More Carnage, Buna ISD

 Three more teachers at the Buna Elementary resigned today. 

That means that there has been a total of 9 teachers resign within a period of less than a week. 

For a 3A school, that is an unheard of number of teachers leaving. All in less than a week. And the school district's answer to the teachers leaving, plus the economic shortage? 

Para-professionals. Limit out the number of kids that can be put in a classroom. In other words, cram the kids in classes like sardines in a can.

I know in other school districts they are having the same problem, but it's mostly with special education teachers. 

And in the Buna, the reasons are all the same.....Stress,( 30 kids of Gen Z, Gen Alpha, I am sorry ladies and gentlemen, the kids today are so different than the way kids were when you were in school, and there is no way to discipline them. And if you do, you're setting yourself up for legal lawsuits.)  high numbers of kids in the class and a large number just "bad-ass kids", As I was reminded "additional work load, long hours, additional paperwork, being treated like 3rd class citizens, micromanaging then not following through…"

Then, and I want you to look seriously people, at the number of people the Buna ISD has hired as some sort of administrator. 

I remember when Steve Hyden ran the district by himself, and that wasn't that long ago.

You got administrators running out the district's ass. And all of them have to come up with additional work for teachers to do to justify their existence.  

I seriously don't know what they do ( administrators.).......Jobs that used to take one person are taken over by 2-3 people. Seems to me, putting these people in the classroom at least part-time might alleviate at least some of the shortage of teachers in the classroom.

And once again, look at young people in college majoring in a course planning to teach school. It is at the lowest point .....EVER.....

The Buna Board of Trustees meet tonight( Thursday May 16).....I wonder if they have any answers? Or just "kick the can" down the road?

And I am serious here when I say this....You might want to tell teachers you know how much you appreciate them. Teaching is at the the lowest point ever, morale is at a low point, and just a little support helps more than you know....

If They're Breathing......Buna Schools

 And I get even more what should be upsetting news from the Buna Schools.....

Long time residents of Buna, the Buna Community are leaving the district as teachers. And we are talking about people leaving in good numbers. Other school districts are just more attractive....

Heck, people are moving to Kountze to teach......Who would have thought Kountze would be more attractive of a district?

Buna people who want to teach in Buna because, " These are my people." And they understand Buna. They understand their parents. They understand the kiddos. They are giving the district as they would say about pro-ballplayers, " Their hometown discount." ( There is a post going around showing how poorly some ISDs pay compared to others, and while I was at Buna, it paid the poorest in Region 5. ( That is the Beaumont area.) I think the only district that paid poorer was Spurger ISD and while I was there, a couple of board members , and I am serious here said, " We don't play football, we should be able to pay teachers more." And they increased their pay above Buna, and other schools.)

The rumor is it is going to be difficult to even find people to teach. And they might have to hire people who are " Just breathing." 

People teaching core classes( Math, English, Science, the Social Studies-History Economics Political Science) with no certificate......Heck, with no degrees much less one in the course they are teaching. 

And don't tell me people that have never taken microeconomics are qualified to teach AP Microeconomics or even AP Macroeconomics.....Or even regular micro, or macro....

Then, I learn of people leaving the high school, long time people who have spent their entire career at Buna Schools. And they are pretty much being forced out. 

People who do the "dirty work" at schools. 

Homecoming parades, the NHS, the Jingle Bell Ball, the Prom, Graduation etc....etc.....Just don't " happen" like people seem to think...They are a lot of planning and work. More than you think. And no matter what you do, some parent is not going to be happy, and god-forbid that parent ask to help. They'd rather gripe.

And a lot of people, teachers, just, " don't want to be bothered."

So, don't be shocked, the era of "warm bodies"  looks like it is coming to the Buna ISD.....

More Bad News From Buna Schools

 I had planned on writing on a totally different topic next, and in truth, had not planned to publish a blog until later this week. 

That was until I receive this information on Monday. I probably should have posted last evening, but we were without power here in this section of the county. 

The story is, this past Friday, six teachers at the elementary school abruptly resigned. 

Just "had enough" of the Buna ISD. 

Most have been offered positions at either the Evadale ISD or the Vidor ISD.....Others, just resigned without a future job position. 

