The Letter--a Farewell to the American Educational System
The language was PR department perfect. Earnest. Hopeful. Helpful, even.
But the purpose of the letter—buried somewhere toward the end--was also clear. So clear that it took my breath at first.
The district, it said, due to budget constraints, would not be able to offer me an administrative contract for next fall. I could, when the budget dust storm settled and a few positions reopened, apply for another administrative job or join the “teacher pool” to go back into the classroom.
It’s not like I didn’t see it coming. In fact, we’d been told that all K-8 schools would be down to one orno assistant principals—and in some cases, no full time principal either. And we’d also been told that all of us working at schools with more than one AP would receive pink slips. In fact, all assistant principals probably would, to allow for some shuffling.
In every scenario the message, for me, was the same. I was done.
Now, due to circumstances completely under my control, after that first, “Ouch,” I merely laughed, passed the letter around to friends in the administrative offices of my middle school and put it into my purse. I may frame it. It’s my first “pink slip,” ever.
And it’s meaningless in my case. You see, I’m retiring. In fact, I’d told my principal last year that to save the younger AP she’d just hired, I was totally ready to go and would file the necessary paperwork as soon as possible. So I should never have received a letter. There’d been a glitch somewhere in HR.
I wrote to them at once to tell them to recheck their retiree list. To rub their noses in it a little bit—I’m entitled to a little rebelliousness after 20 plus years--I also told them that while I was “highly qualified” to teach English (a coveted qualification these days), I would not be asking to join the “teacher pool” or to be considered for any of the few administrative positions that the 63 other administrators who received those letters—and the others who’ll get them later--will be competing for. If there are any.
