28 days and holding

After today, there are 28 days left until school is out. I always thought I could do anything for 28 days. Now, I'm not sure.

I have 2-3 and sometimes 4 staffings weekly between my two schools. I have training sessions, internship class, and the internship class case study and oral defense to prepare for. There are rather serious issues going on at both schools - at one school, the parent I wrote about several posts ago who objected to a recommendation I made - this parent has filed an appeal and are exercising their rights to a resolution meeting, then a mediation meeting, then an appeal hearing. Next week, I must attend the first of these, the "resolution meeting". Also in attendance in addition to particular school staff will be the special education coordinator for our building, and a district lawyer. The parent may also bring a lawyer. I'm hoping I won't have to say a lot with the downtown person and the two lawyers present. The meeting is early in the morning. Suffice it to say, I won't be eating before I go.

At my other school, chaos reigns due to several issues, the most notable being the untimely death of a special education teacher last weekend. This week is state assessments and the SPED kids are having a tough time, but the state and fed officials do not take into account these environmental issues when they look for reasons that scores are low on these assessments. We won't know the scores until next August, but I'm sure the SPED kids were not able to perform their best. Other issues at this school are weighing heavily upon me, and I will not be able to comment about them on this public blog for awhile yet, but comment about them, I shall. They are issues that really have a bearing on how efficiently a school functions.

Also this week, I've upset a teacher who complained to another staff member about me. This other staff member informed me about what she said, and, you'll be happy to know that I blew it off. I don't have time to get involved in dramatic presentations at my job. I just try to do my job. And, finally, this week, in the what I have learned category, I have (re) learned that when something's your responsibility, and when someone offers to take care of this thing that's your responsibility, and then DOESN'T, the buck still stops with you. You're still responsible. You cannot point fingers and blame the someone else who offered to take care of this particular thing. Because when downtown calls asking about this particular thing, it's not good to say, "Well, so and so offered to take care of that for me, and I gave it to them, but apparently, they DIDN'T take care of that for me, and yes that's my responsibility, and yes, I'm sorry, and yes, I will take care of that immediately." Moral of the story (and haven't we heard this before): Just do it yourself. Figure out who you can trust and not trust. And then, take responsibility for what happens.

There ya go. A whole 4 days summed up.