A few weeks ago the assistant principal at the school I work at sat downt the entire staff and told us there was likley to be a 4-5 million dollar budget shortfall for the next academic year.  She was very upfront about it, in a positive manner and I give her major props for being real with us.  At this point I am looking around the meeting trying to gauge who has enough grey to retire and who is more junior than myself.  As a 2nd year teacher that is very few people. 

So the threat of the pink slip has been looming for months and in theory I should have heard on April 1st, but that was a day before our spring break so they might not have wanted to give anyone the news before spring break, but that makes this "vacation" insufferable.  Last night I had a dream that when I showed up at school after break all the stuff in my room was boxed up and the door was locked.

So here's where things are looking now.  I am second to the bottom of the ladder in my department, but the guy who was hired after me coaches football.   I am reminded at our laughable staff meetings that most history positions are reserved for coaches and it is a miracle that a woman with theater department affiliations would have gotten a job in it, but I think our administration wanted to balance out the department.  My second issue is that most of the extra-curricular work I do is undocumented.  I help out the drama coach, costumes, makeup...you name it.  The only thing I do "offically" is advise the Young Democrats which really didn't engender a lot of love in our fairly conservative area.

 Interestingly enough, we have a program on our computer to see what our students schedules are, AND we can look at how they are doing in all of their current and previous classes.  So I can take a peek at what some other people in my department are assigning.  I really don't want to brag or play the martyr, but I could blow many of them out of the water with my curriculum. 

Right now I feel ready and willing to challenge anyone to a cage match in order to keep my job.  I like it, and I'm good at it and I work my ass off.