For the last two years teachers and members of the local school council at Amundsen High School have worked together in a model of cooperation. They cut truancy by forcing parents to take greater responsibility for their children and cracked down on gang activities by enforcing strict discipline and a dress code.
At issue is the LSC’s proposal to establish a special environmental-studies curriculum, which would be used, among other things, to attract higher-achieving students to Amundsen. The curriculum would be part of a program called Options for Knowledge, which the school board instituted in the late 1970s to avoid court-ordered busing. The idea then was to offer special programs in selected all-white schools that would attract black students from other neighborhoods. In time, however, as the system became more black and Hispanic, these programs were used to lure white students.
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Klunk would dispatch teachers who would act as salesmen, demonstrating the program’s potential to children in grade schools throughout the city. Enrollment would be open to all, with students chosen by lottery if there were more applicants than available spaces, though all high school students from within Amundsen’s neighborhood boundaries would be admitted.
From the start, however, Amundsen’s teachers were outraged by Klunk’s proposal. “Sure, there are guards against removing teachers, but there’s a reason for them,” says Schmidt. “Years ago you needed clout to get a job–you had to know someone downtown. If they didn’t like you, they could fire you on the spot. You had no rights. Today we have rights, but Klunk wants to change that.” Moreover, he argues, principals are not nearly as powerless as Klunk contends. They control a teacher’s ratings and which classes he or she gets to teach. And they can drive teachers out by making their lives miserable with silly rules, stupid tasks, and petty regulations–which many principals have done.
“I find it fascinating that some teachers are so upset–and yet they are fighting to stay in Amundsen,” says O’Donnell. “If they are so unhappy with us, why do they want to stay? We must be doing something right.”
