Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Changes

I don't like change. Sure, at times I live variety, but for the most part, I don't like change. I really don't like change when it comes to my job. It has taken us 2 1/2 school years to get to were we are now. We are finally efficient and the program is running smoothly without any hiccups. My theory is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Well change is coming and I am resistant. I expressed my concerns about this change with my boss and he did have a valid explanation for each concern. He thought of everything that I did. Secretly I was hoping to bring up something he hadn't thought of and hear him say, "You're right, it won't work. Lets just forget it." That didn't happen. I met with someone who will be a major part of the change yesterday and frankly, I was a bit crappy with her. Who does she think she is walking in and trying to change our program. She didn't help build it from nothing to what it is now. She didn't even know where our building was, let alone anything about our program till 2pm yesterday. Then she was in the building all of 5 seconds before she started criticizing what we do. I was really upset! I don't know what she was told, but she is horribly mistaken if she thinks she is going to change this program from an education program to something else. My priority is my students and their learning.

I started thinking about it last night as I was stewing over the days events. Am I so resistant to her because of who it is or am I fighting the change because I wasn' t asked? I realized I am fighting the change because I wasn't even asked. I think I am hurt that my boss didn't ask my opinion on the changes. I had no clue the changes were coming. Heck, his office is in another building and he really doesn't even know how we operate. It is just frustrating to have someone just walk in and think they can take over. I have to keep reminding myself that I do have the final say and that I need to stand my ground. My priority is my students and their education. I think the reason I have to remind myself to stand up for my program is because the person coming in is older. The whole "respect your elders" rings in my ears. I need to make sure when/if I have to stand my ground I make sure my words are not hurtful, but that I still get my point across.

She is coming in again today to observe and see how we do what we do. It's frustrating. Tomorrow is the end of the semester so it is organized madness to begin with and then to throw her in the mix...then again maybe it will discourage her and show her that her ideas about our program and how it should be run are wrong. Is it wrong of me to think that?

I don't want to seem selfish, but gosh darn, it is my program and I don't want to see it change and then fall apart like the after school program did.


On the good news side of life....We are still struggling with funding. We used to be solely funded by DCS, but Mitch is messing with how things are done and now I have no clue. I had to write a petition to the state, etc. It looks like my petition will uphold, (they keep calling for more info) and I was awarded a small grant to keep my doors open for the rest of this school year. My boss talked to the judge who handles the juveniles cases and the judge said that if our funding falls through he has money in his budget he will use to keep YIDP open for the 2009 - 2010 school year! Yeah, my job is safe for one more school year!

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