( As much as I at one time " made fun" of the Vidor Public Schools, they are working to improve the district. They are hiring more and more people that I would consider an asset to the ISD...Heck, Vidor is a school I would even consider recommending to people to send their kids to......)

But back to Buna. 

It seems the teachers in the district are tired of being micromanaged. Told what to do for every little thing. 

The teachers are constantly having to test the kids BEFORE even being able to teach the material.  

And the concerning part is, all who resigned had a Texas Teacher's Certification. They were not non-certified teachers. 

I'm sorry, but people who want to be teachers in the first place, graduated from college with a certification, not get a degree, and decide down the road, generally after trying other jobs, decide, "Well, heck, let's try teaching school."

Morale in the teacher ranks is shot. Someone was calling it close to a " Revolution." Another person I spoke to referred to it as an " Insurrection."  

I know places like Texas A&M keep track of how many of their students, by Texas counties are working on getting a certification with their degrees. People actually wanting to be teachers. Fewer and fewer people are wanting to teach.

Back in the 1980s, I taught at a school district who had a number of people leave. 

It took years for the school district to get back to "normal."

There are more and more people asking me about " What have you heard about XYZ Schools?" Buna isn't giving my children decent education, or one you should expect.....As one parent put it....

" It feels like an experiment." 

How much will the schools future economic troubles effect the teachers, kids, especially the kids in the district.  And that worries people, heck, it worries me...

I wonder how many people will wait until the end of year to resign from the Buna ISD? Just waiting in order not to receive any backlash?

 

Number 14.....And I am Shocked...And Storytime from Mr. Thomas

 Humbled and surprised. 

This month, I have published the blog for 14 years. 

I started in May, and I had just, well, just had it with the Buna ISD. It was on the old blog, before I switched to Part Deaux. 

I was just, I had just had it with the Buna ISD at that point. I was upset with the way things were going for me with the district. 

I was upset with the administration. 

In the last few years, I was told that " Taking the kids to regional academic competition was like teachers getting to go on a vacation." 

Literally they acted like we should be paying them?

What the cornbread feck?

Has this Supt. of Schools taken a bunch of high school kids overnight anyplace? 

And to try and save the school district money, the motels we stayed in were anything but about 1 star. 

Get those kids who went on the region trip who stayed in the Somerville Inn to tell you about it. 

- There were 2 TVs in our room, the working one, sitting on top of the non-working TV. 

- The ash-tray was a cat food can. 

- There were bullet holes in out bathroom sink. 

- The other teacher I roomed with yelled at me saying, " Can't you flush the toilet?" To which I replied, " I've not been in the bathroom yet." 

- I slept in my clothes, on top on the bed spread, in a sleeping bag I brought just in case. The sleeping bag was burned when I go home. 

- We had a female faculty member get body lice, and she had to explain to her husband what happened. He almost divorced her. 

- The motel moved the girls across the courtyard from our wing of the motel. The girls were busy all night with trucks coming and going every 10 minutes, all with A&M stickers on the back the vehicles.( And if you're married to an Aggie, I'm sorry you're married to a minuteman...)

There were several other things that occurred,  I'll tell in a longer blog.....

I started this blog, before I joined Facebook,  and some can still be found on the old blog. It was an outlet to keep me from blowing a gasket my last few weeks at Buna. I had my points when I started writing and could have retired at any point.

I had enough my last few years at Buna and it wasn't the kids. Yes, not all kids liked me, but most I believe did. 

I never 'fit in' at BHS. I was never part of the clique at the ISD, and yes, like the town, the school had a clique.

And I tried my first few years, I finally was just  "me" and remembered, I am teaching for the kids, and it is " Just a job."

While I did not get along with many of the adults at the school, and I'll be honest, it hurt, I am like anyone else, I am human.... I don't know, there were people who just didn't understand it is about the kids. And I got into trouble because of it more than once.( I literally had adult people at the school who hated me, and I seriously did not/do not know why, and finally gave up trying with them.)

That said, I appreciate the parents and students at Buna. I appreciate you for reading the blog. Heck, I consider several of my former students as friends, and have been known to associate with them these many years later, something I don't with most of the adults I worked with at Buna.

Again, thank you for reading.

 

Okay Ladies, You're Not Getting Off the Hook.......

