Good and Bad News

New superintendent of schools sent everybody an informational email yesterday or today (I don't pay attention to date stamps). Good news is they have balanced the budget, sort of. It takes some $40million of cuts and another $30million from reserves. This means that once the state approves it, the negotiated 2% raise will be instated, plus the annual "step" increase, which is like $1,000 each year you stay in. Again, IF/WHEN the budget gets the stamp, it will be paid out, retroactive to July (which means windfall, with 3 months of increases coming at once).

Then the bad news. As part of the cuts, 208 (or so) unfilled jobs will be cut, and 126 existing jobs will be eliminated. There was an "emergency" meeting this afternoon that I missed due to picking up oldest and her friend from school. Rumor was (from my union rep who is also a teacher on my team) that the 126 people surplussed, if they choose to stay in the system, will be able to 'bump' anybody of lesser seniority out of their teaching position. This brings up all sorts of questions of school/team dynamics, seniority over quality, etc. Some of those teachers have been sitting on their asses, essentially invulnerable, just doing time to get their retirement. I imagine the teams they join will ostracize (wow, spelled that right on the first try) them for breaking up their teams, etc. I also assume that this will be limited to a single wave...in other words, if I got bumped out of my position, I wouldn't be able to bump somebody in return. That would essentially kill off a generation or two of new teachers, and cripple the system in a new and different way.

I have five years. Probably more than enough. I teach Math, a subject that gets the scrutiny along with Reading/Language Arts. I am highly qualified. "Remora" teachers, clinging to the system won't want to work hard and get results. But I am at a middle school that is probably the most desirable, both in terms of physical plant (building is only 8 years old) and environment, so it might attract some attention.

I've been saying I can cope with change. However this affects me or my school, I think I am going to get to prove my boast.