The Day I Got RIF'ed

I know it has been a while, but as no one is reading this or has visited the site, I do not feel all that bad. We are still a few weeks out from leaving Yuma. What a glorious day that will be. Things are happening all around us. This week I learned that one of the other 4th grade teachers in Kiev is from Grand Rapids. He and I will be planning together and working with some of the same kids in reading and math: it is a very small world. But more on all that later.

As I have mentioned in the past, and as no doubt you have seen o the news and felt in your wallet, the country is in a recession. I know, it surprised me too. Arizona has not escaped this recession, though Yuma is only starting to show the first signs of it. However, to save money, the state of Arizona has decided to cut school funding, because who cares about the future? Right? Anyway, that has caused our district to look at making cuts.

When the idea was first introduced the superintendent claimed he wanted to be as open as possible. All the teachers and support staff were told to make a list of things they could live with and things that should not be cut at all. Then we had to vote. Finally the superintendent ignored all of that and decided to screw the teachers and support staff, while making no cuts (even adding a position) at the administrative level. The whole time we were asking, "if we need to loose staff why not loose one of the five people in the Human Resource office who collect larger paychecks than teachers?" But, the fix was in.

Today, I was hand delivered a letter by my principal from the superintendent of Yuma Elementary School District # 1. The letter was to inform me that I was part of the RIF (reduction in force) and would not have a job next year. This just made me all the more happy to be getting out of Yuma. It is amazing because this town for the past two decades has been hiring more than 150 new teachers each year. The local college could not produce enough teachers to meet this demand. Now, we are letting teachers go. We are not the only district in this state doing this. We have friends in Phoenix, who just lost their jobs (along with every other 1st year teacher at their districts --- about 250 teachers per district [and there are 20+ districts in Phoenix]). It is a sad time for education in Arizona...

Now, back to the Ukraine. We have joined a message board of people currently in Ukraine teaching at the school we will be and all of the new hires coming in next year. It has been a great resource for us, as we have been able to get advice from people who have been through the exact experience we will be. This is where I discovered that the person I will be working most closely with is from Grand Rapids. We have also had great advice for packing and what to bring. We are so excited about this adventure and have discovered that Google Earth offers us a look at where we will be living.

As we get more information, I will update this site.