Another Letter to the Counselor

I'm tired of his incompetence. Now he's sending a kid down to my class with thirteen days left in the quarter to enroll in my senior credit factory class because she isn't doing well in the class that she is in. He wants to switch her now, have her get a credit in my class based on only thirteen days of work, and then take the algebra 2 off her record - it will look as if she was in my class the entire time.

So, I've written another letter, and carbon copied it to the other counselors and the principal. The head counselor tried getting him fired last year - she asked a bunch of us to write letters explaining how he has screwed up, which we did, but he came back again. Hopefully the principal will change his mind. The kids deserve someone much better than this guy.

[Counselor]:

Yesterday I was approached by a young lady who asked if she could switch into [senior credit factory class] from Algebra 2, and she said that she came from you. I have a couple of concerns.

First, if she was to switch into the class, she would only be there for 13 days out of a quarter that is 41 days. This means that I would be held responsible for giving her a quarter credit when she would have shown up for a maximum of less than a third of the time, if she did show up every day. It would be inappropriate for me to expect her to do the work of the first 28 days of the quarter, plus stay with the class for the rest of the month to earn the credit. If I gave her a quarter credit based on the thirteen days that she has been here, it would be unfair to the rest of the class.

Furthermore, despite the fact that she has failed over two-thirds of a quarter in Algebra 2, making a switch at this time would mean that her failure in Algebra 2 for the whole quarter would be forgiven.

I guess that larger point is that we need you to run interference for us.

Ø Please don't send kids to ask us if they can switch into our classes once an appropriate time limit has passed. I'm not sure if there is a standard window for dropping out of a class without automatically earning a grade, but if there is one, then we need to stick to it.

Ø Please don't send kids to ask us if they can take our classes credit or no credit near the end of the quarter as well. I know that you publicize that there is a date for turning these in, so let's use it.

Ø Please don't send kids asking me to change a failing grade from a previous quarter to a passing one if they do well in the current quarter. I've had this happen many times; I'm not sure where you've picked this up, but it is totally inappropriate to do to a kid's grade and just as inappropriate to force me to have this conversation with the student on your behalf.

I know rules can be broken, and sometimes extraordinary circumstances warrant breaking of these rules. Please come and see me personally about them - I shouldn't have to be blindsided by kids I don't know asking me questions when I have no knowledge about their circumstances.

None of us like conflict, whether with adults or with our students. But you have to say no to the students when common sense says you should - it should not have been me who had to tell the girl yesterday to wait until quarter four to enroll in my class. Please don't make me do it over and over. I have to hold kids accountable in the classroom, and that involves upsetting more than I want to. I know that part of your job is trying to get kids through graduation rules, and that probably isn't what you envisioned the job of "counselor" to be. But please don't send any more kids down to me to have them ask me to bend rules so that they can get the credits that they need. I'm tired of having to be the one that says no.

[IB]