The End of Day One
When parents came to register their students, just three
days before the first day of school, they needed to stop at station one to show
that they had all of the correct documentation: proof of residency, lunch form,
and registration packet completely filled out. Station one was the band room
where there were approximately 150 seats.
The parents and some of them with their students were asked to sit in
rows in an order that reflected the order in which they arrived. They snaked around the rows so that when
security called for a number of them, that number of people would leave the
room and go to the cafeteria where they would stand in line for station two.
This could take up to 30 minutes before they were called from station one. Station two was where the residency check was
scrutinized. The parents needed to have
state ID, two utility bills with names that matched, and a birth certificate. Then they were sent to station three with the
registration packet that I was supposed to file after the people at my table
checked to make sure that all of the information was properly filled out in the
registration packet: emergency phone
numbers, medical information etc. In
what seemed to me like a terrible waste of time and double work was that as the
people at my table verified the information, they inputted that information
into the computer system. When that was
finished, the parents were sent to station four and the nurse would check their
shot records. Station five was where
they paid their fees and station six was where they got their schedule. Finally, they reached station seven which was
the book room. With them they carried a form that was more like a check list to
indicate that they had successfully passed each of the previous stations.
I sat at station three and spoke to the ladies at my
table. It was here that I continued my
conversation with Ms. Roberts. It was obvious to me that Ms. Roberts was a devout
Christian lady as she was willing to accept the injuries she received at work,
while working, as the result her own misdoings.
She believed that the injuries to her wrist from the excessive typing
were her punishment for the sin of not following the doctor’s orders. After all, as she put it, God put the doctor
in that position to help her and she did not follow his instructions. Her actions were almost the same as not following
God’s instruction. When I asked her if
she thought that she was justly compensated for her hard work, she mentioned
that she works for God and not for the district or for the school. She said that God would give her all the
compensation she needed. It was God, in
her opinion that required her to be here for these children.
When
lunch time came, the ladies were told by Mr. LaSorda to rotate but Ms. Warfield
did not. Due to the fact that I did not
know the computer system and was not qualified to input information, Ms.
Warfield felt that it was a bad idea for her to leave for lunch as the line had
significantly grown. My job was to
simply file the registration packets by alphabetical order. Ms. Warfield went on in a semi-grieved manner
about how so many people waited until the last minute to come and register
their children. She mentioned that these
people had the entire summer to register and she did not expect so many of them
to be here at that moment.
It was
true what she said, the school district started registration for this school
year at the end of the last year. It was
not June before the registration packets were given to students and parents had
a deadline to make to receive a discount in registration fees. After that deadline, a second deadline was
made for mid-July. The mid-July deadline
was for a $100 discount on registration fees.
Something about this
strikes me ill. First of all, I am
appalled that it is required for parents to pay anything to a public school
system. The state of Illinois allows
schools to make charges to parents for “supplies.” This is part of the state
statutes. However, the schools do not
have to disclose what supplies the funds are supposed to cover. This allows a variety of charges from all
schools and districts. I know of some
Chicago school – the selective enrollment schools – charging over $300 per
student. I have a friend who literally
had to pay over $900 to register three children in school. The fact that the school gave $100 off for
those who registered in July seems to prove that the registration fee was not
going to supplies. It just makes no
sense to me because any business will estimate an operating cost before a
fiscal year begins. That cost, in
theory, should be divided by the expected amount of children - it makes no
sense that giving $100 off for an undetermined amount of students would cover
the cost of supplies that are expected to be needed. This makes me believe that the registration
fee is used for something else. In
addition to all of this, there are fees to pay for students who join sports and
students who take art classes, computer classes, and other electives. If they have already paid $200 at
registration, why do they have to pay more for these classes?
It was at that time
during the influx that I had an epiphany.
I noticed that each person who
came to our table took an average of eleven minutes to complete the
registration process. The ladies looked
at the paper packets that the parents brought to the table and then the ladies
double checked in the computer to make sure the information on the paper was
identical to what was put in the computer.
In some cases, parents were irate and claimed that they did not have
their registration packets because they mailed them to the school as the packet
stated was to be done. This meant that
one of the secretaries had the tedious task of entering the information from
the packets into the computer system.
Obvious there were errors for various reasons that ranged from
incomplete forms to illegible handwriting.
At the same time, the information
for returning students was already in the computer system and the ladies at my
table spent time updating the information – telephone numbers were the most
common updates. At other points, the ladies simply asked
questions as if they were reading a script from the computer. I thought that this system could have been
adjusted and perhaps easier if the information was completed by the parents
online. Some parents were disgruntled about
having to physically bring in a birth certificate when there was one on file
from the previous year as some of the children were returning students. I heard Ms. Sims explain that she was not
expected to go through the files and pull birth certificates to verify the
required information relating to guardianship.
I am sensitive to the financial needs of the school system, but I could
not help but think that if someone was to calculate all of the man hours used
on that day and the salary associated with those hours coalesced with the man
hours associated with physically receiving registration packets in person or by
mail and inputting that information into the computer system – entering the
wrong information and re-entering information factored in with the time to deal
with disgruntle and irate parents ; it should have been more cost effective to
pay for an online system to allow parents to input their registration
information. I mentioned this to the
ladies who sat with me and we all eventually agreed that the district’s lack of
foresight, ability to manage such a system, or whatever the reason was gave
more personal benefit to us all as we were getting paid for our work and if the
system was better, we would be at a loss of income.
