Tuesday, May 13, 2014

PRINCIPAL: I REALIZED THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

Principal Laraviere, 

As the gasps subsided and the tears rolled down my face on Saturday,  I finally realized that maybe their was nothing "wrong" with me.

 Maybe I was okay, and was in fact, doing my job everyday to the best of my ability but, the conditions were wrong. Thank you for letting me know I am okay and not crazy and not worthless in this work I love SO much but, had given up on in this system. 

You have no idea what you have done for so many of us who cannot speak out and who are frankly, afraid to do so. 

I just wanted to extend a deep heartfelt thank you. thank you. thank you. 

3 comments:

  1. I really love our neighborhood CPS school and admire the dedication and commitment of the teachers and staff who truly put the children first. When this administration repeatedly dismisses the principals' and teachers' expertise and ignores their input, this comes at a high cost for all of us. If we could quantify this cost in terms of the loss of talented, dedicated people and the destruction of morale for those who remain, I have no doubt it would outweigh the money we saved from school closings by a factor of 10 to 1.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I left my job as a CPS special educator because I could no longer stand the pressure being put upon the teachers by our boss. I took an early retirement. I could not figure out why our formerly wonderful principal (I voted for him to get the position) had turned into a wired lunatic who seemed to be looking for things to pick on. From what my former colleagues have told me, he's gotten worse.) I now see the situation from the other side. God bless you, and good luck. Hopefully things will change for the better. Rotten Rahm won't be around forever. (I actually moved out of the city because of that creep) Thank you for showing me the whole picture.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I worked as a Special Ed classroom assistant in a west side CPS elementary school. Once my school was closed, I was laid off. During my time as an employee, not only was my position the lowest paid ($28,000) but I often felt like I had one of the hardest jobs. I was a substitute teacher, lunch room monitor, recess coordinator, field trip chaperone, front office worker, in-school suspension monitor...in addition to my duties to the special needs children I was assigned too. In the morning, I had to arrive first to receive the children, while the principal and teachers strolled in right before or after the start of the first lesson.

    During the tumultuous limbo of trying to Save Our School, it was principal vs. teacher, with the rest of us caught in the middle! I've seen overpaid teachers give their children the SAME worksheets over and over and I've seen overpaid principals not speak up for our children because their loyalty is to their paychecks...I mean the School Board.

    I write this post to say, CPS is on fire and our children are the ones getting burned!

    ReplyDelete