This school district is RIF'ing (Reduction In Force, IIRC) about 163 or so staff members. This is about 6-8 staff members per school which equates to about 180 students. All to drive the districts costs down. They're also cutting some programs such as art, music, and life management (economics) which is extremely silly. They could seriously be cutting their technology budget. They think just because you throw money at technology that it somehow makes them excused for not knowing how to use the technology. The district switched to PCs because that's what everyone else is doing. I guess they shouldn't blame kids that get knocked-up either because "that's what everyone else is doing." Anyways, the switch to PCs has cost a lot of money. It meant buying new computers for all the schools even if the olds ones worked fine. It meant buying new software, training the staff to use them (not yet done), and then hiring people like me for each school. Then it meant having to buy brand new Dell PCs because the 3-4 year old Transources have serious fundamental design flaws and they were all starting to fail. FWIW, Transource had the lowest bid when the district was looking to purchase PCs. I'm told even the Dells are starting to fail at some schools en masse. This is not saving money in the least.

It's even worse that no one here knows how to use technology to it's full potential. All the PCs/Macs are used to search the internet, teach office, and typing. They are not teaching anything creative and they are definitely not helping the student to learn both a non-linear and linear thought process without the ADD. My biggest gripe is that not even the teachers use their computers of if they do, it's not often. One of my bosses the other day said my school had one of the lowest Dell/Student ratio in the district and she wanted to send over some Dells. She wanted 10 teachers that have old Macs and "needed" to be upgraded. Sigh. I just got 7 Transources to replace old Macs (below 5400) a few weeks ago and four teachers told me not to install them because they'd rather use their Mac that they've had for 7 years and that has all their files on it. And how exactly does giving teachers new Dells/PCs help the students in any way? The students don't often get to use the computers because there is only one in each classroom and always more than one student would want to use a computer. I told my boss that getting more Dells here just isn't practical until at least the end of the year.

About three months ago the principal ordered an identical Dell for him and the assistant principal. Both have graphite iMacs as their primary computer and the district has told them that all administrative personnel must be on PCs by the end of this year. The order was lost for about two months and when the PC we received is not what we ordered (it came with a 15 inch LCD flat panel instead of the 18 inch we ordered). I have no clue why the principal wanted an LCD screen or why he wanted a wireless keyboard/mouse. Personally I find them both a waste of money for a school district. The assistant principal did not receive his computer and he's been stressing over it because the parents at another school have been talking like he won't be here next year. It was even worse because he was typing the wrong passwords which caused his to worry even more about being canned. Which is very possible, since parents and other people not directly involved with them that make the decisions do not understand how important it is to have both a principal and an assistant principal. One is the decision maker and one is the disciplinarian their duties do not overlap and without two there would be horrible time scheduling problems.

That's another thing. I have this set up as a well oiled machine. The teachers never contact me because of problems because either they just don't like me or there really isn't any problems. So I just sit here all day waiting for something to break. The teachers/staff always ask me if I am busy when they have a problem. Usually I just chuckle. I guess I could say "Yeah, but you're problem is far more important than what I am doing right now" which would honestly be the truth but it sounds like I am making fun of them or something and I can't exactly do that. If I know the teacher well enough I will definitely joke like "you're so needy" or "stop being lazy" which is also the truth with some of these teachers but I say it in a joking manner. Is it wrong for me to become extremely bitter if I see others happy even if they are complete strangers?

Because of where I sit in the office, I get to hear pretty much all the staff members talk about the other staff members. I've never seen so much "hate" and mistrust before. Three people could be talking badly about one person and then one of them leaves and the other two talk badly about the person that just left. It's really depressing. Worse, a lot of what is said is true. The staff members are especially angry with the administration because the administrators were supposed to tell them, in person, that they were canned. They just received notices in their boxes and had a form to sign to say they received the notice. I saw so much crying the day people were notified...