Educide

The Stand

James Calabash knew he made the right choice to leave. The security that teaching offered wasn't enough. He wasn't prepared to sacrifice his mental and physical health for a pension that he might not have lived to enjoy. Practicing parkour politics and stupid-people fatigue brought on by the rapid erosion of the educational landscape drained the joy from the field. James didn't want to be an uninspired teacher and he was quickly heading there. There was nothing worse. He wasn't averse to returning to the classroom to inspire young people through his experiences in the future but he was certain that Malville education saw the last of him.

Contexting. That's how he defined it. Just packaging things in neat boxes in his head. Why? Perspective, was in order. Things had gotten too messy. Calabash faced career-defining decisions brought on by his passion for the morals he lived. His quandary; abide by the values that made him or the check that sustained him. James wasn't distraught about his circumstance, only his arrival there. He could always get a check. His integrity, on the other hand, was irreplaceable. James' choice was a hard one to make because he felt dislodged from the community that he loved and fought for, helpless that the young people whom he served with passion, who possessed so much possibilities, would continue to be exploited in a subtly erosive coup. The steadfast beliefs that served him well were situational principles, mere obstacles to be hurdled by those who dictated education to my village. Second-rate schooling, however, was extended to all students in the tri-community district–Laketown, Lynside and Malville.

James' punishment for having a pair of testicles was premeditated castration. A teacher in transition was he. What next? Start his own business? Brave the cut-throat atmosphere of the corporate market with the possible benefit of a thicker wallet? Wishful. Maybe the fulfillment of a non-profit, with little profit. Calabash had choices but they were limited in the short term. The lawsuit footprint hamstrung his candidacy. Entrepreneurship ideas were many. Calabash felt it his duty to establish a career preparation enterprise for graduates and community members who lacked or wanted to refine their career preparation skills. But, it was more charity than economic viability. He knew he could also create training media for cultural sensitivity in the workplace. Writing books, movie scripts and plays were also endeavors he considered.

It wasn't difficult drawing parallels of Malville School District's current situation and its post-World War II unresolved past. Vestiges of that time of conflict still lingered in the relationships between the three communities. It manifested in traditions that continued unchallenged, the unhealthy reflection of its public school demographic and a shortsighted "ownership" philosophy that still governed. The River metaphor, still strong. But, there was also a changing. Its own population was beginning to turnover. Precocious children full of optimism, Black, White and Brown, not constrained by the baggage of parents and grandparents were willing to traverse the River for friendship, love and community. There was hope.

Partially informed about the affairs of the district, he had a hard time reconciling his students, black and white, to their parents and grandparents' actions of the past. The turnover in Laketown's population was significant to the lack of political strength it now possesses. The war stories were not being handed down and circulated. Although there was always a two-tiered system of political currency between Laketown, Lynside and Malville, the rates had widened drastically over the last decades. Gone were the powerful, courageous, intellectually bright leaders of those tumultuous times. The NAACP branch at Laketown contracted into a feeble force. The children, except for a few were politically unconscious, uninterested in standing against the issues that bothered them. Many of those issues, the same ones that Laketown's 1969 generation of protesters battled courageously. Their courageous effort seemed in vain.

James built strong friendships that continued online and in random meetings in the nooks of the communities. He learned much from his students and maintained thick friendships with some. Mutual respect made for longevity. James still did recommendations and gave academic and career advice but in the end, the Malville administration were so bent on getting him they sacrificed the education of the community's children.

It was a season of filtering. Calabash's true friends would rise. They called him regularly to keep him encouraged, sent him job openings, texted words of support, and even offered loans. Kenton, Betty, Bella, and the King family didn't let a week go by without some form of communique. It hardened his relationship with them. Bella, one of his few close colleagues, solicited his resume so she could shop it. He was thankful.

James believed he failed them. He didn't stay in the fight. He was worn by the fighting. It hurt his family immeasurably. Suffering them anymore was just too much.

Led by Dr. Joachim Kroll, Malville's administrative leadership was a ruthless regime whose notable competencies included intimidation, coercion, manipulation and deception. The Board left the Kroll administration unchecked as state mandates, district policies and union agreements were manipulated to serve his bidding. The District's educational philosophy was hacked. Kroll, crafted the Board through shrewd politics, stomped resistance, and maintained the narcoleptic state of rapidly disenfranchising Laketown.

Calabash experienced it firsthand. In his last year, they conveniently "shifted" their educational policy and applied quasi-administrative "appointments" that favored their friends and families. It was administrative social promotion and no one could do anything about it because they played find-the-lady with the rules. Their planning created an unequal education for the students of Malville. The local NAACP, powerless, and the superintendent's own hand-sculpted committee, caught up in his web and their own self-importance.

