Heresay

Thursday, May 25, 1995

Overheard, Johnston to Long, in the office, as I waited to perform my Attendance Review Committee duties (or FART--Faculty Attendance Review Team--as some wags call it):

"Oh, man, it's real obvious now. They were completely front-loaded. I talked to him and he said that they had had 'meetings' and correspondence with Kurtzmann, when Taratino had said over and over to the Leadership Team that they would only meet once with the district, and that was with Kurtzmann on the day they delivered the final report. So it's obvious that she was lying and that they came here with an agenda and a mandate."

The conspiracy lives.

Not that I doubt him.

Of course, the newest rumor doesn't exactly discount him, either. Several secretaries in the front office have "learned(?)" that Joan is out at the end of this year. No one knows exactly the avenue she'll take out of Dodge. Retirement? Back to Gateway? A District post? Of course, either of the latter two would make her duplicity with a District machination to pull the block schedule obvious. But I doubt now that the District cares much about appearances: things are as they are, so what if it looks bad... what the fuck are you gonna do, you teacher? Retirement looks all the more likely.

And I wanted to query her on this, as Frank Cassidy and I waited around for any straggling parents to show up to the Attendance Review conferences (of course, none did; out of the five conferences scheduled--low number, thank god--only one parent showed. Of the four no-shows, the students involved averaged over ten absences in ALL of the classes they were taking. Our recommendations could only be: "Student to receive grade earned. Attendance contract for Fall '95. Alternative Program possible." Frank and I were the only teachers there; the two other scheduled teachers failed to show. Hmmm. Attendance Review? Naw, the irony is just too great. At least, the two of us were out of there by three-fifteen). Joan came out of her office, chitchatted a little (on the subject of a little practical joke pulled on Aimee today, in which Joan actually participated [more on that later]), and her garrulousness was surprising. I still don't trust her. I wanted to ask about the rumor, but I didn't.

I guess, when I get right down to it, I really don't care. Principals, like generals, come and go... the war goes on in the trenches.