When Joan Gardiner began teaching at Patterson High School 18 years ago, she knew she'd found her niche in the family-like school community that served students from one of Baltimore's largest and most tightly knit neighborhoods.
But the school system recently informed her in an email that she was no longer "a good match" for Patterson, sending the 27-year, national board-certified educator to a city schools job fair.
Gardiner described in a recent interview where, with a stack of resumes, she stood among the hundreds of new and displaced teachers in a sweltering gymnasium at Polytechnic Institute, vying for a position at a city school next year.
"It was so hot, so crowded, so demoralizing, very cattle-call-ish," recalled Gardiner, who has served as the English department leader at the school for the past eight years. "It was so humiliating; you just felt like you shouldn't be there, going after the same jobs as those new to the system, getting the same amount of feedback: 'We'll call you if we're interested.' "
Gardiner's experience highlights a growing concern in the district, as hundreds of teachers — a large number reported to be veterans —await word on whether they will enter a city classroom next year or enter a pool of certified educators who do not have a permanent placement.
5 comments:
Sounds like a great way to review the 'Merit' criteria of these teachers....those that are good, will get the jobs. This also provides a way for 'barely-adequate' teachers to get left behind before they get too entrenched in the 'tenure' system espoused by the unions.
oh look Joan Gardiner.. another teacher with a sense of entitlement. Oh the horror, she had to mingle with the riff raff at a job fair. Don't they know who she is!
G.A. - What does the title mean? Baltimore Teacher Decry Transfers?
Honestly, 9:20, I have to agree with you. It does suck, but most other people with jobs in other fields have to do this type of thing. Especially in this job market. People in education get moved around all the time. . .mostly they just get transferred into other positions according to the needs of the county schools. Having to re-interview is kind of a lousy process, I have to admit, but if there is a job on the other end then thats better than what 9.1% of our country has got.
We should all be thankful to have a job, really. Times are hard.
As an aside, if Wicomico Middle School does not meet Annual Yearly Progress this year then they will be going through the same "restructuring" process as the school in this story. Some of the other schools in Wicomico are "waiting in the wings" for the same fate. Just to bring this topic home a little.
boohoo. Cry me a river. "Ohhhh the horrors of a job fair."
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