So it seems that our district is in another fiscal crisis. We have our 6^th or 7^th finance person in the ten years we have been having fiscal crises, and by the time the crimes of the past catch up, the person or persons responsible are long gone. It is a systemic problem that I do not see a way to fix. And our course, current District Personnel have to make cuts and sent a survey to all members asking where these cuts should come from.

While I appreciate the effort and the attempt at transparency, I do not think that this does anything more than give our employees a place to vent frustration and stir up anger.

There is a lot that goes into funding and running a school district, and before I was a part of the negotiations team, I was blind to the many factors and constraints on spending that school districts must follow. It took me a good 3-4 years to learn all of the ins and outs of school finance, and I am by no means an expert, as my main job is teaching. But I do know about funding and about how we can and cannot spend certain monies our district brings in. I understand, for instance, that our bond money we have in the district cannot be spent on personnel and hiring, and it needs to be spent for the specific things it was voted for, in our case 21^st century classrooms and building improvements. From the outside this looks like the district is choosing facilities over teachers, in fact, there was no way for those dollars to be spent any other way. Same with titled monies. They can’t just spend Title 1 monies any way I like, it has to meet criteria, or we get penalized.

I do not think that this does anything more than give our employees a place to vent frustration and stir up anger.

But even knowing all of this, it is still hard for me, on a survey, to accurately and meaningfully suggest ways to save money. How is a teacher or secretary, without a few years of budget analysis and school finance training, supposed to give input on a meaningful level? What this turns in to is a gripe session about those employees biggest pet peeves, and a way for them to express their anger by targeting those who think are the source of their frustrations.

As you may know, I am a TOSA in my district. There are a few of us, and we each have a specialty. Mine is Digital Learning and Media Innovation. I train teacher and students how to use technology effectively and engagingly in the classroom. I also run about 29 social media accounts, I manage all school websites, I run our 1MillionProject for secondary, and I produce 2 student productions (news and podcasts) at different sites. I am out in teachers’ classrooms or offices providing support 2-3 times a day. I am responsible for our District Digital Citizenship curriculum and have brought every site and our district to Common Sense Certification for Digital Citizenship. Two of the other TOSAs run our benchmarks, district wide contests, professional developments, and textbook adoptions. Two of our TOSAs are math focused, providing intervention for struggling math students. We each fit a niche in our district and are each funded out of different (mostly titled and Supplemental and Concentration grant monies). I can’t really tell you more specifically what all of our TOSAs do because I am busy doing my job, just as they are busy doing theirs. But that provides a “public image” problem as we are not marketing or hyping up the value we bring to our district as a whole.  

As you can image, many of the comments on the surveys will be calling for cuts to come in the way of getting rid of TOSAs all together. Some of them are from people who do not know what goes on in a classroom and just sees an opportunity to jump on a bandwagon.

Is [my] view also distorted and clouded by my sense of self-worth and maybe inflated self-importance?

I love my job but knowing that many teachers don’t want me around is starting to take a toll on me. It makes me second guess all the things I have been doing and my value and contributions to this place I love and these teachers I thought I was helping. It makes me ask questions like “why am I doing this?” and “is what I do for students, teacher and our community through social media really worth the anger, stress and emotional toll it takes to do this job?” Knowing how many teachers want us (the TOSAs) gone is disheartening and upsetting to be sure, but maybe they have a point? Would my district and these students be better off with TOSAs back in the classroom? Sure, I have a macro view and can maybe see a bit more of the impact we bring, but in the end, is that view also distorted and clouded by my sense of self-worth and maybe inflated self-importance? I want to say no, and I want to think that the things my fellow TOSAs and I matter, and bring value and efficiency to our district, but with all the blowback and the anger directed toward these positions, can I really be sure?

I have about three months left in the year, and I am not the kind of person to bring anything less than my best, but even bringing my best, will it even matter in the end? That remains to be seen.