When I was mostly finished at the teacher recruitment fair, I decided to give school a call to let them know that I would indeed be home on Monday. (I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, and I’m too lazy to look.) I had been considering whether or not I should stay for C. County’s own hiring fair (which I did find out was an actual hiring fair—contract in hand), but I decided to wait until a later date. I decided that I would do my interviews, see how they went, and then go back in March if I had to do so.
I called the school, and our wonderful secretary answered the phone. I told her that I’d be back to school on Monday. She then asked me if I wanted to hear something else that I might consider as a “sign” that I was doing the right thing in looking for a new job. I wanted to hear, of course!
The district office (the one with whom I am currently employed) sent around a memo to all the school employees stating the discontinuation of our class-size reduction program. Class-size reduction is what keeps our lower grades (K-3) at twenty students or less per teacher. It’s one of the big reasons that California has been in such dire need of teachers the last few years. They needed teachers to fill the new classrooms. Now that the program is dissipating into thin air (California’s deficit—thank you, Governor Gray-out Davis), schools are being hit hard with various budget cuts. The state is no longer providing funds to schools who participate in class-size reduction.
The crux of this whole scenario is that our district, after promising us in our union negotiations that it wouldn’t come to this in *our* district, has decided to cut the class-size reduction in Kindergarten and third grades.
When Cindy told me this, I was even more sure that what I was doing was the right thing. I can’t believe the timing of everything. When I first started thinking about changing my location this past summer, it was a “maybe in the future” kind of thought. Then everything started feeling so right. One thing after another happened to help shove me in the direction that I’m walking. I can’t believe that I have a job for next year already. It seems so right. I can’t say that often enough.
Because of this little memo that was sent around, I will most likely be let go from my school. If it hadn’t been for all of this resume, application and interview stuff, I’d be incredibly devastated right now. But I’m not. I’m relieved.
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