Followers of this blog know that my last school was a disaster, with a jackass principal and a bunch of heartless admins who thought nothing of trying to ruin a teacher's career. They had little use for senior teachers involved in union activities. As such, I amassed a couple of letters in file and a U one year as they tried to pressure me into leaving the school. At least 4 others I know had their careers ruined, and a few managed to barely avoid the rubber room. I was one of the lucky ones, as I found a new and much better school.
Today, I finally got to see my file and get rid of some of the foul crap in there. It was a relief, and a fairly painless process, but let me emphasize one thing: it should never have happened. If not for the 2005 contract, I would have been able to grieve those LIFs and phony evaluations, and so would the other teachers I worked with. Remember when the Unity hacks told us it didn't matter if we had LIFs, because we rarely got them removed at step one grievances? What they forgot to tell you is that admins didn't write very many LIFs until the 2005 contract gave them a free hand. And does anyone recall Randi's promise that we'd reopen the grieveance issue if there was an increase in LIFs? Yeah, right.
Anyway, I feel like I've been paroled. For three years, I've known that the lies in my file could be used against me. I wasn't really fearful of it happening, as I am respected in my current school, but a change of leadership or a budget crunch could have changed all that. Now it can't.
Today, I finally got to see my file and get rid of some of the foul crap in there. It was a relief, and a fairly painless process, but let me emphasize one thing: it should never have happened. If not for the 2005 contract, I would have been able to grieve those LIFs and phony evaluations, and so would the other teachers I worked with. Remember when the Unity hacks told us it didn't matter if we had LIFs, because we rarely got them removed at step one grievances? What they forgot to tell you is that admins didn't write very many LIFs until the 2005 contract gave them a free hand. And does anyone recall Randi's promise that we'd reopen the grieveance issue if there was an increase in LIFs? Yeah, right.
Anyway, I feel like I've been paroled. For three years, I've known that the lies in my file could be used against me. I wasn't really fearful of it happening, as I am respected in my current school, but a change of leadership or a budget crunch could have changed all that. Now it can't.
The best part is that now that those letters are gone, I've finally managed to shake the last bit of my former school's dust from my feet. It feels good--they are history. Still, I can't help feeling resentful that they were allowed to run amok over a bunch of hard working teachers. And while I've finally been paroled, some of my friends were executed and others still languish in that dungeon of a school.
If a Unity person tells you that some new agreement won't have any effect on you, run screaming away.
2 comments:
It's a good feeling when the past is purged.
Sometimes I truly wonder who's the warden - Bloomberg or Weingarten!
We are all prisoners of the 2005 contract and it's time for a jailbreak from the contraints.
We were sold down the river. We went back in time to favoritism, nepotism and the like.
Post a Comment