Thursday, March 20:
I simply do not accept my school's evaluation of me as Unsatisfactory, with the claims that I "don't support students" during class time (one of the categories checked off several times), along with the the "crowded room" NI, the two-minutes-not-used-for-instruction NI, etc. I will not accept it without a fight, just so my principal can compile convincing data for the supt. to glorify her own position. I will not have nearly 30 years of an unblemished teaching career tarnished by a principal with a personal agenda.
After school, I went to the Savannah Federation of Teachers Union to talk to the President. I already belong to one union, which I joined last fall because I sensed trouble in the wind, but someone at school who got a trumped up Unsatisfactory evaluation told me that SFT was a really kick-ass one compared to the first. SFT has been responsible for the recent picketing of the School Board and articles in the newspaper. I do not accept that someone who spends as much time as I do every night and every weekend searching for interesting activities, planning lessons, grading papers, and spending tons of my own money on supplies so that I can deliver instruction, is Unsatisfactory. I do not accept that someone who rarely leaves the school before 4:30 or 5:00 because I am helping students who come in for help with the Senior Project is Unsatisfactory. Unsatisfactory is Ms. P, who sleeps in class, according to many a student. Unsatisfactory is Mr. R., who lectures from start to finish and never has any activities. Unsatisfactory is Ms. O., who doesn't grade papers.
Hence, I met with Ms. G., President of the Union, and had an enlightening conversation. She held up a stack of papers and said these were the faxes she had received on this day alone from teachers who had been evaluated as Unsatisfactory throughout the district. It's a district-wide trend. It makes the principals look powerful to the Supt., who is trying to create a "World Class" educational system. She looked over my evaluation paperwork, including the evaluations from the downtown people (all of which were good), compared to the in-house evaluations, all of which were not so good, and said disbelievingly, "Are you kidding? An NI for two minutes of non-instructional time at the end of class?" Shuffling through the papers, she found contradictions throughout the in-house evaluations. She said, "If all they could get you on is these classroom management issues, then you're doing well!" The evaluation of classroom management, of course, is subjective. I told her that I'd gotten a bad vibe from the principal since the beginning of the year. "She's threatened by your Ph.D.," said Ms. G., who knows her.
She said that she just happened to have a meeting scheduled for next Monday with a Board of Education person who is site administrator over my school and would bring my paperwork with her, mention my case, and see if she could set up a meeting with the BOE person, herself, and me. I also have a right to have my case reviewed by a committee. The union is responsible for getting the School Board to form a Review Committee to consider the cases of teachers who get U's. The review may or may not get the desired result, but I want to go on record as having one.
When we finished, she handed me a packet of compiled information sent by teachers from all the schools, and I was both comforted and shocked to read what other teachers are reporting from their schools. To quote the document, "...many employees [of the school system are] on medication for high blood pressure, heart problems, stress, and other health problems because of the pressures from `dictatorship style' administrators."
The following was written by teachers at "X" school, not mine. It is addressed to the Supt.
"...We are not a staff of whiners or complainers. We are hard working professionals who are highly skilled and highly educated and until lately, highly motivated. We are currently working in an atmosphere of tyranny where the motto is `it is my way or the highway.' We are writing to you in the effort of keeping our district from losing yet another batch of highly decorated educators who not only want to meet state and local standards, but want our studens to walk away better than thjey were when they first came to us. I am writing because a number of us over the last 2.5 years have filed verbal complaisn only to have them halted at [the Board of Education]. I am putting my career, my love for teaching, and my very livelihood on the line as I take the reigns of getting this letter put together and secretly delivered to you. That this process is so full of espionage and intrigue should give someindication of the level of fear that permeates our building. However, because I do not have the strength to encourage yet another colleague to stick it out, because I am tired of crying and consoling colleagues as they cry, I am taking this chance. Why all the crying? All this crying is. . . due to unnecessary requirements by an administrator who has her image and personal career enhancement in mind and is unconcerned with her staff's well-being.. .We are asking for your help because our leader who was once great has been blinded by ego and has lost her way."
The letter continues that "on a daily basis we are belittled, berated, embarrassed, and reprimanded NOT in the privacy of faculty meetings but in the hallway or over the intercom with students present."
In addition, "No educator in our building feels as though we are being our best. What we feel is that we are putting on a performance. . .we spend a greater proportion of our time planning, theorizing, research, mulling over data and posing for visitors [italics mine] than we do practicing our skill."
The letter from X school, typed, single-spaced, three pages long, listed grievance after grievance. Much of it sounded familiar, and I realized that the same problems I'm experiencing are happening everywhere.
"Y" School states, in part, that "we feel like we are in a pressure cooker. . . we have not been able to get board cleaner, dry erase markers, scotch tae, etc. [because] the secretary said she had not been given permission to purchase anything. . . we've also had problems getting printing cartridges this year; however, we are still held accountable for being sure students get progress report or whatever else they needed. . . we are being evaluated. . . and some teachers are receiving unsatisfactory evaluations."
The document is long, so I won't quote teachers from all the schools. But reading the document made me feel validated in my pain.
The document closes with a letter written by a relatively new teacher:
"I have loved teaching. In fact, I thought of teaching as my life's purpose. I wanted to do nothing but impart useful knowledge to the students and serve as a good role model. . .When I arrived here in Savannah, I was immediately stunned by the lack of respect for teachers by the school system [italics mine]. I have seen teachers yelled at by the principal in front of the students, parents, and their peers. I have written disciplinary referrals for students only to see nothing happen to them. . .we receive write-ups in our mailboxes for not turning on the television fast enough. We are told we only get a planning period one to two days a week. We do not get lunch breaks. Teachers live in a constant state of fear for their jobs and from the principal. Is is for these reasons and more than I have come to a new conclusion. I will not be teaching beyond this year in the state of Georgia. In fact, I have lost my love of teaching. I detest it."
When our meeting ended, I told Ms. G that in addition to joining the union, I wanted to do volunteer work for them. I offered to help her write the newsletter. For the first time in months, I feel passionate about a job, even if it's an unpaid one.
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