The seeds of division planted during integration years, had grown, changing a predominantly African American, white-collar professional Laketown into a blue-collar 'hood with less college-educated students, divisive politics, un-stabling transience, and increasing rental properties. Far from the image that some projected about it, Laketown still boasted solid economic statistics despite the limited number of businesses in the community. All of 1.2 square miles, according to the 2010 US Census, Laketown's median household income is over $98,000 and only 6% of the population lived below the poverty line. Of the 1287 families living in the community just over 50% were married couples with another 27% female-headed, single-parent families. The unemployment rate of 8% masks the low quality of jobs, troubling number of part-time workers and the many residents who have left the labor force.

Yet, James was an aberration. Recapping his circumstance was easy. Malville offered him a .4 position (40% of a position). Part time. It was significant for several reasons and the main one, no health insurance benefits. They wanted him gone. They tried several times before, including .5 in 2011. No insurance then. They couldn't get him on performance so Business Education as a discipline suddenly became obsolete. Their predictable, unsubstantiated justification of, "budgetary constraints", fell embarrassingly short of rigor since they opted to establish an "Astronomy" elective while gutting the Business department to 1 teacher, down from 4 in 2009.

Business Courses butchered to 5, of which 3 are computers and 1 was an authentic Business course with the other, keyboarding. Home Economics was eliminated under previous administrations but never restored despite being mandated. State-required middle school Technology classes, gone. Computer classes at the middle school, sacrificed. IPads distributed in 2014, would suffice for the lack of computer literacy skills and basic software proficiency. Electives critical to student learning of stripped past the bone, replaced by mind-numbing test preparation, double-period Honors and AP coursework - a ploy meant to shortcut real learning to the goal of better grades and flashier headlines. All this, while promoting a "Career Readiness and College Preparedness" focus in 2013-14. Somehow this was reasoned acceptable as Malville prepared its students for global competition yet they weren't even competitive in its local region of Nassau County.

How they averted public ire after the 2009 state audit was stupendous. Tom Napoli's report was scathing. The district exceeded its unreserved fund balance of 4% of the ensuing year's budget by $1.74 million resulting in the District's taxpayers paying higher tax levies than necessary. The vague terms of the collective bargaining agreement allowed administration to make Board-unauthorized separation payments to administrators where calculation methods were different for departing administrators and, undocumented. The District also paid its Treasurer as an independent contractor in clear violation to its own statute and regulation. The audit also revealed that the Treasurer did not properly control the use of his "signature disk" used for disbursements, verifying checks for accuracy before payments, and for reviewing cancelled checks. The Comptroller's Office pointed out that this made District monies vulnerable to impropriety. Lastly, the District was cited for defying its own procurement policy of obtaining requests for proposals (RFPs) when obtaining professional services. Because competition was not solicited, the best value was not obtained.

A quick google of the District's Treasurer's name revealed some startling information. In 1996, he was reprimanded with a 2 year suspension but was given a 2-year probation and a $10,000 fine for gross negligence as a result of making "errors" in an audit. He had his AICPA membership revoked in 2004 for violating the Codes of Professional Conduct of the AICPA. His liability was leverage. He wasn't the only administrator with a compromising past. It seemed, they were sought after – a requirement even.

A psy-ops approach to public relations was instituted in 2008. It worked. They cultured the information with favorable albeit misleading indicators to the Malville audiences, influencing emotions and reasoning making it easier to accept any Board decision. Kroll supporters followed almost blindly; unbudgeted administrative salary increases; phantom student growth; tragic AP performances tailored for public consumption; and learning opportunities shrunk without opposition. There was no effort to monitor Malville graduates beyond graduation.

Calabash couldn't endorse Malville's education product. James, like any serious educator, knew that his students judged the world by the dimensions of their experiences – academic and hands-on. He believed Malville was obligated to show its students how big the world really was. Internships. International trips. Exchange students. New, evolving, and interesting disciplines. Malville once practiced the global development of its young people. The Prophecy, its yearbook, testified in texts and graphics.

Calabash, Jones, and Palacio v Malville Board of Education. That's how far it got. Calabash and two of his colleagues filed suit against the district for its discriminatory behavior and renowned bullying tactics. Originally there were seven teachers but two, who were forced to retire, couldn't endure – one physically and the other, emotionally. Another had her charges annulled because the statute of limitations ran out and the last was concerned that she had 2 years left before retiring and didn't want blowback. But, their case could stand on its own and they couldn't wait for their day, especially after years of abuse and district gamesmanship.

