Sub Vision: Those cafeterias...

Many schools give little or no importance to their cafeterias, especially to the part that serves teachers and staff members.

Students – sure! They receive breakfast in class, free; precious learning time lost, and expensive food wasted. On average, half of the food distributed in the morning ends up in hands of questionable storage keepers, or worse – in the trash can…

Students get free lunch too, on which consumption I know less, but judging from the look of the luncheon area after the break, a lot of food is thrown away too…

When it comes to feeding staff members, however, schools are less concerned, a lot less! There are very few schools that keep a vibrant, fully stocked, cafeteria, catered for the adults who serve the juveniles. Teachers, whose lunch break time is limited to 30 minutes, carefully divided between closing one class and prepping for the next, visiting the bathroom, and eating, often reach the promised cafeteria just to watch the food packed away, longed-for coffee poured (literally) down the drain, and closed cashiers. I can’t count the times when I badly needed my cup of coffee to sustain me, and it was gone, consumed or, worse, drained to the sink…

Those blessed cafeterias that prepare salads and sandwiches, keep supplies available and always have a fresh pot of coffee are friends of the teaching profession. They understand the need of a working adult not only to be fed, but also to rest for few minutes. They are ready to answer to the needs, even if it means running between the students’ window, the kitchen, and the teachers’ lounge.

I don’t know what separates a good cafeteria and a mean cafeteria. They must have budget and resources limitation, but I can tell for sure – every time I encountered a nice cafeteria, there was a nice, generous, person running it. A mean manager translates to bad cafeteria, even if some of its employees are nice and helpful.

I always head to the cafeteria during my breaks, and have seen many lunchrooms. The good ones provide a choice of selections, with a smile and helpful attitude.  Over the years I have seen good cafeterias turning bad, bad ones getting better, good cafeterias staying good even after management change, and mean managers ruining one school, then moving to a different school and ruining it too…

One thing seems obvious to me. The blame is on schools’ administrators. Good and happy schools have good and happy cafeterias. Those who let cafeterias shut services to their staff indicate poor leadership and negligence, preventing this bit of luxury, few minutes of relaxation and adult conversation with peers. This small indulgence sustained me during times I worked at difficulty schools. The knowledge that once or twice a day I would spend few minutes with adults who face the exact same experience was invaluable. Administrators that do not understand that, don’t deserve to be managers of any type, let alone of school staff.

I had one of many experiences at a middle school that used to be a pleasant place, and became unbearable… Students’ bad behavior and administrators’ lack of support are only part of the problems. The school’s cafeteria has not served teachers and staff for years, and knowing that I try to avoid it, not always successfully. Cafeteria with cold coffee, no lunch service, air-conditioned to a freezing point, with outside broken chairs… At the end of one working day there, the office manager made the mistake of asking me how my day was. I told her that it would have been OK had the cafeteria served teachers at lunch. To my surprise an argument had erupted. She claimed I was wrong, and although she, herself, never goes to the cafeteria, lunch is being served! She suggested two possibilities, one, that I may not know where the cafeteria is, the other - that I am lying. No kidding!

Well, not all substitute teachers are very smart… or trust worthy…   

Sub Vision: Those schools that have changed and those that have not…

As the pressure on schools’ performance is intensifying, educators are struggling to find the winning combination that will turn their school a success over night…

Schools are trying all kind of tricks to make it happen. Whatever the new criteria for ‘success’ will be, now that standardized testing is fading from the educational landscape, a new, brilliant, idea eventually will redefine a success …

As a substitute teacher, I visit many schools, and have seen the changes over the years. The most dramatic modification is usually at middle schools, as they go from bad to good, or vice versa, by merely hiring (or dismissing) discipline dean…

High schools are more complicated and their ‘success’ is determined by a combination of measures.

However, no matter what the definition of a good school is, its implication is vast on students, school reputation, neighborhood desirability, but also on the career path of teachers and administrators.

