It's Getting Harder to Believe All of This Isn't Arbitrary
Last week, I got told that I would be impacted by budget cuts within our district. My state/district operates under "last one in, first one out", so I always knew that I'd be impacted by budget cuts. It's the second straight year when it's happened, but this year hit differently, because it feels so much more arbitrary than in past years.
A running list:
I share a classroom with a teacher who is regularly arriving to school either five minutes after the first bell, sometimes ten to fifteen minutes afterwards. Our contracts dictate for us to arrive around fifteen minutes before first bell rings. Mind you, he has a first period class, so there's just a class of kids just hanging out, waiting for him to arrive. One time, he just didn't show up until forty minutes into class. I had one of my colleagues text to see where he is (I stay in the room because it's my prep), and he arrived ten minutes later. He forgot what day our schedule was on; he just wasn't there, because he forgot the schedule. His position is completely safe. I get cut.
We're constantly reminded to have our gradebooks updated. I keep mine regularly updated after every week, because I believe it's only fair to my students and parents to have an idea as to how things are going, and what's missing. At lead teacher meetings, our principal regularly laments that some teachers have zero grades into the gradebook, after almost five weeks of a quarter. We had faculty meetings during second and third quarter, because teachers were not putting grades into the gradebook. So, halfway into fourth quarter, and guess what? Some teachers still don't have grades in the gradebooks. In spite of constant reminders. In spite of warnings from administration. In spite of administration sending emails to teachers who don't have grades in (I know who, because the teachers complained about our admin doing it). None of their positions are even remotely threatened. I get cut.
We got our summative evals back, one week before I was given the news I'd be laid off. I either received proficient or exemplary in every category. There are two other teachers in my department who have received "needs improvement". None of that matters: I get cut.
At this point, I'm not even mad at my colleagues. They have an administration that is feckless, and ineffectual. Want to know what our Lead Teacher notes said, when the topic of missing/no grades came up for the fourth time this year?
>No grades in Aspen will appear in Teacher Evaluations.
Why wouldn't they put in grades? If that's the worst that's going to happen, why wouldn't you exploit it? If you knew your job was safe, because it was just easier to cut new teachers who are non-PTS, why wouldn't you take advantage of it? If anything, it's admin's fault, because they created an environment that implicitly states that it doesn't matter how effective you are.
Again, the more time I spend in the education field, the more it feels arbitrary. It feels like decisions are made based on seniority. It's exhausting to feel like I'm under constant threat for my position, but others can coast along. And to be fair to those who coast along, why shouldn't they? If the only thing that matters to your job security is if you received tenure, then of course people will phone it in.