Post a comment about the budget cuts at your school on our interactive comment map. more »
GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools
Classroom tales: A diary
June 24, 2009
For those unfamiliar with the bureaucratic behemoth that is the New York City Department of Education, the term “excessed” is somewhat strange. Most spell check software (including this one) doesn’t even recognize it as a word. But, indeed it is. I know because I looked it up two weeks ago, just for kicks.
There it is, at the bottom. Number seven. It’s a verb (used with object) that means:
| 7. | to dismiss, demote, transfer, or furlough (an employee), esp. as part of a mass layoff. |
And no, I didn’t look it up just for fun. I guess semi-morbid curiosity would be more accurate.
It was just over two weeks ago when I was in the classroom and an announcement was made calling three teachers and myself to the principal’s office for a brief meeting after school. Now, I was no ne’er-do-well in school, but everyone knows in the case of the principal’s office no news is good news. Sure enough, as soon as we’d sat down our principal told us in a statement that was short and sweet that the budget had just come “down the pipeline” and due to cuts, the four of us should start looking for jobs. Stunned silence.
It wasn’t really the way I’d anticipating ending a day that started with an awesome field trip to the Hayden Planetarium. Nor was it the way I’d hoped to end my second year as a teacher, the first year in which I really grasped the complexities of teaching, and felt real success. But, in this economy, working in one of the hardest hit cities outside of Detroit, budget cuts happen. No hard feelings, I guess.
Like most schools, news travels fast where I work. The next day it seemed like everyone had heard, and everyone had something to say. Reactions varied from, “It’s no big deal, I got excessed six times when I started teaching,” (Gee, thanks) to, “Have you talked to the UFT? There’s no way they can do this!” Not always the most helpful (or accurate) words I was looking for, but generally there was an outpouring of support and advice for what to do next.
Since then it’s been one big, cliched rollercoaster of emotions. Sometimes I feel completely zen about moving on, and other times there’s panic. Moving on from anywhere you’ve grown comfortable is never easy, especially a public school in New York City. There’s a lot to learn — curriculum, surrounding community, school culture, school politics — and even after two years I’m still learning to navigate those aspects of the school I’m at. And that’s the toughest part, I guess. My school became much more to me than a place of work, it became a community. Leaving that behind may turn out to be exciting or rewarding, but it definitely won’t be easy.
Ruben just finished his second year teaching in the Bronx. He will be writing about his experiences looking for a new position. He also blogs at Is Our Children Learning?
-
June 24th, 2009 7:57 pm
thanks for sharing your story/experience, Ruben. The school where I work is excessing approximately 70 teachers because the chancellor decided to close it down! So we are all going through it together. I look forward to reading about your adventures (all in the perspective right?) as you search for your next teaching position. Something that I’ve been trying to keep in mind is the idea that new growth and change can only come from something ending. Can be scary, even sad. Toughest part for me is that I have not been able to give my pre-k students a sense of where they are headed for kindergarten and knowing that I won’t be able to remain connected to any of them as they head to the next grade. Trying to remember that wherever I end up working next year, even if it is as an ATR, I will get to make it the experience I want it to be, and I will be fortunate enough to be spending my days working and learning alongside children.
-
June 24th, 2009 9:02 pm
My school’s closing was announced in early Feb., and I correctly anticipated being excessed. What I’ve found most useful in job hunting so far:
– The old fashioned “who you know.” I’ve gotten school contacts through casual acquaintances, my place of worship, as well as through ed-related people; as with the lottery, ya nevah know.
– The DOE Teacher Hiring and Support organization, buried within the Dept. of Teacher Recruitment + Quality. The recruiters have been helpful.
– New Visions. If you can get through their online application, they will act sort of like a dating service vis-a-vis their schools.
I have also tried sending resumes cold, with no results so far. As for the Open Market Transfer system, I now consider it primarily a form of entertainment, as I have pretty good knowledge of vacancy listings not matching reality. But I still use it anyhow.
Do you have a portfolio together? Can you earnestly discuss your data-driven differentiated project-based authentically assessed backwardsly-planned units and lessons?
Also, as two teachers at my school commented to me today, younger is better these days. It’ll help that you’re new and relatively cheap. I have rarely seen a gray hair or wrinkle at these newish small schools, which are the only places I’ve gotten interviews so far.
The only thing permanent is change, as someone once quotably said.
-
June 24th, 2009 9:21 pm
Re: VG’s comment: The Teacher Hiring Support Center (THSC) was formed in 2009 to provide services to teachers in excess. We took over services previously offered by The New Teacher Project’s Internal Hiring Support Center. Our website is http://thscnyc.org and we list events, resources and FAQs to help teachers find a position. We have tried to hit all the teachers who were in excess last year via a phone call to make sure they know about our services and will start contacting those newly excessed next week. Good luck, Ruben.
-
June 25th, 2009 5:10 am
I love when you go for an interview and the principal excoriates individualism and asks how you can be a team player and then excesses you because /s/he doesn’t like the teacher with greater seniority than you! What a system!
-
July 8th, 2009 1:49 pm
Principal should not have the right to excess. This should come from another source. At my school, the principal mostly excess teachers over 40 and one person under 25. Also, for a small school with only two classes he kept two teachers in the same license but excess tg=he only guidacne couselor. He attempted to get rid of the most senior Afrian America Teacher in order to keep a 25 year old caucasion teacher.
Leave a Reply
Mapping the Budget Cuts
5 Comments
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack