Chairs still
exist, but we are more of a local autonomy school now. We
have a committee that meets and decides things in
conjunction with the principal. Matters that he used to
consider only by himself now are subject to discussion
between himself and the committee and if you're not a broad-
minded individual, one who is not accustomed to sharing
those responsibilities, then it would be a very difficult
task for a person to do. The principal we had just
preceding this one, seemed not to mind that at all. This
principal we have now was here a few years ago and I was
teasing him the other day about the fact that it might be
difficult to put himself in this setting simply because he
is sharing the reigns of responsibility where when he was
here before, he didn't have to. So we will see how that
gets along as the semester wears.
Q. Can you tell me about an incident in which your work life
was influenced by your superintendent?
A. I very early on, with the superintendent we have now, when
he was assistant superintendent, he and I worked very
closely on the transfer policy for teachers in this school
district. The RIFing of teachers, the moving of teachers
from one place to another. His immediate predecessor and I
had written the rules and regulations for a negotiated
policy; what transfer would mean to the (city name) school
teachers. When this gentleman came into the Asst. Supt. job
that he held before the Supt.'s job, he and I worked closely
together with that kind of relationship that develops from
moving people from one place to another. He at his level
and I at my level with teachers, and working closely with
teachers we were able to pretty well keep people employed as
years went by. People would just naturally attrition from
the positions they had by retirement or otherwise. And
we've always had just about the right amount of positions
left after that happened to accommodate the people for whom
there were jobs, as the new year opened. So we have worked
closely together in that respect, following that particular
kind of a ______? of teacher personality.
Q. In his role as Supt. now, do you feel any particular
influence in your work life from that person?
A. Not necessarily, no. It's just a normal relationship with a
superintendent a teacher would have. I feel very free to
talk with him whenever I want to.
Q. What is the normal relationship between the superintendent
and a teacher?
A. I always believed it was one where if I had a problem, I'd
be able to pick up the phone and call the person and talk
with them. If it was a problem that dealt with him, and
many superintendents you can't do that with.
Q. Do teachers, do you think, generally feel that they can call
the superintendent?
A. No, they don't. They go through their local bargaining unit
and have the representative from the bargaining unit
approach the superintendent with problems they have. I've
never believed in having someone handle my problems for me
when I was able to handle them myself, so I always put my
self in a position where I could talk to somebody like that
if the time arose. This worked very well. He has
____________________? benefit from our relationship through
the years by knowing that I'll be here, and that I'll
support him in what he does, and I'll tell him when he's
wrong, if he's wrong and he knows that. But, he's a good
man.
Q. Can you tell me about an incident in which your work life
was influenced or shaped by the school board?
A. I have a position right now in economics and government that
has been shaped by the Board ultimately, but fundamentally
from an Asst. Supt. district office now, in that by running
a new kind a program, which we call a pilot program, I've
run it for two years, there's extra remuneration for that
particular kind of position and in that respect, I've gained
some support from those people. Monetarily as well as with
the program itself. I don't know if this answers your
question or not.
Q. Well, is the support of the School Board necessary to run a
pilot?
A. Yes, it is, and they have been kept apprised of the
situation from day one, and they all would have to approve
it when the time comes.
Q. Because it involves money?
A. Yes.
Q. Is that the sole reason they need to approve it?
A. I think, if you want to try something a little bit
different, you need to have people all the way up the ladder
apprised of what your are doing. This is a personal belief
of mine. You need to apprise them of what you're doing just
to keep them aware that you're doing something just a little
bit differently than what you'd normally be doing and that
there may be needs that you'll have that they need to
understand why those needs are there. It's just a matter of
communications, really is what its for.
Q. Can you tell me about an incident that happened to you or
someone you know in which your work life was influenced or
shaped by state or federal programs, regulations or
mandates?
A. There is a person in my family who was administrator who was
handling programs for English as a Second Language and that
program has eventually just began to dry up a little bit.
The need is still there, but the program itself is not
nearly as wide spread as it should be. It sounds funny to
be in (city name), for example, and then to say that you have
need for a program for English as a Second Language. But we
have a pocket area, I'm sure you're familiar with Portales's
attendance boundaries.
Q. I might be because I supervise student teachers. I was at
Tovan School.
A. All right. Tovan has some of the people from the area
between Osborn Road and Thomas Road and from 16th street
back to the canal. If we have an area of foreign
population, it is probably in that area for the most part.
It is a heavily spoken Spanish speaking type community
there, and so from time-to-time, as programs are brought in,
you can expand the programs you have but something else has
to be cut and at Portales particularly we are finding a
socio-economic background difference between what we're
designating now as people from south of the border who are
low economic end of the scale versus people who are old time
families here who are of the upper end of the socio-economic
plan. So that kind of a confrontation is forth coming. How
long we have to wait for it, I don't know. Or, can we catch
those people up fast enough so the confrontation will not
occur? Hopefully, that is what we are trying to do.
Whether it will happen or not, I'm not sure. But programs
like that are programs that, from time-to-time get cut or
get added on as the need is, and sometimes the budget goes.
The fundamental reason for being here and collecting school
taxes is to educate the vast majority of people, and
sometimes the money ________________? doesn't go around far
enough, so something has to be cut.
