This is an going issue. Nine years ago, the building underwent a 21-million dollar renovation. It was met with much hoorahing and back-slapping in the community. This district is a very small one that the community fiercely protects. Many small school districts have been coalesced into regional groupings and town and neighborhood schools have vanished. Not here. The community maintains its own system despite pressures to regionalize. They take great pride in this and it is a selling point for attracting the slowly encroaching Bostonites into buying and building in town. However, this grand renovation was accomplished through the usual method of low-bid contracts. When you pay peanuts, you hire monkeys.
The renovation began with the building’s third floor, which houses the middle school. This did not surprise the high-school faculty in the least. Our middle school is populated with boot-licking tea-party ladies that kowtow to the administration. They take on a myriad of activities and responsibilities that violate our union contract because they feel it is a teacher’s “duty.” The high-school staff believes that we are professionals, just like lawyers and doctors and should be treated as such. A contract is in place – both we and the administration should adhere to the agreed-upon guidelines. But, of course, this brands us as renegades and disenfranchises us in issues such as grant-monies, facility upgrades and budgets. So the building’s third floor was refurbished splendidly. Copious storage space, computers, carpeting…name it – they got it. Aahhh…it was lovely. The icing on the cake was a very large and comfortable teacher’s room. Two restrooms, big kitchen area, an eating center separated from a production zone with a copier and completely stocked supply shelves, relaxing seating area, and so forth.
The second floor came next. This floor houses some high-school classes, but mainly the media center and the business department. The media center was also a source of much bally-hooing in the community as we were fitted with two 20-unit computer labs, as well as various other multimedia resources. Naturally, much care and attention was paid to its rehabilitation. The business department is another butt-bussing pack of femmes. They are well known for typing the paperwork of the superintendent on their off hours, free of charge and always vote pro-administration at union meetings. They were given suites of computers and equipment to run new courses and retool existing offerings. The remaining 2nd floor rooms house math, language arts and social studies. In these departments, one finds a scattering of warhorses mixed with new individuals hand-picked by the former principal and the current superintendent. The newbies most come from a local college with which we have partnered. Not to knock this institution or the religion that frames its curriculum, but the graduates are definitely fueled with the faith in their superiors. Meaning, they are toadies. This area was provided adequately, but not wealthily. They received somewhat more than was discarded from the old rooms, but by a slim margin.
The first floor is a mixed bag. The administrative offices, guidance department, SPED offices, auditorium, gymnasiums and cafeteria make up the front half. The half that is the first view a visitor receives when they enter our facility. These areas are nicely appointed. Well lit, well furnished, an HVAC system that functions perfectly all year, etc. The middle zone of the first floor houses the consumer arts (the old home economics) and the high school teacher’s room. The consumer arts department runs both middle and high school courses and is host to prominent clubs such as Peer Leaders and Student Council. Obviously, it was graced by the hands of the money-managers. Also blessed is are the arts rooms. Banks of state of the art computers, a complete darkroom for the photography classes, a very open, friendly and well-provided space for the media arts courses. These classes are darlings of the administration for two reasons. First, they are high-profile in the community. We have the frequent art shows, a much-lauded multimedia course selection and this department, too, is combined middle and high school. Further, the department chair knows well that our state is de-emphasizing the arts curricula and budgetary cuts could easily land on her shoulders. Meaning, the administration says – she does without hesitation.
The high-school teacher’s room is a dog pen. The soda machine is never filled, the tiny microwave and refrigerator are cramped into a tiny niche adjoining the SPED conference room (meaning you have to be quiet out of respect for ongoing meetings), the eating area doubles as the work area, so there is much jostling and jockeying for position during lunch periods, there is no partitioning between the general area and the one telephone (as there is in the middle school teacher’s room), which makes parent teleconferences or personal calls difficult. And, the room is often closed for our use due to the scheduling of conferences, workshops or meetings.
Then, we hit my zone. Lovingly called the Ghetto by its inhabitants – the science department, the industrial arts shop and the SPED self-contained room. By the time our turn was reached in the renovation process, there were no monies left to give (or that they were willing to give). Some rooms were not touched, save new tiles on the floors. Others, such as mine were painted, but only because they actually had to modify the room structurally to accommodate a science class. It had been a math classroom with the old school plan. To do this, they took two adjacent rooms and knocked out the connecting wall. Then, they built a hollow dividing wall between them with one room (mine) receiving a full class plus 1/3 of the other classroom. Into the squashed remaining room, they have placed the self-contained SPED students. Students who suffer most from a confining environment are put into a room with one window and barely enough room for 2 tables. Brilliant. The industrial arts, despite the great need by our student population for its services, is looked upon with distaste both by the administration and its department chair (they are in the Art department). The shop did not get new equipment or additional space. It is the same tired, but functional, shop room that has existed in high schools since the Industrial Revolution and likely to remain that way.
My science colleagues received squat diddly besides their floor tiles. I got paint and the cheapest possible lab furniture, only out of complete necessity. We received no new equipment or increased budget for any equipment or materials upgrades. In other words, we were ignored. From the photos, you see that our one grace, the tiles, are laughable. Since they were installed, they have been replaced 3 times due to buckling and cracking. I don’t know exactly why the tiles won’t stay down – the wrong adhesive, the wrong tiles, water seeping up under the floor, voodoo…my room is the worst. The tiles bulge, buckle crack and shatter. I have stumbled and so have the students. Only with the threat of OSHA and legal action have they been replaced, only to have the process repeat. This year, I was promised a different scenario. I was assured before last year ended that there would be a permanent solution put in place over the summer. I arrive for teacher opening day (the day before students arrive), to find my room in complete disarray while they laid pads down over the big holes in the flooring. Apparently, they started pulling up tiles, decided they didn’t know what was the problem and left for a 9-month coffee break. A broken window from a storm lingered for 3 months before the glass was replaced. I was given a piece of cardboard to block the winter winds as a temporary solution.
It is clear in our district where and how monies and favors are distributed. The high-school staff are vocal, pro-union educators. We go above and beyond in our classrooms, but we demand professional treatment and courtesy from our administration. Three of the most thorny (including myself) are in the science department. Others in the building graduated from the Laura Ingall’s Wilder School of Education. The superintendent is the Supreme Being and we must follow blindly. Balderdash. I did not go to school for 138 years to kiss anyone’s butt. Admittedly a peck on a cheek would earn me much-needed supplies and equipment for my students, but I’ll make do with what I have. I know that I can provide best service to my students if my pride is intact. Besides, the superintendent is a rather hairy guy…
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