Well, it's been an interesting start to my 21st year of teaching, and might be, quite actually, one of the worst starts I've had. Maybe it's because I've been spoiled and I don't remember things being so unorganized and chaotic. Maybe it's because the Middletown City School district just really SUCKS right now. And what really sucks is that I'm pretty much stuck there since it would be impossible to find another job with 20 years experience. So, the levy failed in August. Many additional cuts were made (Many more were done after the May levy failed) including busing for all high school and all homes inside a 2 mile radius of the school. This includes special ed kids if transportation isn't part of their IEP! We haven't had to add transportation to anyone's IEP in years because it's always been offered. But that doesn't really affect me. We get to see many more parents on a daily basis than we have in a long time and I kind of like that. I guess there's some kind of funding available for preschool programs with one stipulation: there must be 20 kids in each class, not 16, so hello to 4 new kids, ranging from 3-5 years old. So now we have 8 special needs kids (with disabilities like down syndrome, deafness, blindness, ADHD, ODD, non-ambulatory, etc.) and 12 kids who are "typical" in each class. Anyone who's been in a preschool class knows there's no such thing as a typical preschooler, especially when the typicals are all low-income. So the room's a zoo, and it's all I can do to get through it without Extra Strength Excedrin halfway through the day! We have a screamer in our afternoon class, and it causes a huge disruption to the class, and we're just trying to figure out what's going to work for her. She's blind and has many sensory issues and communicates mostly through screaming and tantrums. UGH.
Here's the really bad part: the school day is at state minimum: 5.5 hours. So here's my day: Leave the house at 6:15 AM to be at school and ready to work at 7 AM. Ready to work includes meetings, fighting for the copier, and reading the emails I couldn't read the day before. At 7:30 the attendants come in and we usually spend 15-20 min talking about our kids. Kids come in for 2.5 hours. Have a few minutes to take a potty break, then get the next group for 2.5 hours. They dismiss at 1:30. By the time they are all dismissed, it's about 1:40. Go back to the room, get things ready for tomorrow and we get kicked out of the building at 2:15-2:30. I might be able to get a bite to eat in there somewhere. Okay, you don't think it's a big deal to have a shortened day. On paper I have a 45 minute planning time, but in reality it's about 15 minutes. One cannot "plan" in 15 minutes! I am having to take so much work home and try to get it done here. Anyway, it's a big rush to get anything done, and I hate not having things done. And to make matters even worse, our district adopted a new preschool curriculum, and we aren't getting trained for it until tomorrow, and we're supposed to start on Monday. So there goes doing stuff we've done for a long time and having to follow a teacher's guide again for the first time in 15 years! And I feel terrible for the K-5 teachers who still have the same requirements and 2 less hours to do it. One teacher actually decided that she needed to take auctioneer lessons so she can get through a 45 minute lesson in 15!
Okay, I am going to stop griping. I have a job. One of our teachers found out today that she has to leave our building because enrollment for that grade is low, so she has to go set up her class in another building by Monday. To make matters worse, her position in the Gifted Program was dropped, so she just moved to my school in late August. That really sucks.
So say a prayer that the fine people of Middletown will realize how bad it is (their kids are getting home at 1:30 for goodness sake!) and say "YES" to an extra $6 freakin' dollars a month in taxes!
