In between getting super sick and having a birthday, crazy things have been happening for me! Remember when I tried for this job? Okay, so I didn’t get the job and the other teacher in my room did. She did have more experience and all that but she wasn’t dependable. She called in sick at least once a week and was usually late the rest of the week.
At the begining of this semester, I spoke with my boss about how her irregular attendance was negatively affecting my morale, as well as the morale of my coworkers and the children. She subsequently spoke with the teacher in question and we thought we had the problem resolved…for about a week.
Last Thursday, on my birthday, this teacher called in sick again. Not only did she call in sick, but she called the center about 25 times (NOT exaggerating) throughout the day, complaining of various ailments, from “I’m running a temperature of 105!” to “I just found out I can’t have children!” She was basically harrassing all of us and our boss. Essentially, she had what we all have decided was a mental breakdown and, by the end of the day, she quit her job. Just up and quit. Without giving proper notice to her employers, she just flushed 5 years of experience and hard work down the drain, leaving us all out to dry.
Needless to say, it’s been chaotic at school this week as we all scramble to make this transition as seamless as possible for the children. I’ve doubled my hours at work and have taken on more responsibility. There is talk that I may get to fill her position in the job I tried to get last summer. It’s good news all around but the fallout has been miserable. My boss is broken up about it and is brought to tears almost daily as she has to explain to the parents where that teacher disappeared to. The daily routine in the classroom has been unstable and irregular as I and the other remaining lead teacher try to figure it all out.

I’m not sure how to close this post and I know it’s been poorly written. But it’s been sort of crazy for me all week and I wanted to get my thoughts out about it. I’m excited that I might get that classified position and I personally feel that, despite the difficult transitional period, things in our classroom will be more calm and stable without her chaotic energy speeding around the room. I’m sorry it had to happen this way and I deeply hope that she can get herself some help to deal with the issues in her life. I am still thankful for my job and my coworkers and, above all, the children I serve.