 Again, I had not planned to write this blog....Partially, I never enforced female dress code when I taught school. It was too much of a minefield. 

I recall a male history teacher ( Houston area school) across the hall from me who sent a young lady to the office for too short of a skirt. ( It was, at first, I thought she was a hooker visiting the school)

The next day her dad was at school confronting the history instructor making the remark " What are you doing looking?"

And in truth, he really could care less.....He was gay. He like many LGBT teachers, kept it hidden from the general public. 

AND in typical administrator fashion, instead of coming to the assistance of the teacher, enforcing dress code that the administrator had told teachers to enforce, the principal was like an old dog that someone had whipped too much, he laid on his back and wet himself. ( Figuratively)

Yesterday, after I wrote the blog on males poorly dressing at funerals, I was reminded by several female readers about poor dress in what should be a place(s) that should have some decorum and modesty.  

- Ladies wearing pajama pants to both funerals and church. 

- No bras in church and the shirt they were wearing looked like two cats were fighting to get out from underneath. 

- A beach church with a " Come as you are" sign out front, college age coeds wearing cover ups that reached the waist of the ladies, revealing bikini bottoms. The lady who wrote was upset that the 12 year old boys sitting on the row beside her were distracted from the service.....I hate to tell you, that if 66 year old me would have been on the row beside her, I would have been distracted. 

Ladies don't be griping about guys " taking a look." I've been around long enough I've seen y'all, " Take a Look" at the guys, so like Little Richard would say....." Shut Up."

Okay Men, This One's for You....And it Ain't Good.....

 I've been going to more and more funerals here lately. 

Part of it, well, most of it is my age. 

That said, I am appalled at the way men are looking at these funerals, both at funeral home, but especially at churches. 

Now I don't expect you to be like Bryant Long or The Govteach, trying to be the best dressed man in the room, ( I've recently acquired a Ralph Lauren suit in  cream with blue Prince of Wales check, it just screams English, people who do not know me will expect a British accent when I speak, not he NE Texas Appalachian twang I got from my Mother. I have a little different accent from SE Texas twang. If I try, I can sound like I am an old school Univ. of Virginia grad.)  really do not, but if you go to a funeral, at least clean the cow crap off your shoes/boots.

Put on a shirt, pair of pants that doesn't have a hole in them the size of Montana. 

Wear some clothes that have been washed at least in the past 3 weeks.

And don't tell me you can't afford decent clothes, you're driving a $90,000 dollar new truck. You can get stuff from Walmart, heck the Treasure Hut and look like you're going to a soiree in the fashionable West End for pennies of the original cost.

I'm not going to say anything about you wearing your damn baseball cap in the church-house, the older men in Ireland/Scotland and England are apt to be wearing wool flat caps in services, especially in older churches and cathedrals in which the heating is questionable at best......and over there I have been to Easter services where it was 33F outside and pouring rain. The church may have been 50F, with what heat they had inside.    

But even there, the men took off their hats/caps during prayer. So many men now are leaving their hats on during prayer.

You may not be a believer, but show some etiquette. 

I've been to services of different faiths and I tried to do everything I could to show some sort of respect. 

And you people not pulling over for funeral processions. 

Technically, there is no state law that that requires you to pull over, but there are laws that require you to pull over for emergency vehicles. I know here in Orange County, constables escort funerals. 

Again, whether or not you will get a ticket, show some respect. Pull over 

One day it's going to be your Mom, Dad, Grandma...

 

" Hello, We're from Buna"

 So, I had not planned to blog today, have appointments today, and I am taking a break at the Compound before I head to the next one. 

So, on the way home, I stop at the store and run into a couple I do not know. She acts like she knows me, and says " Are you The Govteach?"

And in my typical answer...." It depends." 

She then then goes into a long spiel about how she loves the way I " Take on the school district." " And say things that need to be said." 

She calls her husband over, I assume, and introduces me as " The Govteach." 

You know, strange people coming up to you to talk about the blog, well, it can be spooky.

By the way, if I told you the names, some of you would go, " My relatives." ( And they told ALL they were related to in Buna.)

Oh man, if I only knew I would now have an "alter-ego." I would have chosen a cooler name.....Like Batman, or the Green Hornet.....Then again, those names are taken.