In addition to a wonky bell schedule, the fire alarm system at our school has been pretty erratic. It’s gotten to the point that when the alarm goes off at school no one even flinches. Sometimes it is only the emergency flickering lights, sometimes it is an occasional ring. And sometimes–like yesterday at lunch–it is a relentless buzzing that drives everyone nuts but is still just school as usual.

Alarming from Antero Garcia on Vimeo.

Recently organizing files on my computer, I found a folder I created that culled several documents I wrote during my first and second year teaching. It’s interesting looking back on these files now. Long before the Ph.D. track entered my mind and long before I had any kind of proficient grasp on my role as a teacher I was interested in the space at Manual as one for exploration, inquiry, and possibilities. The four documents above are all rough and unhinged from each other. I’ll probably share all of them over the course of the next month or so. The first is below and is a short narrative about covering a class on “A-Track.” Now a relic from when our school was on a year-round schedule, A-track was the track stereotypically known to be a bigger discipline problem than B or C track. It was also the track with the most special education students and the largest proportion of black students: when teachers spoke of A-track it was–usually but not always–a way to speak of students racially without having to utter any words about race.

With that being said, I take you back to 2006:

A-Track Coverage Reflection 6/9/06

I had the opportunity today – was asked by administration – to cover a fourth period class. It wasn’t until I showed up that I was told it was an A track special education science class. I was told immediately by the teacher that the class was one of her worst and that I should be prepared. It was clear that this teacher felt bad that I was being given this class for two hours. As she gathered her things to leave a students walked in  and was immediate asked if he had his materials. The students looked as equally stupefied as I did and was sent to the Deans office – apparently he was one of the class’ worst students and the idea of leaving him with me was unfathomable. The TA in the class seemed equally convinced that this student needed to go. The class was fairly quiet as I was briefly conversing with their teacher, though any comment provoked a “there you go” or “what is your problem” from the TA. This was preemptive discipline, if such a term is currently in effect.

Once the teacher left, I handed out the science reading materials and worksheets and we went over them as a class. Fortunately, my limited knowledge in science was able to allow me to engage with the students in a discussion about force, gravity, and inertia without embarrassing myself. The students were fairly quiet and the TA noted that they were being better for me than they were for the regular teacher – though the TA mainly looked up personal facts on the internet about her recently diagnosed medical condition and browsed JET Magazine.

It wasn’t until nearly an hour into the class that things began to break down – the students were done with their worksheet and nothing else was left… I talked with some students one-on-one – read one student’s rhyme-book and talked about Pac and Biggie. Another student wanted to trade me for my red union t-shirt.  One student asked if I had sewn my own Converse shoes. However, the class was getting boisterous and the TA was getting frazzled from all of her yelling.

I taught the students the game Mafia and they were energetic, excited and collected. The behavior problems ended and by the time the bell rang the TA said “thank you” to me, explaining that this was a great class.

My concerns here are the overt, the obvious feeling of racism in place in this class. There were three girls in the class. The rest of the class was males and was predominantly African American. These students, to my obviously limited time with them, didn’t display characteristics that I felt were out of the ordinary from other students. They seemed frustrated and pent up –I thought like caged animals would be. They read through the script that the TA anticipated to them, say something, speak out loud, get reprimanded, repeat. It was a worn out script and one that they seemed forced to recite. This is a prime example of the “a-track” racist rhetoric I’ve seen throughout the year. Teachers and administration speak of “those” students and the problems had when A track is in session. To me, these are not teachers equipped with the skills to teach “Other People’s Children” and are simply perpetuating a history of racism and ostracism of our posterity.

Visiting one of the English teachers the other day, I was surprised to find how much storage space her classroom contains. However, as I asked her about it, I was unfortunately informed that nearly every cabinet, drawer and shelf in the room was occupied by the adult school.

It’s pretty easy to tell if a cabinet is owned by the adult school – it has a nice prominent label.

