Thumbs down to District 49.

Just a few weeks ago I put up a post about Mark's new classroom.  Well kindly disregard that post please.  Mark found out today that he will be moving to a new middle school here in Colorado Springs and will be teaching not 6th grade Western Hemisphere like he was but 8th grade US History.
For the last week or so "rumors" have been floating around his school that there will be three teachers who have to move to a different school. The amazing (said with heavy sarcasm) school district he works for over estimated the number of students his school would have enrolled for the year. They were off by 140!! How do you misplace 140 students?  At another school in the district they were under by 200 so all those teachers have classes of 40+ students.  So three and 1/2 weeks into the school year they decide that some teachers need to be moved around to help other schools that have a higher enrollment.
Now I understand the need to move teachers around but I don't think they are going about it very well. Mark's (former) school takes each of the core classes (Social Studies, Math, Science, and Language Arts) and assigns one teacher from that core to a "team".  Those 4 teachers then work together with the same group of students.  Most of the teachers in 6th grade at his school are elementary certified which goes through 6th grade so they can teach any subject in 6th grade. So what the admin has decided to do is get rid of the Social Studies teachers who are not elementary certified (ie Mark and 2 other teachers) and just have every 6th grade teacher teach one class of Social Studies.  So every Math, Science, and Language Arts teacher will teach three classes of their subject and one Social Studies class. So now 9 teachers have to redo their schedules (and most of the students) and teach a subject that they have never taught or haven't taught for a long time.  To compound matters the school adopted a new curriculum for Social Studies so no one has taught it and they do not even have a text book.  To me that sounds like 9 frustrated teachers and 370 kids who will not be learning much in Social Studies.  Can we say worksheets every day?  As a history-education major that makes me so sad. History can be so fun if you have a teacher who cares and knows the information. I  personally think its really important for kids to learn about other countries. Especially since our government is so insistent that the US be so involved in solving every countries problems.
Another super annoying thing is that Mark's (former) school had to accept a forced transfer this year. (Meaning someone who a different school didn't want to work at their school anymore but is tenured so can't be fired) from the school Mark is being moved to.  So this woman gets to stay at Skyview in 6th grade (basically take Mark's job) and Mark has to move and go take over her old job.  She was teaching 8th grade US History there and now Mark has to.  So Skyview loses a really good teacher like Mark and has to keep this lady no one else wanted.  (She is the only secondary (6-12th grade) Social Studies teacher in 6th grade now) The teachers and admin at  Skyview have all made it clear that it is their loss and Horizons gain.  I know I am biased but Mark truly is an awesome teacher. He knows the stuff and he enjoys teaching. It's sad because he has really connected well with his students and has been enjoying his classes, more so then last year. The principal let Mark know that if there was a position open at Skyview next year to send a letter of interest and he would basically get it. Its nice to know that they are not happy about losing Mark.
So starting Monday (yep three days to pack up his old classroom, make sure his students have current grades, set up a new classroom, meet new admin, meet new teachers, and develop some lesson plans on  subject he has never taught) Mark will be working at Horizon Middle School. (which is not nearly as nice a school as Skyview) The only benefit is that his school is now only 5 minutes away instead of 10 but really that's not worth much in the long run.

All I can say is that this situation makes international teaching and the State Department look better and better. Mark thinks he will take the State department test this October.