Day 1 – The Staff Meeting

I pulled into the parking lot of an inner city high school in the poorest part of the city. This was my first official day on campus. New district. New school. Home State. Working for this district was a milestone. In college, it was a pipe dream because most of my life had been in rural settings with the exception of this metropolis. I’d applied before. Years ago. Here is what the process looked like:

1. Send in your resume and application (which included 3 essay – not short answer –  responses in addition to a cover letter).
2. Once the resume/application cleared the screening process, a phone interview was scheduled.
3. If you’re lucky enough to make it through the phone interview, you are mass scheduled to teach a sample lesson… to a group of random teachers… that are also going through the interview process…
   1. Seriously. They were role-playing as your students. There were elementary teachers, middle school teachers, high school teachers – random subjects… all pretending to be in my high school English class… I had to teach for 30 minutes…
4. Once you pass that level… you are now invited to attend giant job fairs and directly email schools that were hiring.
   1. This process was hit or miss. There were rarely high schools at these events. Then, there might be one or two hiring for English teachers. Often, they wanted you to have dual certificates. I did not.
   2. I emailed every single high school that was hiring for English teaching positions. I did not hear back from a single school.

After this experience… with no job offer from a single school… I chose to accept a teaching fellowship. I moved to 4 different states in the next 7 years. I accumulated multiple state licenses, a master’s degree, and much needed confidence with all of the experiences. Now, I was sitting in the parking lot of a newly renovated school with administration that really seemed to want me here. In a district that rejected me years before.

At one of the job fairs I attended, I was told by the administrator that I “smiled too much” and “appeared too friendly.” She asked me how I expected to be able to control a high school classroom with that demeanor… 

I walked into the building and headed to the commons for the staff introductions and meeting. The first person I asked for direction was deaf. He could not help me as I did not know American Sign language. I turned around, and a very friendly man offered to help. He directed me to the English teachers.

I promptly walked over and attempted to introduce myself. Not one person was interested. Not one. Not even the people I recognized from the interview… the very warm, welcoming, and friendly interview.

Not to be deterred, I put my things down and went to grab the complimentary coffee and breakfast. ADMINISTRATORS! I cannot express to you the power of free meals to teachers. I can forgive almost anything when food is provided to me!

Soon, the official meeting began. A woman began speaking. I remember, she just launched in to data discussions. Her intended message was about the need for improvement and setting this as a goal for the year. Her demeanor and tone was very off-putting. After an initial type of warning that we probably wouldn’t like the data we would see, she introduced herself… as the school’s principal. I was confused… thinking I may have heard her incorrectly… when I was hired about 4 months previously, there was most definitely a different principal. I looked around the room. Almost a third of the room was stunned – even shocked. After an initial dead silence, whispers started. Rumor after rumor about what was going on. I thought, “Great. Immediately I’m thrown into a dramatic transition that a large number of staff didn’t even know was happening.”

Background: This district has been in the news repetitively for a number of reasons. It is one of the largest districts in the country, so this is to be expected. However, the state was threatening to take over the district for a variety of reasons that are not important now.

I had seen YouTube videos of the school board abruptly ending with arrests and people being dragged out of meetings by police officers. There were other videos of school board members sitting in closed meetings. Some with their shoes off, legs crossed in chairs. Others on their cell phones.

They interrupted each other, yelled at each other. At one point, a member crossed the room to another member. She towered over him as he sat in his chair. Raising her voice and telling a personal story of her troubling experiences as a board member that year. Her body language was very aggressive. She was clearly passionate about what she was saying. The man spoke calmly but was disrespectful and combative – riling her anger further. It was a great example of how women are demeaned by men in professional environments. Another board member stepped between the two. It was shocking. There was actual threatening behavior and physical contact between the board members. There were many other videos and news stories as well. I knew what I was walking into, but I had seen bad behavior and management before. So, I thought it was something I could navigate.

I could go on about how uncomfortable the meeting was. How long it lasted. How useless some of the activities were. How much of my time was wasted.

Back to the staff meeting: I’ll leave it at this. My impression of the school was far from positive at this point, but I did have a couple of people that were very – if not worryingly – friendly. I remember thinking that there seemed to be a large number of unhappy, negative, burned out individuals, and a possible lack of professional expectations.

Naively, I thought my previous experience in similar situations and my last two years as a curriculum and teacher development specialist for a smaller school district would help me navigate the waters and even positively influence those around me. I could not have been more wrong.

 

…to be continued…