I have worked at a school that had every desirable element: Good teachers, good programs, vocational subjects and a group of dedicated administrators, including a principal who worked tirelessly toward achieving suitable academic performance. There was one thing, however, that stood in the way of success, the student body. Had you transformed this institution to an affluent neighborhood, the results would have been unquestionable, but at that neighborhood no matter how hard the faculty worked, pace of improvement was not fast enough for the education ‘police’…

Few years into the internal effort to turn things around, and despite the fact that there was improvement (even if slow), the city took over, replaced the principal, administrators and staff, and a major revolution had started… within one year none of the previous top faculty had remained. Outside educational ‘specialists’ were brought in, and the few teachers who stayed were put under a tight scrutiny of the new education elite… Another sign of severe change was the bell schedule…

I see my past colleagues, those who were not driven to early retirement, in every school I work now. They were dispersed all over the district, and they all share the same sadness of a community broken up. The principal who was never given another chance at a different school got a position at the district headquarters, and not long afterwards had retired, feeling, probably, a complete failure…

And the school? I was called to replace a teacher that I know. At first sight I was quite impressed, smaller class size, clean and polished floor, new seating arrangement and well enough behaved students. My thought was, well, things have improved. Maybe all those changes were made for the best after all…

It took me two more visits to the same classroom, and an additional visit to another classroom, to realize that nothing had changed… Teachers are still good and dedicated, students are still lazy, with bad attitude and proud ignorance… I realized that when I tried to teach and found out the gap between the attempted level and the real knowledge. Of course I could have blamed the teachers, but I know better, I have been at that school, had the same students, in the same failing education system, and I had the same level of frustration…

And then, there are those schools that don’t worry that much about improvement. They do have a body of students who come from an affluent neighborhood, and they can count on their success to pull school’s scores higher. Yes, they do have the other type of students too, the ones that don’t perform, and they try their best to help them, but they don’t lose sleep over it. The good students are their buffer. These schools don’t displace teachers, shift their assignments, or change bell schedule. They let teachers stay to full retirement age and beyond. They know that unmotivated, unprepared, student body is a fact of a public school life, and they count on the other segment of population to balance out the ‘success’ measure, whatever the current measure is... 

Ch 17 of 20: Charter Schools

In our desperate search for a solution to the education crisis, we agreed to believe in the phenomena of the charter schools, popping up left and right, as the answer.

Charter schools strive on what they are NOT, comparing to district run schools. They are NOT the huge monsters that serve thousands of students. Their teachers are NOT on a contract for the rest of their life. Budget distribution is NOT under a strict scrutiny, thus can be applied to current needs. There are NO layers of administrators between teachers and principal, making parents’ access far easier.

Sounds great, doesn't it? It is like sending your student to a private school but without having to pay the huge tuition fee… right?...not quite…

I have seen tens of charter schools in my area, maybe more. I think I remember only one or two that at least left me with some tolerable impression.

My first experience with a charter school was working at one for an entire year. Wonderful teachers, dedicated administrators, OK students, caring parents… but one thread connected all the problems we faced - lack of professionalism. Staff members were good, smart and dedicated people, but not professionals…

We did not have a defined academic plan or clear goals, nor did we have a specific procedure for discipline. We had no textbooks for two months, and worse – no facility for four months, not until January. In the meantime, we were guests in a church hall, with only thin patricians separating one classroom from another, with flying objects filling the space between the classrooms. Everything was a ‘Work in Progress’, even though the school had been operating for several years.

To make things worse - by March all the school funds were exhausted and we were seriously considering shutting down the school and dispersing our students… 

After that experience, I swore never to work at a charter school again, and to spread the word about charter schools whenever and wherever I could… But reality bites, and after working at district schools for a while, or worse, not working at all, you start wondering if charter schools are that bad after all…

I was, since, interviewed by numerous charter schools. Many of them did not hire me not because I was not qualified, but because I was over qualified; credentialed, experienced, know my rights. It would be hard to make me work extra hours and get paid half of what the public district pays… For jobs that I did get an offer I just could not say yes. I just knew that I will be miserable for the whole time, and yet, knowing myself, would never quit midyear… (Not even if not paid, as before…)

I admit that I still apply to charter schools from time to time, but I can affirm that I never found one that I thought would be right for me…

However, as a substitute teacher, contracted with a respectable agency, I do work at charter schools quite often.

Charter schools, often, choose weird places as their site; I have seen charter schools in strange locations, abandoned buildings, with old ugly structures. I was in a charter school that was right beneath two major freeways intersection. I did not even think of the dreadful air pollution. What bothered me most was the possibility of falling cars off those freeways and smashing into a crowded classroom…

On one of my substitute assignments at a beginning of a school year I was sent to a charter schools in the east side. The area was not bad, the facility was oldish but quite OK, there was even something homey about the small yard in front of the main office and the classrooms surrounding it. I have changed my mind about the homeliness when I entered my classroom. It was not darling anymore. This was a classroom with only few, old, chairs, and even less, decorated with graffiti, desks; for sure not enough for all the students soon to enter the classroom. Something else bothered me as I looked around, but I thought it might be the unappealing look of the bare walls. Then I realized what was wrong – there was no whiteboard or even blackboard… Later on, I discover a spot on the wall that, apparently, was used as a whiteboard, but it was so small, and its quality so poor, that it was unrecognizable.

