Chef Dave
06-06-2009, 03:31 AM
It’s been nearly a year since I left this website.
I didn’t say goodbye when I left, but I thought I’d make a belated goodbye now.
The past year has been interesting to say the least. My culinary students raised over $27,000 in gross sales through our student operated restaurant. The state director praised my department as a “state model” and highlighted my district webpage in an e-mail to Culinary Arts teachers throughout my state.
During this past year, we had a static (daily unchanging) menu of flame grilled burgers, various burritos, and pizza bread. We also offered a daily plated meal and a daily sandwich special.
Favorite sandwich specials included patty melts.
http://www.thatcherud.k12.az.us/database/staffPhotoAlbum/photo_4857.jpg
Favorite plated meals (at least among teachers) included this layered polenta with caramelized onion and spinach lasagna rolls.
http://www.thatcherud.k12.az.us/database/staffPhotoAlbum/photo_5018.jpg
Enrollment in Culinary Arts was up. Revenue was up. More teachers and district employees were buying lunch from our restaurant than ever before. Most instruction was hands-on. I thought I was doing well until I received my annual evaluation in December.
According to my evaluation, my performance was thoroughly inadequate.
My building administrator wrote me up for:
• Meeting with the state director for Culinary Arts during class time without district approval. She ignored the fact that I had been given written permission to do so.
• “Abandoning my class” to meet with this state official. She again ignored the fact that I had been given written permission to meet with the state director in my office. My office has a window that fronts the class and I proposed monitoring the students from this office while talking to the state director.
• Missing school assemblies. The assistant administrator ignored the fact that the building administrator had told me that he wanted me to produce lunch even on days that we had assemblies. I was told to skip assemblies and to prepare lunch without student assistance.
• Refusing to help other faculty members who required culinary assistance. I only turned down one request … and only because this person had given me less than 24 hours notice. Unlike regular for profit restaurants, my department only stocks enough food supplies to get through the week. Teachers who need catering services need to give me one week’s notice so that I may write the production into my lesson plans and so that I have time to order supplies from our wholesale suppliers.
• Mismanaging the Culinary Arts budget I was told to defray food costs but it turned out that the assistant administrator meant “production costs.” Food costs are literally the cost of ingredients but production costs including food costs as well as everything else associated with production such as the cost of plastic ware, foam plates, napkins, condiments etc.
• Writing long boring e-mails to staff members. The only e-mails I sent out were daily menus.
• Not interacting with other teachers during lunch. I supervise our student restaurant during lunch four days a week. During the 1 day we were closed, I stayed in my office and worked on food inventories and ordering food supplies for the following week.
Despite these 5 factual errors and 2 subjective opinions, the assistant administrator declined to make any changes to the evaluation.
I was told that I had the right to rebut the evaluation but was not told that I had the right to a formal appeal.
I was placed on an improvement plan. No guidance was given on how to structure this plan. Contrary to state law and board policy, I was given no constructive feedback during the weeks that followed. I was also not given any further evaluations.
Although the district invited me to renew contract for the coming year, I declined to do so.
I have no faith in the assistant administrator who’s responsible for my evaluations. State budget cuts have also impacted my district and teachers were told that we would all be taking pay cuts during the coming year. We would also have to assume a portion of custodial responsibilities.
On top of everything else, I was told that the Culinary Arts Department would most likely be cut at year’s end.
In thinking about this … more work, less pay, and the unreasoning enmity of the assistant administrator, topped by probably employment termination at year’s end, I decided not to renew my contract.
I initially applied to go work at other schools but surprise-surprise, when these schools called my administrator for a reference, what do you think she told them?
I have therefore decided to throw in the towel and break with education entirely.
Surprisingly enough, at 48 years of age, I have applied to go to law school. :)
If I am accepted into law school, I would like to study labor law with a specialization in school law.
I would like to eventually become an advocate for teachers’ rights in Arizona.
I’m sorry to say that outside large metropolitan areas, less than 50% of school districts in my state have any union representation. Despite the existence of state statutes and governing board policies that specify what administrators may and may not do, teachers in rural areas are essentially at the mercy of their supervisors.
There are precious few safeguards in place to prevent abuse of the system – so administrators like mine are able to use professional evaluations as punitive tools rather than as measures of constructive assessment to improve the overall quality of instruction.
By way of example, earlier in the year, the building administrator came into my department before school and stuck 100 colored stickers all over the commercial kitchen with the printed words, “clean me.”
Most of these stickers were placed on hard water stains and scorch marks. Hard water stains result when water with a high mineral content evaporates leaving a mineral residue. Scorch marks are the natural result of hot metal meeting with heavy duty plastic … and short of replacing the plastic, there’s nothing I can do.
The building administrator initially lied and told me that these stickers had been placed by a "concerned parent." The truth only came out after I called the district resource officer to report a case of vandalism.
My administrator told me to eliminate hard water stains using lime away.
I told her that if I did this, I’d be rendering the kitchen unusable as the chemical residue could result in the chemical contamination of food. Using lime away on stainless steel prep tables would essentially require me to have these tables cleaned off before we could use them.
I was told to “deal with it.”
When I respectfully declined to follow instructions that made no practical sense and were in fact contrary to the county health code, I was written up for “insubordination.” :eek:
These instructions were later countermanded by the superintendent ... but the damage was done. I think my reaction to this incident incurred the wrath of the administrator which is why I subsequently got such a bad evaluation.
No matter ...
I will miss being a culinary arts teacher but must admit that I look forward to going back to school. I think I would enjoy being a professional student. Sadly, there is no money to be made as a student whereas a great deal of money may be made as an attorney.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Best wishes to all! I have certainly enjoyed being a teacher.
