Tumultuous Years...50º/Windy

The 10 years that I supervised the kitchen saw many changes...I worked for 5 different superintendents and 3 principals...The downward spiral started with a man so totally out of his league, over his head, and borderline stupid that he was pathetic...No people skills what so ever, knew little about budgeting/finance and tried to bully his way through by convincing the school board members, that they were not to communicate with any of the staff (certified or classified.)..Luckily some of the board members had a backbone...His 3 year contract was not renewed, he sued the school district, classified staff in particular were called in to give depositions and he lost his job...During his tenure, the long time principal, saw the writing on the wall and accepted a job a crossed the state and with great hopes the board hired a local person known to the board and staff, to fill the principal spot...I was on that interviewing committee and listened to the man answer all the questions put before him with positive answers, assuring us that he could do the job of rebuilding moral...In reality he had a strange way of rebuilding, as he set to work pitting the certified staff against the classified staff...He also tried to become a "buddy" to high school students instead of being their authority figure...Before, the students had been taught and encouraged to treat all staff with respect but were now led to believe that classified staff was there to clean up after them...We were relegated to servant level.

I personally butted heads with this man, practically from his first day on the job...In his buddy role with the students, he saw no reason why they couldn't leave campus and go downtown, to eat a good lunch and when the school board raised the cost of lunches for adults, he advised the certified staff to boycott the lunch room!..I think lunch prices for adults were raised from $1.50 to $2.00...Pop machines had been banned from the school, years before, but with the promise of new score boards in the gymnasium (furnished by coke), with the new principals blessing, they set up a coke machine in the cafeteria...Every morning as we worked at preparing a healthy lunch, we listened to the "ker chung" of quarters going in and the "plunk" of pop cans coming out of this machine, with its flashing lights, begging for more!..Now students were allowed to take open cans of pop, in the halls and classrooms...Of course if anything was spilled, all they had to do was call for a custodian to come clean up the mess...AND the only custodian on duty during the day (because of staff cuts,) was also the Head of Maintenance, who was now cleaning bathrooms and emptying garbage cans, as well as driving bus, organizing transportation, and supervising what was left of his staff.

Stay tuned, things were going to change, but would it get any better?...Hugs To All...OWAV:)