But this was not the worst part… The bigger problem was that it was the first week of the school year and the school did not have yet… teachers. I am serious! This was a small school that should have employed about 12-15 teachers. On the day I was called to substitute, there were 9(!) other substitute teachers signed up! And this was during a time when hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers were frantically looking for a job… I talked to few of the substitute teachers and they told me that they are trying to get hired at that school but the school would not give them an answer… My guess? The school was looking for a real cheap labor, and knowing how many teachers were out of job, they were waiting to find the people who will be willing to work for the minimum wage they had in mind…

Another charter school, to which I was sent recently, prides itself as a science and math academy… Well, this should be good, I thought. This is probably the model of school that, in our mind, the public education system should have …

I arrived about fifteen minutes before the start of the school day, and with the help of some students located the “Main Office”, the main institution in every public school. I was completely surprised to find it locked. A pleasant looking teacher arrived few seconds later and said “oh, it’s close”, without much surprise, and continued on his way, and I was trying to search my mind for possible instructions that might have directed me to a different destination rather than the main office …

Few minutes later the secretary had arrived and asked if she could help me. I told her I am a substitute teacher and the name of the agency that sent me. Apparently she was not aware of the need of my services, and disappeared for several more minutes to get the information. I was then sent to a science class to replace a science teacher. I am not a science teacher but with instructions and material to occupy the students I can manage to keep a class full of 8^th graders busy.

On the desk I found a big folder with instructions for each day of the week. I was slightly alarmed by a note that asked me to administer a final test and then grade it. I didn't think I was quite qualified for that, but I kept reading the instructions. Then, all of a sudden, I realize that these instructions were intended for the previous week, given by a responsible, previous, substitute teacher… At that point I realized that I was on my own, and tried to seek help from the… students.

The students told me that their teacher had been out for over a month. She was pregnant with twins and probably would not be back after she has the babies. They had, so far, 4-5 substitute teachers. When inquired on what chapter in the book they are, they could not remember, and of course suggested watching a movie…

I returned to the same school a week later, hoping things have changed for the better. From students’ reaction (another substitute???), I understood that not much had changed. A permanent teacher was not yet hired, but few changes had been made to accommodate the situation. A psychology elective class was replaced by a new elective - computers. When I asked where the computer lab is, I was told - at the same classroom. “So where are the computers?” I asked. No one could answer that. In the meantime the class was a “study hall”, fancy name for “doing nothing” class. Other science and math classes became general “tutoring” classes (more “study halls”), and the only substantial class left out of six-period day was algebra …  

The case of charter schools is about public funds, originated in our tax money, intended for public education. Charter schools divert resources from the well-established district, to their un-established institutions. They namely “steal” students from the district, depleting its finances. District schools have a very strict guideline, good or bad, and ample of well-educated and trained academic staff; administrators, teachers and aides. Charter schools offer a very poor replacement.

Charter schools, in many cases, are financial expenditure, generated by business people rather than educators. (Education, apparently, is a very profitable business, benefiting from holes in the system). Unlike district schools, they are not subjected to the same scrutiny, and are given years to prove themselves and become accredited. In the meantime, and even after, they have a very flex guideline…

As much as I disapprove the way the district runs, the type of events described above would never happen under district domain; classrooms without the bare minimum, unsafe locations, a school without teachers… As an educator, it is painful for me to watch credentialed and experienced teachers losing their jobs to unqualified personnel, who work for poorly managed charter school, for less money, and are at the disposal of anyone – administrators, parent, students…  

Do parents blindly believe that their students get more in charter schools than in the public school system? Did they know, for example, that their charter school of choice had started the school year without teachers? Or that their student’s science teacher in that “math and science academy” had been away for two month without a permanent replacement?

Until someone absolutely proves me that students are doing better in a charter school, not because it is located in an upper-class area, and not because it refuses to accept certain type of students, and not because it is quick to send certain students back to public district - I am very skeptical! I do hope that a responsible politician will soon look into it… In the meantime - parents - never assume anything! Do check your premises, at least from time to time…

For more - Read : "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", by Diane Ravitch