Libbie Thompkins: Cal and I really both have in common that we really love kids and love to teach and are very happy with our profession.
Libbie Thompkins teaches English at James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland. Cal Eyman is chair of the social studies department at Willoughby South High School. Last week, I sat with Thompkins and Eyman in the yard behind their homes, and the conversation turned to preparing for the new school year. Thompkins said, as in past years, she's afraid she won't know what grade or classes she'll be teaching until school opens, so she's unable to prepare for the new year.
Libbie Thompkins: I can't do a lot of research, I can't do a lot of grant writing.
For Thompkins, this may be a case where the grass is greener on Eyman's side of the fence. He says he's known his agenda for the fall since the spring, and that allows him to spend the summer months becoming an even better teacher.
Cal Eyman: One of the things I'm able to do is get together with some of my colleagues and we create the syllabus for the year, for the courses that we're going to be teaching.
He says having the year planned means his younger colleagues can get more training during the summer.
One of the advantages of a well-regarded suburban district like Willoughby-Eastlake is its stability. Curricula and teaching methods evolve. In contrast, Thompkins says her school in Cleveland has completely reconfigured itself a number of times in just the 10 years she's been there.
Libbie Thompkins: The wheel is being reinvented every year. Every year it's something new: it's an academy, it's a small school, it's something else. And then we're moving rooms, we're changing.
Under new CEO Eugene Sanders, The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is trotting out a lot of new kinds of schools this year: everything from single-gender schools to an honors academy. But Thompkins just wishes the district would focus on the little things that would make classrooms more productive.
Libbie Thompkins: We don't have a discipline policy; we don't have a tardy policy, we don't have a cell phone policy.
Cleveland teachers also have to grapple with more students transferring in and out of their schools each year, and parents who often enroll their kids late.
All these obstacles, she says, give Cleveland teachers a bad reputation.
Libbie Thompkins: There's just so many layers, and so many of us work so hard, and really form relationships with the kids, and a lot of times, we're limited by what we can do by so many outside forces.
Thompkins had a student teacher with her last year who wants to work in Cleveland. She's interviewing for jobs this summer, but Thompkins worries her protege will have to accept a job elsewhere. Willoughby-Eastlake, where Eyman works, is already hiring for next year.
Cal Eyman: I know in my building, we hired, from Cleveland State, a math teacher.
After I sat down with Thompkins and Eyman, I put these concerns to the Cleveland School District. Craig Cotner is the chief academic officer there, and while he declined to talk on tape, he says, the district has heard the concerns and is addressing them. He says some of the delays were from this year's contract negotiations, and it's their intent to create a system that will allow teachers to leave school knowing what they're teaching next year.
And we have this postscript. Libbie Thompkins wrote to tell us that over the weekend her department chair emailed Thompkins a schedule for next year. I asked the school district if this had anything to do with our questions about the delays. A spokesman said (quote) it's not really a coincidence.