Wednesday, December 19, 2001
The writing has definitely hit a major wall. Upon reflection, I think I may have a rationale for letting go a bit.

I have been immersed in this Ed. Leadership program for some time and I have been just kind of floating along through this year. Not to say that there haven't been some events and incidents that have popped up, but I guess that I have just been cruising along, just trying to finish my degree requirements.

So I thought I would provide a bit of an update before the holiday season.

Our state is facing massive educational budget cuts since the September 11 tragedy. The state has less revenue for education, because most of our dollars come from sales tax. People are shopping and spending less. We fired our superintendent of schools and hired a more fiscally prudent boss who has outlined ways for us to bite the bullet. Unfortunately, one of the problems with the proposals is that they fuck teachers hard. The teacher's union actually went along with a lot of the proposals which has led me to quit the union, because they are the antithesis of what labor movements should be all about.

Essentially, the school board and the union would like us to give up several days of pay, reduce staffing by a significant percentage, increase class size, and eliminate summer school. The end result is to alienate teachers, parents, and fuck the kids over who count on summer school for promotion. I believe that kids should be held accountable, but when you eliminate the option for summer school knowing that 40% of our kids need it and spend less money on dropout prevention, anti-teen pregnancy programs and build more jails where do they think these kids are going to end up. It smacks of racism and I think it sucks ass.

I was accepted into this district teaching academy for personal enrichment, but the program got axed this week. I was kind of looking forward to a different short term assignment for a few weeks, but that is no longer an option. I have been working real hard trying to focus on getting an administrative job and have gotten some choice assignments at school in the last two months. I was selected by the AP of curriculum to work on a mega proposal for an excellence award our school was nominated to receive. The proposal ended up being a 25 page resume on school improvement. It was a lot of fun to work on and hopefully a stepping stone to working on something different, hopefully in the area of curriculum and school improvement.

So fuck that shit you see on TV. Most people couldn't handle one day at our school. And our school is a good one.