Let me explain: Manual Arts has an adult school that operates in the evenings. For two hours. Most classrooms at the school are occupied in the evening and it’s typical for a room to have a file cabinet or shelving unit in a corner of the room for the night school teacher to use. Most of the time, things aren’t a problem – the night teachers come and go, a large number of adults take courses, no biggie. Sometimes trash is found in the rooms in the morning and sometimes desks are moved*. That’s about it.

Really adult school? Six file cabinets for one classroom?

However, here’s a situation where the adult school has pretty much monopolized a classroom’s space – this teacher literally cannot have a class library because all of the walls are taken with adult school’s supplies. Let’s see: that’s five classes of high school students whose needs aren’t being met while one class of adult students is. I don’t mean to frame the adult school in opposition to the high school. The problem is a beauracratic one: although the adult school and high school main offices are literally across from one another, they have little communication between them. It’s very hard to get anything communicated or changed at the adult school. Last year I had an infuriating time where I spent 30 minutes every morning moving my desks in the appropriate orientation only to have them turned back into rows by adult school. I tried communicating with the teacher and ended up getting a trashed room and passive aggressive notes on my white board. When I took the issue to my administrator he told me that after 4 p.m. the school is turned over to adult school and there is nothing that can be done. Thanks.

If you’re wondering what the paper in the left-hand corner says, it kindly informs you that these cabinets are property of the adult school.

Oh hey, what do you know? Another file cabinet and two closets for the adult school!

Oh good, four more file cabinets and a cabinet for the adult school.

Just so we’re clear: these three walls are all covered with adult school storage. The fourth wall is the white board.

It would be nice if it were actually provided to teachers. I’m confident that I’m speaking for many when I say I’m tired of reading about our latest school changes in the news before actually being informed as an employee. Don’t worry, though. There will be a faculty meeting after school tomorrow to inform the Manual Arts teachers about future changes.

I know the national debate can be interpreted as if teachers are overpaid or underpaid. However, how about just getting paid at all?

You remember, Peter, right?

In case you were wondering, he’s still a substitute teacher for himself.

Today is payday for LAUSD. However, Peter didn’t receive a paycheck. Somewhere along the line someone didn’t file or process something and it means he’s waiting another week for the error to be fixed.

Talking with Peter this evening, it’s unbelievable how much this district forces someone that loves to teach (and is really, really good at it) to continually be punished. After spending the summer collecting unemployment because the district RIFd him due to seniority, he’s now stuck trying to make ends meet until the district fixes its error.

To make matters worse, there are two kinds of sub pay for the district. Here’s an excerpt from what Peter wrote to help organize the other RIFd teachers at the school:

For the 2011-2012 LAUSD school year the day-to-day substitute rate is $173.04 a day, or $28.83942/hr. For our group this is our rate until we start to get paid the day-today substitute extended rate of $233.52 a day, or $38.92002/hr. That is a huge difference, and for many of us (after a summer on unemployment), a necessary rate. Here is a link to the pay rate information for substitutes: http://www.teachinla.com/Research/documents/salarytables/subtable.pdf

Technically we are not currently being paid that rate.  Normally substitutes do not receive the extended coverage pay rate until their 21st consecutive day covering the same classes. However, the exception that applies to us is that the extended rate kicks in after 10 days of continuous coverage that started with the opening day of school and covered an unfilled position.

Turns out that the RIFd teachers at the school (the ones that actually got paid, that is) got paid as day-to-day substitutes. That’s a $10 difference per hour. For six hours per day. For 18 days.

108 hours x $10 … oh yeah, RIFd teachers, on top of being essentially second-class citizens in the LAUSD world just got shorted more than a thousand dollars.

As our story has previously tried to explain, both the district and UTLA have been complicit in allowing the RIFd teachers to languish in employment limbo.

I am confident that Peter and the other amazing RIFd teachers I’ve been privileged to work with are seriously considering looking for employment possibilities outside of LAUSD. And can you blame them? After the significant challenges our school has faced? After the civil disrespect from the district? After the lack of fiscal, moral, or networked support from UTLA? Manual Arts is going to lose some of its best teachers during a hugely challenging year due to a mixture of incompetence, oversight, and fiscal irresponsibility.