Today's Protest

Since the walkout was stopped by the courts, the teachers' union decided to stage protests at each school today for one hour before school started.

But that photo is from a different school.

At our tiny school, only 3 teachers were picketing. I'm not sure why...some of it no doubt has to do with the fact that as a small school we only have 11 teachers to begin with. And our school is in a very out-of-the-way location -- the old-style Hollywood Hills streets that border the two ends of the school are narrow. One is a dead end, the other is winding, so the only people to really see the protesters are the parents dropping off kids, and since there is literally nowhere to park or even stop your car, you have to drive past the protestors, onto the campus to let the kids out... I know that when the plan for today was a strike, the teachers were not planning on picketing at the school at all, having decided in previous years' labor unrest that it was worthless. They were only going to protest at the district offices downtown.

I had prepared Boylee to see people shouting and carrying on, but all in all it was totally undramatic.

In other news, our faithful councilman has sent a pleading letter to the schools superintendent and our Board of Education representative asking them to reconsider the most troublesome cut for our school -- the administrator cuts. The idea that for half of the week we'd have no administrator at all on campus is absurd and dangerous. We'd have a "senior administrative assistant" (read: office lady), a half-time junior administrative assistant, a janitor and a yard aide. I think we have a nurse one day a month but I'm not going to count her.

Think of the everyday issues that arise at school -- some kids need discipline, someone gets a little bit injured, some part of the school infrastructure stops working. Now think of the rare yet completely plausible issues that might arise -- a more serious injury, a fire in the neighborhood (totally likely given our location), an earthquake...the list could go on and on. Now think of who will be dealing with that: the 1.5 office ladies, the very nice janitor, and the yard aide, who barely speaks English. I WANT AN ADMINISTRATOR. I WANT SOMEONE WITH AN ADMINISTRATOR CREDENTIAL.