Q. Are you subject to any of the state mandates to regulations
in the course work that you teach?
A. The course that I'm teaching in economics did not use to be
a state required subject. In other words, when I started
teaching years ago, it was not a state required subject.
(city name) district requires it, but not the State of
(state name). A few years back, the State of (state name) decided
that it was probably a good thing for people to know about
the important free enterprise system, and put it into the
curriculum as a required subject and that's where it is now.
So I am affected by it, and government courses have long
been a required subject.
Q. Does the state then influence the content of the curriculum?
A. They don't limit the content of curriculum but what they
will do is say, "here is the supportive level that we want
you to go to", and if you want to go beyond that point in
time, you can without any trouble at all. But you may have
to pay for some of those things yourself, and paying for
them ourselves in competition with the dollar budget, or
budget dollars for something else, well sometimes you have a
tendency to get slighted a little bit now.
Q. Who influences the text book selection?
Q. You're talking about (state name)?
A. (state name), yes. You have the standard things you go by like
the tenets and so forth that are required by law. But for
the most part, it is pretty much that you do your own thing.
You've got certain things that schools in general are
required to follow, but I'm not aware there is any unusual
amount of those, no.
Q. Or any that effect your particular work life?
A. Nothing other than those that would effect anyone else's
work life. They're all about the same.
Q. Like attendance?
A. Like attendance, days of school per year, things of that
nature.
Q. Can you tell me about an incident in which your work life
was influenced or shaped by parents?
A. Parents at Portales High School expect a great deal and they
give a great deal. They give from a stand point of
when you need something for your classroom that your
particular program is lacking, we have an excellent parent
support group here. They'll reach out and they'll say to
people from time-to-time, "What is it that you don't have
that you need?", and I have a series of video tapes, for
example, in economics that cost $549 and for a number of
years I tried to get the district to buy, but they kept
saying "We have too many areas that come just a little bit
higher on the priority list." So, that was one of the
things that I gave to the parent's group and within a space
of six weeks or so, they had them for me. They are very
good in that respect, but they expect you, on the other
hand, to reciprocate and to do the kind of a job that you're
paid to do. So we scratch each other's back and we get
along fine.
If you detect a note of pride and prejudice on my part from
time-to-time, you'll have to forgive me because that is how
I feel about this place.
Q. No, that's fine.
A. I love this school and the kids that are here and the
families that are here. It is a sense of belonging and a
sense of accomplishment, and a sense of being rewarded for
your accomplishments from time-to-time that you often don't
find in public schools. So I have an extra warm spot in my
heart for this place.
Q. Well, that's good and I want to hear about it. Can you tell
me about an incident in which your work life was influenced
or shaped by a professional organization with which you
identify or the teacher's association?
A. I have been, as you can tell from my conversations prior to
this, I have been a negotiator on numerous occasions for the
(city name) School District, (city name) school teachers, and
have long been a member of the organization, both at the
local level, the state level and the federal level, and the
greatest pride that I have is that they do ________________?
to what people want that are teachers, and on the other
hand, they are savvy enough to realize that you can't
accomplish everything you want, so they take a middle of the
ground approach to things. And do a fair job, and do a good
job of rewarding people for their work and at the same time,
holding your feet to the fire in expecting a certain amount
of work out of them. So, a trade-off situation. I've been
associated with that particular, I've trade at the school
level, I've served at the district level, I've served at the
state level and in a number of advisory capacities ________?
different committees. I've enjoyed my work with other
teachers and with other school boards, and with other
superintendents throughout the state. From time-to-time,
the (state name) education association will call me and say,
"Myron, we have a group of people over here on the other
side of town that have a problem with their policy periphic.
Would you meet with them and talk to them about your
experiences that you've had?" That has always been a source
of great enjoyment for me to explain that the program that
we have and to see it spread throughout the Valley, if not
throughout the state in some cases.
When I was living in Prescott not too long ago, I stopped as
I'm often want to do, at one of the school districts and
talk to them about some of the problems that we're having
and recognize my own transfer policy that I'd written in
1975, that they were using as a model for their transfer
policy. That's a source of great satisfaction to know that
you've been able to put some things together that people can
be using.
Q. Can you tell me about an incident that happened in which
your work life was influenced by the students?
A. Everyday. I usually walk into a classroom and ask, "What
haven't we done that we need to get done?" and I give them
an agenda of things that they'd like to talk about or hear
about first, and working closely with the individual classes
you start off that way and you ask them what they want and
it isn't long before them in the palm of your hand. They
will very quickly and very eagerly try to discuss all the
problems there are on the agenda, so they don't have to
solve everything. But I worked with the student council
here at the time they were changing their constitution a
number of years ago, and students are always, students are
very good. Students are not given enough credit for what
they really have. Of course, they are very careful
sometimes to hide what they have and as time goes by, you
can bring it out, lay it on the table and discuss it and
you've got a number of situations and problems to solve, and
the first thing you know, you have the solutions for them.
So it works well. The only thing you have to do is listen
to them.
Q. That makes sense.
A. But I would suspect that is true with most people, if you
listen to them.
Q. Because of the time, would you mind if I cornered you again?
A. Not at all.
Q. Could I set up an appointment with you, probably another
half hour, so we could finish up.