With a smile on her face, the principal signaled for me to go over to where she was standing. She was about 5’ 5”, light skinned, and loved to wear outrageous outfits. “Ms. Pluck, come quickly, I want you to meet the manager of the lunch room!” She said with eagerness in her voice. Following a brief exchange of hellos, her face tightened up, and her usual grave expression signaled that we were about to talk business. Turning toward me with her eyebrows scrunched together she leaned over and said, “Ms. Pluck, as you know we have had many ‘situations’ here in the lunch room and it is very important that we keep our eyes and ears open so that none of this continues to happen. There have been too many fights in here and some kids have been arrested because of incidents that started in the lunchroom. Jose, the manager, and I were talking about approaches we could take to keep this a safe environment. And other issues I want to address are that students cut the line, and then take too many condiments and salads from the salad bar. And this place is a mess!”
I knew about the ‘situations’ she was referring to, because since I’d been in the lunchroom there were instances when a small scuffle transcended into a brawl before security responded to any attempted call. To make a call, we had to find the nearest classroom and hope that the phone worked, otherwise it was impossible to get security in there quickly enough.
In 2006, the teacher contractual obligation changed. The city and the teacher’s union agreed to the “Circular Six assignment,” a 45-minute a day obligation to perform some school duty outside of regular teaching duties. Every principal has a choice about what those duties will be. Our principal instituted “lunch duty” as one of the assignments. The idea is that if teachers want more money, then they have to work more. Ironically though, we are working more and still not getting paid enough.
Jose, the manager, and Mrs. Johnson walked me around the room, pointing to the places where they thought I should stand. Jose dictated his concerns and Mrs. Johnson listened.
“O.k., so what exactly do you want me to do during lunch duty?”
“Walk over here with me for a minute, will you. Ms. Pluck, the lunch aides are complaining that you just sit in the back and don’t help monitor the room.”
“I sit at the desk by the back door to block kids from sneaking out into the stairwell.”
“Do you grade your papers while on lunch duty?”
“Sometimes, when I’m sitting at the desk, but I always make it a point to walk around the room, and make sure things are under control. I have overcrowded classes, and it’s impossible to get all my work done before I leave and I never leave before five.”
“I understand you have work to do. Everyone does, but this is not the place for you to do your grading. That should be done during your prep period.”
The circular six assignment replaced one of the two prep periods originally set aside for preparing units, grading papers, and meeting with students, to say the least. What the principal of the school was signifying, was that forty-five minutes was enough time to assess my one hundred and eighty six students. I had 76 English honors students with an additional 110 mainstream kids, so every minute of my time was valuable. Each one of those 186 students were required to pass the English regents exam that June to graduate high school, and it was becoming almost impossible for me to productively assess their work. I was already taking piles of work home almost every night.
“Ms. Pluck, all the schools in the city are overcrowded. There is nothing we could do to condense the classes, it is a city wide issue that can’t be dealt with right now.” Her eyes hurled echoes of frustration.
We walked over to the where students were standing in line and she told me I should stand there at the beginning of the period, to make sure that no students cut the line.
“When the line subsides,” She said, “move to the condiment area and salad bar and make sure the students are not taking too much.” She continued, “Fifteen minutes before the period ends, do a sweep of the room with the garbage can, enforcing a clean environment.”
There are sixteen activities from the Circular Six menu of procedures that administration could implement into their school. Among these are common planning time, hallway duty, one-on-one tutoring, bus duty, and cafeteria duty. Activities like curriculum planning, one on one tutoring, inter-disciplinary articulation, and professional development are also on the menu of procedures, but are already part of what we do as teachers on a regular basis. Our principal could have recognized the amount extra work we already do with pay; instead, she used her power to turn me into a part time janitor.
-Ms. Pluck
