Too rich

So the other day i was escorting a student to the rest room on the way to an assembly when I saw the secretary from the main office shouting at a man in a blue uniform. He was pushing the photocopier out of the office into the hall, and she was saying "give me my damn paper. The paper in that machine is MINE. I paid for the paper." He jumped aside as she started pulling open the drawers and taking out reams of goldenrod and blue paper used to make copies in the building because our budget for the year is blown already and we're using whatever leftovers people have.

All the copiers got repossessed. Too rich! We don't have enough books to go around and we were told to make copies of mandated City-curriculum worksheets and materials from what books we do have, and now we have no copiers. I'll have to hide my personal copier/scanner/printer lest room 210 turns into JC Penny's from the original Dawn of the Dead, with moaning besmirched staff and faculty clamboring at the door hoping to use up my printer cartridges. I don't even like using my printer/scanner/copier because the ink runs out after about 40 pages. I've been typing worksheets onto Word and putting them on my LCD projector for students.

The Big Cheese also said he has over-hired and needs to cut 14 staff positions due to decreased enrollment. Whoever gets cut gets shipped to a City school with an opening. Good lord. It could happen to any of us at any time. And after this announcement he had the nerve to complain that he hears staff morale is low and he doesn't understand how we can treat him this way.

There are a dozen "support" staff who are 20-and 30-year vets. They "advise" staff and faculty and do audits of our classrooms. I say cut them, but I have a feeling newbies like myself will get the shaft and these vets will move into our classrooms. Who knows?

Meanwhile the State has slashed cash for a lot of the grants and programs which fund my wife's organizations. Gulp.