Non re-elects

Last week was a really trying week, mentally and emotionally.  On Wednesday, they non re-elected every teacher on my campus that wasn't tenured.  A non re-elect is different than a layoff.  A layoff is because of budget reasons.  Sorry, we can't afford to keep you.  A non re-elect is for teachers who are in their probationary years.  When you begin teaching in California, you are on probation for two years.  During those two years, they can fire you at any time and they don't have to give a reason.  At the end of your second year, they have to decide if they want to keep you, thereby granting you tenure, or get rid of you because you're not good enough.  A non re-elect means that you can never work in that district again, whereas if you get laid off, you can always reapply.  So, 5 teachers on our campus (4 of the 5 who are GREAT teachers) were non re-elected, two of them being my good friends of mine and another being the only eye candy on campus!

Last year, Melissa and Rebecca received stellar observations by admin (this year, we have all new admin and they're terrible.  It's very much an us vs. them mentality on my campus) and this year, they received good observations--not the stellar ones from last year, but still good.  Then, their most recent observation forms come back and they're marked "does not meet expectations" on one tiny, stupid, minute thing--which is all they need to non re-elect someone.  One of the 6th grade teachers received a "does not meet expectations" because she didn't have enough things on her walls!  She is a first year teacher who was given really difficult kids and had been asking admin for help all year, but received none.  And then they fired her.

Rebecca is our music teacher who also took on the leadership class, organized a huge school-wide going away party for our campus monitor, Eddie, who had been at the school FOREVER (who the new admin promptly transferred to another school as soon as they stepped onto campus), and spent countless hours putting on concerts and doing anything else they needed done at school.  Yeah, she was non re-elected.  Melissa was harrassed on a daily basis for almost a semester by one of her students.  He said, "Shut up, bitch" and "Fuck you, bitch" to her and the Instructional Aide in her classroom on a daily basis.  Nothing was really ever done about that kid.  He was finally moved into the Opportunity class, after A SEMESTER of that.

It sickens me, the way teachers are treated.  What was their reasoning for non re-electing them instead of just laying them off?  Public education is a joke.

In other news, that fall I took a couple weeks ago?  It looks like this now:

It's super puffy and itchy!
On Sunday, we went up to Oakland to scrimmage the Oakland Outlaws.  It was a ton of fun and they were great hostesses as usual.  Last year, we scrimmaged them in February.  It was the first time that we, as a travel team, had played against another team EVER.  We lost 242-24.  This year, we only lost 152-51.  We did so much better!  And we only had 10 skaters and they had 17, so we were tiring out much more quickly. I love B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls.

I've come down with a really terrible cold and am out of work for my second day. :( I'm trying to get as much rest and liquids in as possible because we have a game in Paso Robles on Saturday and I need to be able to play.