Chef Dave
I didn’t say goodbye when I left, but I thought I’d make a belated goodbye now.
The past year has been interesting to say the least. My culinary students raised over $27,000 in gross sales through our student operated restaurant. The state director praised my department as a “state model” and highlighted my district webpage in an e-mail to Culinary Arts teachers throughout my state.
During this past year, we had a static (daily unchanging) menu of flame grilled burgers, various burritos, and pizza bread. We also offered a daily plated meal and a daily sandwich special.
Favorite sandwich specials included patty melts.
http://www.thatcherud.k12.az.us/database/staffPhotoAlbum/photo_4857.jpg
Favorite plated meals (at least among teachers) included this layered polenta with caramelized onion and spinach lasagna rolls.
http://www.thatcherud.k12.az.us/database/staffPhotoAlbum/photo_5018.jpg
Enrollment in Culinary Arts was up. Revenue was up. More teachers and district employees were buying lunch from our restaurant than ever before. Most instruction was hands-on. I thought I was doing well until I received my annual evaluation in December.
According to my evaluation, my performance was thoroughly inadequate.
My building administrator wrote me up for:
• Meeting with the state director for Culinary Arts during class time without district approval. She ignored the fact that I had been given written permission to do so.
• “Abandoning my class” to meet with this state official. She again ignored the fact that I had been given written permission to meet with the state director in my office. My office has a window that fronts the class and I proposed monitoring the students from this office while talking to the state director.
• Missing school assemblies. The assistant administrator ignored the fact that the building administrator had told me that he wanted me to produce lunch even on days that we had assemblies. I was told to skip assemblies and to prepare lunch without student assistance.
• Refusing to help other faculty members who required culinary assistance. I only turned down one request … and only because this person had given me less than 24 hours notice. Unlike regular for profit restaurants, my department only stocks enough food supplies to get through the week. Teachers who need catering services need to give me one week’s notice so that I may write the production into my lesson plans and so that I have time to order supplies from our wholesale suppliers.
• Mismanaging the Culinary Arts budget I was told to defray food costs but it turned out that the assistant administrator meant “production costs.” Food costs are literally the cost of ingredients but production costs including food costs as well as everything else associated with production such as the cost of plastic ware, foam plates, napkins, condiments etc.
• Writing long boring e-mails to staff members. The only e-mails I sent out were daily menus.
• Not interacting with other teachers during lunch. I supervise our student restaurant during lunch four days a week. During the 1 day we were closed, I stayed in my office and worked on food inventories and ordering food supplies for the following week.
Despite these 5 factual errors and 2 subjective opinions, the assistant administrator declined to make any changes to the evaluation.
I was told that I had the right to rebut the evaluation but was not told that I had the right to a formal appeal.
I was placed on an improvement plan. No guidance was given on how to structure this plan. Contrary to state law and board policy, I was given no constructive feedback during the weeks that followed. I was also not given any further evaluations.
Although the district invited me to renew contract for the coming year, I declined to do so.
I have no faith in the assistant administrator who’s responsible for my evaluations. State budget cuts have also impacted my district and teachers were told that we would all be taking pay cuts during the coming year. We would also have to assume a portion of custodial responsibilities.
On top of everything else, I was told that the Culinary Arts Department would most likely be cut at year’s end.
In thinking about this … more work, less pay, and the unreasoning enmity of the assistant administrator, topped by probably employment termination at year’s end, I decided not to renew my contract.
I initially applied to go work at other schools but surprise-surprise, when these schools called my administrator for a reference, what do you think she told them?
I have therefore decided to throw in the towel and break with education entirely.
Surprisingly enough, at 48 years of age, I have applied to go to law school. :)
If I am accepted into law school, I would like to study labor law with a specialization in school law.
I would like to eventually become an advocate for teachers’ rights in Arizona.
I’m sorry to say that outside large metropolitan areas, less than 50% of school districts in my state have any union representation. Despite the existence of state statutes and governing board policies that specify what administrators may and may not do, teachers in rural areas are essentially at the mercy of their supervisors.
There are precious few safeguards in place to prevent abuse of the system – so administrators like mine are able to use professional evaluations as punitive tools rather than as measures of constructive assessment to improve the overall quality of instruction.
By way of example, earlier in the year, the building administrator came into my department before school and stuck 100 colored stickers all over the commercial kitchen with the printed words, “clean me.”
Most of these stickers were placed on hard water stains and scorch marks. Hard water stains result when water with a high mineral content evaporates leaving a mineral residue. Scorch marks are the natural result of hot metal meeting with heavy duty plastic … and short of replacing the plastic, there’s nothing I can do.
The building administrator initially lied and told me that these stickers had been placed by a "concerned parent." The truth only came out after I called the district resource officer to report a case of vandalism.
My administrator told me to eliminate hard water stains using lime away.
I told her that if I did this, I’d be rendering the kitchen unusable as the chemical residue could result in the chemical contamination of food. Using lime away on stainless steel prep tables would essentially require me to have these tables cleaned off before we could use them.
I was told to “deal with it.”
When I respectfully declined to follow instructions that made no practical sense and were in fact contrary to the county health code, I was written up for “insubordination.” :eek:
These instructions were later countermanded by the superintendent ... but the damage was done. I think my reaction to this incident incurred the wrath of the administrator which is why I subsequently got such a bad evaluation.
No matter ...
I will miss being a culinary arts teacher but must admit that I look forward to going back to school. I think I would enjoy being a professional student. Sadly, there is no money to be made as a student whereas a great deal of money may be made as an attorney.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Best wishes to all! I have certainly enjoyed being a teacher.
Chef Dave