come up throughout the summer, principals will see my name on the list and can call me for an interview.  Since every position I've had has been a summer opening, this is very good news.  Good thing I have already updated my resume!

The picture is of my original garage, the one that was here when I bought the house.  It must have been built in the 40's, or before, and I never parked in it because the shingles were so bad you could see through the roof. I just knew that it would collapse one winter.  Which it did.  But instead of just collapsing, it fell forward, right onto the hood of my car.  The car I purposely parked outside of the garage so it wouldn't get damaged. Yeah, so much for that idea.

Corporate America ain't for me.

.....Now that it's been on the news, I can write about what is public knowledge. Wednesday our principal called an emergency faculty meeting right after school. Just like 3 years ago, they're trying to shut down the school I teach at, and considering the current fiscal situation there is a good chance it's going to happen. Enough of a chance that she asked the powers that be what she can promise her staff concerning placement afterwards and passed that information on to us. Provisional teachers, ones who have been teaching less 3 years or less, are assured that they will still have jobs, those of us who are tenured, been teaching longer than 3 years, are guaranteed placement somewhere.

.....If you have been following my website long enough, you know that I took the job here knowing they wanted to close the school down. You may also know that I've moved around in my career a bit, by choice, so the possibility of changing schools again does not scare me. I've got 14 more years before I can retire and there never was a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't change schools at least a couple times before then.

.....Add to that the fact that as a Math teacher, I'm sure to have some choice in where I end up. Still, I wasn't ready to move on yet, and at the risk of sounding like Reverend Lovejoy's wife, I'm concerned about how well our students will do in a big high school. Over the 3 years we have been a school of around 300 students, we have had many that have tried a large school and have come back. Many of them will be required to travel 6 miles to their home school, where they are used to just walking around the block right now.

.....Anyway, we've been given the task of presenting our defense to the school board next week. Four teachers and I have spent all our free time in the conference room producing a presentation. After day 1 of 6 hours in a room culling through documentation, I decided I really do love teaching. 3 hours into today, day 2, when the principal walked in and asked how we were doing, the science teacher and I clutched our heads and said, at the same time and without prior discussion, "I think my head's going to explode."

.....So, if you wonder why you don't hear from me for the next two weeks, here's my schedule:

• 
  
  This Tuesday : present to school board, and I actually have to make part of the presentation
• 
  
  Wednesday : Human-Computer Interface (HCI) Class
• 
  
  Thursday : Advanced Instructional Design Class
• 
  
  Next Tuesday : public hearing on my school's closure
• 
  
  Wednesday : Final presentation for HCI
• 
  
  Thursday : Final presentation for Master's Capstone Project

And in between all that : Teach, fix computers and prepare for all of the above. Yea!
Oh, and did I mention I have to go out and buy some nice pants 'cause jeans aren't nice enough to address the board? (The principal told me that I had to wear a tie - and then started laughing because she knew that would never happen!)