The Teacher’s aides
were asked to start work three days earlier than their contracted days. As a result, we were paid $120 for each day
of work. Obviously I may not have the
calculations correct as I don’t know how expensive such a web based system
would be for the school district.
However, the district has three schools and teacher aides to help at all
three. This would mean that the extra
funds were to cover payments for approximately 25 teacher aides. At that time, I did not know that most of the
secretaries and registrar were 12 month employees so the district incurred no
extra cost for them to work. However, I
continue to hold the belief that for the sake of accuracy and time efficacy,
the cost effectiveness of an online registration system would prove its value.
The day was nearly ended when the NJROTC commander purchased
pizza for the students who were helping out.
Master Chief ordered more pizza than what the students could eat and
there was so much pizza left over that they, out of their kindness, shared the
pizza with the staff members who were in the cafeteria, the security in the
hallways and other teacher’s aides who were nearby. We also shared with the parents who were
registering as most of us were not hungry having already eaten lunch. We were sensitive to the fact that most of
the parents at that time were had been in the building for over two hours
waiting to reach us.
We did not know when we were supposed to leave for the
day. The general consensus was that we
left at 3:00, but I stayed later because the letter I received in the mail indicated
a 3:30 end time. The other aides, with
the exception of Mr. Ross, seemed to be unclear about the start and end times
for the rest of the week. Ms. Thompson
and another aide indicated that they would have doctor’s appointments the
following day since our work time was, according to the letter we received, from
11:00 a.m. until 6 p.m. Ms. Hernandez expressed
at that time her aggravation with being called in to start work three days
earlier than originally scheduled from contract negotiations. It was 3:15 and I had been filing paper work
for four hours now and it was time to go.
I went to file my last two packets of paper work when The Special Ed
secretary informed me that she was told by the main office secretary that the
paper work gathered at my table was not to be filed. I returned with the two packets and informed
my fellow table co-workers of what I was told.
Ms. Warfield who was an academic counselor explained that she had given
that task to me at the bequest of the Assistant Principal, Mr. LaSorda. By this time, I needed to punch out so that I
would not receive any disciplinary action for “milking the clock.”
It was
at that time that I received a text message to call the Track Coach at North
High School. Our school district is made
of three schools. North High School was
the original one made and started in 1906.
South High School was built and started 50 years later and in 2002 the
third school Central was opened. Central is ironically enough the center piece
of controversy in the district. It is a
selective enrollment school that accepts students based on seventh and eighth
grade test scores as well as a school test for entrance. I had been a volunteer coach for him three
years at North High School as a track and field coach, although I work at
South. The assistant who was a paid
coach for the track team at North, left for a different school system that paid
more. The district had previously fired
all the coaches and everyone had to reapply.
I went the entire summer without an interview and at this time, the
coach told me that there was an open position for a cross country assistant
coach and that I should apply. I felt
uncomfortable in this as I had already spent two months with the football team
as a volunteer and the cross country season started two weeks ago. The cross country coaches at both schools are
the sprint coaches for the track teams and although I am better suited for the
job, I would be the assistant. This
would mean that I would have to leave the football team.
It perplexed me that
when all of the coaches in the district were made to re-apply for their jobs, I
was not given an interview at all. I am
baffled at what was in the resumes of the coaches who were hired. At North, the boys and girls coaches had no
cross country experience and never competed in one event. At South, the female coach Ms. Green did run cross country but the boys coach never ran cross country at all. On my resume, I not only ran cross country, I
coached a championship team in the Chicago Public Schools. I can’t imagine what in the world did three
of the four head coaches say in their interviews that caused the athletic
directors to choose them as head coaches.
Furthermore, two of the four coaches – the two at North – had coached
collectively for 10 years as cross country coaches and in their times produced
not one team to place higher than last in the conference. That’s 10 collective years of last place, and
after re-applying for their jobs they were given another chance. I thought it was laughable that I was asked
to be the assistant coach after the season had already began. At that point, I
had already committed myself to coaching the football team as a volunteer
defensive coordinator for the freshman team. I had no intention of going back
on my word.
When I punched out, I noticed that all of the aides had
already punched out at 3:00. I gathered
my belongings and then went to the field house where I waited for football
players. While doing my job at the
bookroom as well as in the cafeteria, I actively promoted the football program
to the incoming freshman students. I
invited them to a speed and agility workout that same day at 4:00. I had previously informed the coaches that I
would give this training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because these were my
early days for work – according to the letter I received. I told the freshman and sophomore teams on
the last day of summer camp and Mr. Ross, reiterated what I said. He also told them that I was not getting paid
for my work with them and that they should take advantage of my expertise as
well as appreciating the extra time that I was willing to spend with them. With all of that there were two of the three
freshmen whom I invited and one second string lineman from the sophomore team
who was by far the least talented of them all.
We did agility drills, sprints on the indoor track, and downhill sprints
outside. I talked to them about being
tenacious and determined at everything they do for that will give them success
in whatever they aspire to accomplish.
Then we ended practice.
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