I Read Banned Books

Charlie Brown and I have a game we play at work with all of our free time (cough) called “File That in the Back of Your Head” about things other people (namely Devil Wears Purple and Mamacita) say or do that we never want to get caught dead saying or doing when we join the elite legions of assistant principals and principals.

DWP is in Tennessee this week at a school leader conference which makes the incident which occurred today even more ironic. I received a scathing email from her regarding a decision I made yesterday to have a student’s schedule changed to support a teacher whose class he should never had been placed back into two weeks ago upon re-enrolling at In Da Hood Middle School after a nine-week placement at an alternate school for continued disregard of rules and regulations. It is common practice in our district that after a student returns from “opportunity school” they are not placed in the same teachers’ classes they were in prior to referral to give them a fresh start. Apparently, DWP does not know this is common practice. Here is the email I received from her today:

We are no longer going to change an entire schedule for a student who has gone to Petersen. Both counselors were instructed last week to only change classes for two reasons: 1. The student was sent because a problem in that particular class such as threatening a teacher or 2. The child is failing when the child left the school.

In the future, please see me prior to requesting such changes. I had already talked with numerous individuals regarding this situation. Next year we will have even fewer teachers so the policy is being changed and all teachers will be notified when I get back.

If this child is continuing to act out in Ms. Newby Teacher’s class, please use progressive discipline and refer him back to opportunity school if warranted.

This was my response:

I completely understand.

I respectfully ask that this be communicated to the teachers by you as they have been under the impression the three years I have been here that classes will be changed when students return from opportunity school. When I arrived here that was Devil Wears a Tie’s philosophy, and I was unaware until today that it isn’t yours. Up until the three previous counselors left, the students always received new teachers when they returned unless they were in specialized programs.

As I have already told Mamacita, I did not know you had directed the counselors to do something different until they told me so. I apologize for anything I did or said that was against your philosophy or direction to the counselors.

I hope your trip is going well.

These are the things I “filed in the back of my head” today:

1. Know what is going on in the counseling and deans’ offices on your own campus.

2. Communicate with all staff regarding your “executive decisions.” Better still, do not make them in the middle of a school year.

3. Never send an email to one of your administrative team and copy it to four other people when a direct face-to-face conversation will suffice.

4. Listen to your administrative team’s input.

5. Never ever forget what it was like to be a teacher or a dean with 25 days of school left in the year.

On an additional note, the three previous counselors were all railroaded and chased away to other schools by DWP within the past 14 months. With that said, I’ll add a sixth and final “file that away in the back of your head.”

6. Do unto others … or they will write a blog entry about how fucktacular a boss you really are.