"Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education
is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine.
It may make you feel like you're flying high at first,
but it won't take long before you feel the impact."
-President Barack Obama
I'm wearing black today. I'm in mourning.
I'm mourning the current state of education.
Had my parents not already planned to come volunteer in our library today--and the library needed it so very much-- I would have stayed home, overdosing on strong black tea, finishing my novel, and hanging out with my two best (non-human) friends.
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| BFF 1 snoozing on a sock |
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| BFF 2 |
I'm really depressed.
You see, last night at School Site Council (SSC), Dr. Joyce showed us the budget for next year.
It wasn't pretty.
We have (barely) enough to cover teachers of core curriculum (math, science, history, English), our two music teachers, and our PE teachers.
We do not have enough to cover: an assistant principal, a dean, a nurse, a therapist, a librarian.
Are you kidding me??
We are an inclusive school that accepts all learners, including those with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), otherwise known as "Special Education," or SPED. Twenty percent of our students fall into this category. Those IEPs are legal documents that state what a child needs and needs to be doing in order to be a successful scholar. As such, they need a licensed therapist to sign that the child is getting what he or she needs. There are one to four of these meetings every day. Additionally, our current therapist runs groups to provide therapy to our scholars who need it.
One principal (think CEO) cannot run a school (company) of over 100 faculty and staff (employees) and 700 students (clients) without help. That help takes the form of an assistant principal--who helps with other running the school responsibilities--the scheduling of classes, putting students in said classes, organizing bell schedules, organizing grades, and so much more. Without that sort of help, it all falls onto the principal, who also has important running the school responsibilities. Our current assistant principal takes on all these responsibilities--and so much more. She has an open-door policy and is always willing to take a moment to help anyone who needs administrative help or guidance, student or faculty.
To say that it's useful to have someone to remind our scholars to behave like scholars is an understatement. As I stated earlier, we are an inclusive school, and we welcome all scholars. Only, sometimes they don't know yet that they are scholars, so we have to teach them how to be one. This came come in the form of a dean. Our current dean has managed to keep our students in line with a firm yet kind hand. Moreover, she is organized, and it seems that the faculty trusts her. This is important; as a teacher, if a student is being unruly and there isn't a strong discipline policy in place, the education is undermined.
We work with middle school students who take physical education. Scratch that, we work with middle school-aged students. Additionally, there are over 1,000 humans on our campus on any given day. To say that we only have scraped knees would be an understatement. I have seen students carted away on stretchers, drunk as skunks. I have seen broken bones and elderly teachers fall. I personally have had boxes fall on my head hard enough to give me a concussion. I have experienced classes where students forgot to take their meds. All of this requires the expertise of a school nurse.
Do I even need to sing the praises of a school librarian? Especially in these dark days of literacy, of losing the ability to think for one's self, of not everyone being able to afford a formal education? If you're reading my blog, I think not.
We have an incredible, cracker jack team right now. All of these people--I'd like to include myself, too, if that's not too self-serving--are passionate about children and their healthful development into solid community members. Each does a phenomenal job at supporting the growth and development of our scholars from their job standpoint to make sure that each child get the best experience here at Webster they possibly can.
The district has, in the past, orchestrated this situation so that when someone complains, "well why don't they have a (nurse, therapist, librarian, dean, assistant principal)," they can respond, "well, we gave them money, and they chose to spend it how they did. It's their fault they don't have that on their campus." That's been a complaint for the last few years. Only, this year, we don't have enough for any of those positions.
I'm honestly not sure how we're supposed to do this. I'm not sure how we will be expected to create a solid learning environment in this situation, or how we will be expected to increase test scores when we lack basic school needs. I don't even understand how putting a high importance on test scores in these economic times is conducive to learning. We are constantly threatened that if we don't raise our test scores, the state will take over. But now I'm wondering... if they do, will we get to have these positions funded? And do they really think they can do better?
If you have an answer to any of these questions, please let me know.
Happy Reading.