So, there he was in his mid-forties; unemployed after 18 years in Education, job-hunting with all the wrong stigmas attached – discrimination lawsuit, black-male, 6-figured salary, in an entirely different era. James seriously considered exiting a field that a few of his black, male friends happily did, for essentially the same reasons. Education desperately needed strong Black males to cure her children's education ills. But, status quo education resented them for their vocal opposition to its continued malnourishment of black and brown children. Quite a dilemma. He put his career on the line for his community but in the fire, support was scant.

Malville had a negligible share of exceptional students who needed very little to be academically successful. Self-motivated. Strong. Inspired. Bash, as James is also known, became active in Laketown because he witnessed too many of his students, who cake-walked the four years of high school, go to college and struggle; others, borderline illiterates, somehow socially promoted through 12th Grade with marginal employment skills. The prospects were much worse for those students who found high school challenging. Many dropped out of college after their first year. Colleges would enroll Snuffleupagus for a semester, as long as tuition was paid. Many lasted only 1 semester. Under-prepared. Overwhelmed. Remedial classes didn't help much. Others, changed their trajectory from 4-year to two-year community colleges with open enrollment, less arduous. Their reasons ran the gamut. Finances. Family. Parenthood. Lack of academic focus. Not smart enough. But most would say, boldly, they weren't ready for college in spite of being perennial, MHS Honor Roll students.

The resilient ones credited their parents for exposure beyond public school, and a will to succeed. There is no sicker feeling as an educator than facilitating failure of your students. James' constitution didn't spare his conscience so he had to act. Substandard writing skills, narrow learning experiences, lenient learning environment, and a community casual about the successes of its public school system was indicted.

Money left the classroom in a resource exodus. It was a damning change in the District's established model. The administration made a baseless decision to invest in a penitentiary-styled security system for 600 students in the high school where incidences of violence were more nuisance than tangible problem. The scores of cameras watching the middle and high schools, the maintenance contracts that came along, and the beefed up security personnel didn't exist until 2009. Instead of focusing on building relationships with students which directly minimize and most times eliminate incidences of violence, the leadership chose to employ cold, expensive, impersonal, cameras with the teenage-aversive, big brother effect. The new structure created administrators who managed the building by monitoring the school's facilities from their desk instead of legwork.

The system doubled as an older brother for keeping tabs on teachers. On typical mornings it was hard to ignore the frustrations of students as they lined up like cattle to get through security. Valuable time was wasted, the process was intimidating and it sometimes created a pretext for early morning confrontation with security before first class. And, for a student, it is one sure way to temper a day. The process criminalized students by its format. No one heard their cry or cared. A sort of conditioning was taking place. Instead of using those resources to understand kids through interaction and stimulating students through exciting programs, they were being treated like state property. The student body was being institutionalized and there was no public outcry. It was intoxicatingly subtle.

The consequence of living in the district where he worked imposed that James function by a different set of rules than other teachers. He knew the terrain and the people intimately. They were his neighbors. He coached and mentored their children. His parent-teacher conferences took place in the groceries, church grounds, streets and homes of his constituents so he bore a different level of accountability. James wore the responsibility proudly even when its weight got heavy.

Although he felt as though he was reaching the end of a long goodbye since the district's hostility began in 2008, never could he imagine the emotional strain it would inflict. He gave Malville ten years of service, much of it that went beyond the confines of his union contract. He was a wealthier man for the Malville experience. From the teeming energy of the campus to the culturally-enlightening conversations in the corridors and humor and tragedy in the classrooms, Bash was Malvillized. He saw the school at its best and felt the wrath of its worst. There was so much to be optimistic about and yet so much that troubled his spirit.

Calabash got used to the phrase, "That's Malville", when something was wrong. So did his students. They internalized it and expected less. It became a district character trait and defined the mediocrity of Malville. No initiative in place tackled it so it was left to fester. When things worked right, it was a pleasant surprise and not routine operation. Whether it be a disabled copier, down network or an asinine policy, stakeholders just coped. As one teacher put it, "had we been a business, we'd be out of business".

In the year that James' daughter graduated valedictorian of Clifford M. Walker Middle School, he was introduced to the faceless tormenter that so many in the district feared. Calabash refused to enroll her at Malville High School even after being prodded several times by Principal Stepin Fetchit and Superintendent Dr. Joachim Kroll. The powers were not happy. Even before her mediocre performance on Lutheran High School's (LuHi) entrance exam, he knew her academic achievements were overrated. He kept tabs on her work. She was capable of much more. He also knew she was intellectually curious, resilient and loved challenges. The first of many run-ins with the bully began. Later on, his son, then a 4th Grader, had his learning tampered with, and there was no perceivable motive except a malicious one. James' son was pulled out of critical periods of instruction, without James' permission, and placed in an environment where he was taught marginal curricula. It became so grotesque, his teacher alerted James to the depravity.