Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Ah, where shall I begin? Well, let’s start with Wednesday morning, at the faculty meeting – the one I completely forgot about and have yet to give my principal a courtesy apology for missing…she may not deserve one…we’ll see.

Background: The related arts staff (nice way of saying ‘specials’, or “art, gym, music, computer, and library teachers” are kind of a clique at my school. Definitely all but the last mentioned subject area teachers, anyway. B, our librarian, keeps more to herself and her library staff, but she definitely cleaves to us more than the rest of the staff. I made it a personal policy to be friendly with everyone, if not friends with them. Something my well-meaning zealout of an Elementary General Music professor instilled in me. You Don’t Talk Trash: about student, teacher, or administrator, period. And you don’t make waves. (I make small waves now. I’m young yet.) So I have maintained a cordial relationship with all the staff, and am near friend-status with a few – mostly the other mommies-of-young-children, and some of the older ladies think of me as their pet, I can tell. My favorite 5^th grade teacher calls me Megsy. And of course I have my small group of fellow RA teachers, who I can call all-out friends (because we actually do stuff outside of school on the rare occasions when our spouses, children, and sleep schedules allow. I really need to have them over soon. Is it lame to throw a Halloween party for 5 kids and their parents? Nevermind.)

I understand that I have, on paper anyway, a lighter schedule than the classroom teachers. Now, they may have kids in the room more time, but they may also be sitting at their desk grading homework while the kids have silent reading. I am on stage from the minute the kids hit the door till the minute they leave. I have no downtime during my classes, period. But I understand the schedule discrepancy, and I keep it in mind. I also present myself as Ms. Flexibility (You brought your class to music 25 minutes early by mistake? No biggie. You need the lyrics of “The Candyman Can” re-written to honor the retiring custodian…tomorrow? Consider it done. Going on a field trip during your regular music time and don’t want to miss out on your prep that day? I’ll reschedule you.) This is what the school music teacher does, and I do it with a smile. Again, maybe I’m just young and stupid. BUT:

With all this goodwill bubbling forth from me at school, I get pretty pissy when I hear this news:

At the morning faculty meeting, in front of the majority of the teaching staff, the principal said that we need to do something to equalize teaching time amongst all the staff, so that “nobody is sitting around with large blocks of time with nothing to do.”

(Furious expletive/mild stroke inserted here.)

Clearly aimed at the RA teachers, this supposed statement had us up in arms, in a big way. EXCUSE ME? Where are these large blocks of time that I supposedly spend just lying around? I’d like someone to point them out to me, cause sure has heck haven’t found one yet, and this is my 5^th year with this schedule.

Now, I wasn’t at the meeting, I only heard through the grapevine. So far I haven’t had a problem with our new principal – I’ve actually been impressed with her on several occasions. I really don’t’ want to think that she’d come right out and make this credibility-squashing statement right in front of the staff – some of whom have been hungry for this news for years. (Whispering behind our backs only, of course. In fact, none of the RA staff happened to be at the morning meeting. If one of us had, I doubt the subject would have been brought up.) The next major issue occurred when one of the 1^st grade teachers, let’s call her D the Whining Bitch, stood up and said she was very glad that someone was finally taking care of this situation because it has bothered her for years.

(Insert 2^nd furious expletive here)

I’m sorry, WHAT has bothered her for years? The fact that I have more preps than she does? Because last time I checked, the teacher contract doesn’t guarantee you the same # of minutes prep time as every other teacher in the district. I believe it guarantees you 46 minutes (they get 50 minutes in Elem. 4 for free, if we’re going to be picky.) But more importantly, HOW DARE D. THE BITCH BE BOTHERED BY IT AT ALL??? She is NOT an administrator, she is not a supervisor or a principal, and therefore she doesn’t GET to be bothered by it. But she’s God’s Gift to us all (super conservative Religious Nut as well, by the way) and so it’s her job to pass judgment on things that are not in her usual jurisdiction. What she WANTS is probably to have one of us give her an extra prep, or something. Come watch her kids so she gets more time, or extend all specials classes to an hour (isn’t she supposed to be teaching at some point?)

Here’s the problem: What she’s going to GET is: us, fired. Or cut back to 4/5 salary, with no benefits. The budget for the district hasn’t passed in a few years. Things are tight, as they are all across the state. They’re not going to keep assigning us more and more duties that don’t really need done. (And if we’re giving her extra preps so that we don’t have them, isn’t she going to have more preps than other Elem. teachers at other schools?) That’s not how they do things here. They’re going to cut us back to 4/5, like the positions originally were, and take away our health insurance. Bob and I can’t live on less than we’re living on now, end of story. I don’t know if D the Bitch knows this is more than a battle for more preps, but truthfully, she is lighting the match that will set the fire that could destroy my family’s security. And I don’t like Bitches playing with fire near my family.

My good friend the art teacher apparently put her in her place yesterday afternoon when she came to drop her kids off for Art class. Basically informed her that other people had come to us letting us know what horrible things were said behind our backs (Jr. High, anyone?) and that we know that it was her. I’m told she sputtered lots of apologies and claimed it wasn’t personal…but if you’re messing with my job, it IS personal! Then D. the Bitch she marched her butt into the principal’s office and Lord knows what was said…

I don’t want to completely flip-flop on my position on this principal, and I don't know if she really did say, in front of the staff, that we RA teachers are sitting around with nothing to do for a large part of the day. But boy howdy, if she said that and doesn’t in some way rephrase the statement and include an apology, she will find a different working environment. We all have tenure now, and I have a feeling the elementary staff will be finding out exactly what it’s like when we REALLY are sitting around with “large blocks of time with nothing to do”, if the matter keeps getting pushed. You can kiss your rescheduling things to suit your little lives GOODBYE.

I'm angry now, and talking big, but ultimately, I just want to do my job. I know I have a good job, an ‘easy’ job, if you want to look at it in a rather shallow way. But I didn’t design it myself or make my own schedule. I just wanted to be a music teacher. It was the first and only interview I snagged fresh out of college, and I miraculously got hired by a rather wealthy school district and put in a nice position. I’m not rolling in dough, and neither is my husband, but I’m happy here and I’m always willing to do stuff for other teachers, to keep other people happy here too. I just want to do my job and keep my job, as it is.

I can’t wait to find out what went down yesterday. And more and more I feel I really need to talk to the principal, and find out what was said and where we stand. Isn't that the adult thing to do? Is it better to completely ignore a nasty statement you heard was made, because you didn't hear it from the source, OR should you go to the source and ask them "honestly, what did you say, cause I gotta know if I hate you now or not." But this needs straightened out. Because it’s only September, and I can’t do this he-said/she-said crap, or worry about the future of my position, for another 9 months.