Sunday, March 09, 2008

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Beware The Ides of March

The Ides of March are fast approaching and it's getting bad. The Governator has decided that all schools must cut 20%. Now imagine that you're already on a tight budget... living in a cramped apartment, eating a lot of top ramen and beans for dinner, barely making ends meet. Somebody comes along and proclaims that your salary is going to be cut by 20%. It's kind of like that.

To add insult to injury, the superintendent decided to fund a program called AVID. Now, while AVID is a great program that is aimed at getting students to college who wouldn't normally get there, Mr. Superintendent decided to wave his magic wand and without telling the schools, move 70% of the money that paid for MY programs to AVID's account. Voila! Avid is now funded! But we're $190,000 short.

So the principals gave the budget committee the names of four things that needed to be cut in half... all four of which come from MY program. They must go back and ask their representative groups which they'd rather see cut... even though most of them do not have enough information about the four to make a good decision.

I learned a long time ago that The Ides of March was a bad time in the world of teaching. It's the date set that teachers or staff must be notified if they may not have a job next year.

I've got one... but all my support personnel may be going the way of the dodo. What a wonderful thing to do California's educational system which already has one of the lowest per pupil spending rates of the 50 states. We're right down there with Mississippi.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

So March is Here!



Okay, so who could resist a picture of Prince Charles wearing a leek. Or maybe just a scallion. Those Welsh and their strange customs. I suppose they can be forgiven, since they are the home of Torchwood and Captain Jack. I bet he'd be able to carry off a whole bundle of veggies. Mmmmm...