Oh, boy, it's been a long time since I've been here and a bunch has happened. I, of course, did get my layoff rescinded -- well actually I got a new job and had to interview in July of 2011. I am not in charge the school I used to teach in. It was a strange transition to be the boss of the people I used to be in the lunch room with on a regular basis. There was a ton of clean up work that needed doing and with all the layoffs, etc., it was a mess. Still is a mess because we had to lay off even more this year. I sure hope we are done with that for a while. People are way overworked and are getting very grumpy. Several have looked for and found other jobs. It is not a good working environment. This year's layoffs are just now showing their impact. None of the work the laid off people did went away -- as a matter of fact, additional work was filed on. This site now contains all the GED/ABE/ESL classes in the school district as well as a tiny high school completion program. We will be serving over 1000 students with two front office staff, one accounting person, one financial aid person, one office supervisor, one administrator, one data tech and . . . Oh, ya, that's it. Wonder how soon the scientists can perfect cloning. I need them to hurry up. (That is one of my wishes.) I also pray with all the might there can be that this budget stuff stops it's downward spiral so we can at least maintain some sanity and start moving back up (that is wish number two). Our school was especially impacted because we had a large ADA bucket which meant we had a sizable apportionment for the district to sweep. And they did. Other districts with smaller apportionment had only small impact or none because they didn't have much to begin with. We did have one advantage since we were already approved to have financial aid for our students. But then again that was good news/bad news. The guidelines have been tightened up which requires more reporting and we have fewer people to do that reporting. If we can survive this year, I believe we can survive! (that is wish number three -- give us the strength and fortitude to survive!).
