I do not envy any part of the job that the WSFCS Interim Superintendent is tasked to do. She came into a situation whose negative inertia is still allowing it to create more havoc. It’s been nearly five months since the first concern over WSFCS’s finances became public. Since that time, it seems that the … Continue reading Yet Another WSFCS Budget Update (And The Stages Of Grief)
I do not envy any part of the job that the WSFCS Interim Superintendent is tasked to do. She came into a situation whose negative inertia is still allowing it to create more havoc.
It’s been nearly five months since the first concern over WSFCS’s finances became public. Since that time, it seems that the financial deficit of this school system has done nothing but grown. And the cuts seem to keep coming.
In today’s Winston-Salem Journal, Board of Education Chair Deanna Kaplan was quoted as saying she was “shocked, angered and extremely disappointed.”
“We have been going through the stages of grief.”
Makes me want to review those stages of grief:
If she is still in shock and anger, then where are the teachers who have students coming into classrooms tomorrow? My personal “ride” through the stages of grief seems to be altered with every new piece of information with another round of cuts.
Literally the day before the first official school day, we educators in WSFCS get this email from the interim superintendent right before what is sure to be another “interesting” school board meeting.
Well, damn. It seems that there is still some shock to be felt even now that will manifest itself into some degree of anger soon while I have to try and “reconstruct and work through” things in the classroom as students who might be experiencing a variety of stresses (or depression) are trying to learn.
That’s hard to accept.
To accept something doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to like it, but this situation was not of our own creation as teachers and educators. Students are certainly not at fault. The school year that thousands of students are about to matriculate through will be shedding a much more revealing light on the budget deficit and the lack of oversight – everything from bus routes to materials to traffic to support staff to time to equipment to whatever. More people will be affected directly and possibly thrown back into an earlier stage of “grieving.”
I still have an immense amount of faith in those people who directly work with me in the schools: teachers, teacher assistants, administration, student services, and other support personnel. But I do not have much faith right now in the school board, Central Office, and local/state government.
I am going to go teach tomorrow. The students who come into my classroom will get my best.
I hope in these next few weeks, months, and years, we get the best from our elected officials. They should know that part of the process of grief I am going through will involve exercising my right to vote in coming elections and to speak loudly on behalf of schools and students.
