The Death of Intervention

It's time to pay the piper, all good things must come to an end, or the chickens have come home to roost.

In case you hadn't heard, the state of Arizona has a HUGE budget deficit. Because of that deficit, Mesa Schools has a BIG deficit. Education has been and is going to take a BIG cut. At my school we are losing teachers, the basic skills person, the reading coach and the last certified interventionist.

I have been working in the intervention program for the last 4 years. Next year it will be gone. "No money," the district says. Now I admit when it first started, I hated the program. I didn't think it would work and it meant a whole lot more work for me. Sometimes I have felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall because nothing seemed to be soaking into kids' heads. Head banging is NOT my idea of a good time.

Other times however, when the light turns on and they start to get it, well that is one of the best feelings ever. At times, it has brought me to tears.

Next year the intervention program will be gone. I'm sad. I'm losing some friends to other schools and I wonder if some of the kids will do as well. Will I even have a job next year? Maybe I will have a job and I'll get to be in the classroom all day which I really enjoy. I really don't know, but I know the end of this school year will be heart rending for me.