Administrative Support for APS Teachers; Wanting

Any teacher will tell you that the single greatest obstacle before education is, its disruption.

Every minute wasted on disruption, is a minute
or more, not spent on education.

School Board policy, and logic, and common sense
put the onus of maintaining discipline at school
on administrators.

In reality, the onus falls on the shoulders of teachers;

who have neither the decision making power,
nor the resources, nor,
according to the leadership of the APS,
the education, experience, or intellect to wield either.

The administrative response to disruptive students
has been to allow them to dress in uniform
and then come to school everyday to accomplish
what ever strikes them as "fun".


From the public record; sworn testimony, and evidence:

Student David B. had found himself some fun.
He was throwing rocks at elementary school students
on their way to school.

I delivered David and his discipline referral to
Assistant Principal Michael McNamara, Hoover MS.

The student, and his referral, where returned to me
in short order with a post-it attached
(to the referral, not to David).

The note read,
"Please handle this, and all similar situations
yourself."


So I grieved it.

The good ole boy ruling;
McNamara had not violated the negotiated agreement; which clearly and unequivocally required his continuous and unqualified support,

because there were "other times" when he had
done his job.

A few years later I took a photograph of McNamara
standing with his arms crossed and doing nothing
in a crowded hallway, surrounded by students
in blatant violation of school rules and board policy.

I was then fired for;

creating a hostile environment for Michael McNamara,
Wayne Knight, Ron Williams, Gil Lovato, Michael Vigil

and all of the other administrators who will neither enforce
nor follow the rules.

(The firing was reversed at the first honest and impartial adjudication of the evidence.
It remains however, the source of my "disgruntlement".)


A true story, which illustrates;

• the problem with leaving good ole boy accountability
  in the hands other good ole boys,
• the insurmountable problem teachers face,
• the real reason for schools that fail, and
  
• the real reason for teacher burn out.

A new superintendent is about to be hired.

S/he will or will not, make it a District priority
to restore the authority of adults over children
in school.


Teachers should not look to the leadership of the APS
to put chronically disruptive students
and their failure to control them, on the table.

Nor, should they look to the teachers union.

Nor, should they expect the media to generate public awareness.

• Clearly the number one priority of the leadership of the APS is to continue to hide the elephant.
• As clear, is the failure of the teachers union to stand up and be counted, on the issue of the abject failure of the leadership of the APS to maintain order in schools.
• And just as clearly, Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus, Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens and Thomas Pearl; have no intention of investigating and reporting upon the effects of the administrations failure to provide educationally efficient environments for students and teachers.
  

If a few hundred teachers,
tired of a discipline philosophy that requires them to

"Please handle this, and similar situations, on your own."

showed up at a board meeting with torches and pitchforks;


maybe, just maybe, some sunlight will illuminate
the culture of corruption and incompetence
that created, and maintains

schools that are out of control.