From the Desk of the Chapter Chairperson, Phil Quickenbush
First, let me say you are the best staff the students and this city have seen or
will ever see. Your poise in these trying times and under the relentless pressure
put upon us by the community, the administration as well as the Superintendent
has been gallant.
For those of us who have had enough and want to see action, please contact me
if you wish to volunteer to help me take this to another level – the removal
from the State legislature of those who have failed so miserably to serve,
protect and respect us as a staff.
Second, the two Article 10 safety grievances approved by the Executive
Board six weeks ago were heard last Friday. The first was in protest of the
principal’s failure to evacuate the building in response to the flood of raw
sewage that flowed through the basement, which exposed our students and
staff to needless risk and illness, as well as creating a security nightmare.
The second grievance was to protest the failure of the administration to
inform the staff about a fire for ELEVEN minutes while the alarms were
going off. The staff will be kept informed of the outcome of these
grievances.
Third, the Superintendent denied our appeal to the principal’s obstinate
refusal to permit staff to sit while on hall assignment. We intend to take
this matter to Step II.
The list of reported incidents occurring in and around the building in the
last week:
Monday, March 30: Students yell “Heil Hitler” and “I worship
Hitler” to a Social Studies teacher of the Jewish faith.
A bell rang and Radix stopped reading. An announcement from the main
office reminded teachers of the afternoon sessions in professional
development. Phil Quickenbush started to exit the cafeteria and was pursued
by a tiny voluble group with more questions and stormy hearts.
“So where do we go next?” Radix asked Bilicki. They hadn’t moved from their
seats.
Bilicki shrugged his shoulders. “By the way, you also missed the announcement
this morning…our new acting assistant principal…in Business Education… Dave
Degraffenbach?”
“Degraffenbach…? Didn’t he start teaching yesterday?”
“Youngest AP the school ever had. Talk about meteoric rise…he must have
taken all the Supervisory exams in pretty quick time…and speaking of the
devil.” Dave Degraffenbach had entered the cafeteria.
He was accompanied by Mrs. Haliburton who stuck to his shoulders like an
appointed escort. At tables she stood a little apart, then drew close to join
in humorous exchange about what this all meant. As they bore down on Radix
and Bilicki, she beamed delight and pride. For all intents and purposes
Degraffenbach was her newfound protégé, the source of her new joy.
“Well, well, well,” Bilicki said, as they approached. “The man of the hour…
the only man in the building with reason to celebrate.”
“Same thing I was saying just this minute,” Mrs. Haliburton said. “Here we
are approaching doomsday, wondering what’s going to become of us, while
this young man gets appointed assistant principal.” She looked directly at
Radix as if her remarks were intended specifically for him, man without a
country. “But tell us, Dave, how'd you do it? When did this all happen?”
Degraffenbach, who would have preferred not to go into details given the
prevailing atmosphere, sighed and shook his head.
“I took the exams in bunches,” he revealed. In bunches? “I found out what
courses I had to take, and I took them in bunches. Took a big bunch last
summer and finished up. I wanted to get it over with quickly.”
“Well, you sure tore up that track like Jesse Owens,” Mrs. Haliburton said.
“Hey, what difference does it make? The way things are shaping up, we’ll all
be gone by next September I’ll be looking for a school just like everybody
else.”
“I’ll say one thing I’m happy about,” Mrs. Haliburton lowered her voice for
her next words. “There will be no more John Wayne Cotter. I was never a
fan of John Wayne movies. This community owes nothing to the John
Waynes and Cotters of this world. Amen, I say, to reforms. Bring on the
changes to this school.”
She chuckled; her body shook with mirth. Bilicki checked his watch. And with
that everyone prepared to disperse.
(from “Ah Mikhail, O Fidel!”, a novel by N.D. Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 