feelings: “Yes, it is a bad situation. Yes, I understand that it detracts from
the ambience of our school. Yes, I will continue to seek a permanent solu-
tion.” But, everyone knew these letters would probably lead to nothing.
The teachers just needed to vent.
Venting is good, especially in such an emotionally charged profession as
teaching where being able to let off steam about the little things can make
dealing with the more important issues easier. Once a month, a New York
City principal meets with the UFT (United Federation of Teachers union)
Consultative Council to discuss matters relevant to the professional staff.
The elected chapter leader may invite different members of his constitu-
ency to join him for this meeting.
Union representative Mr. Green always provided Mr. Thelen with an
agenda of the meeting in advance so he could prepare to address certain
issues. But the truth of the matter was that there were rarely any contrac-
tual issues to discuss because these professionals resolved such matters in
one-on-one meetings. There were only “quality of life” issues to discuss.
These included the lack of teacher parking spaces, the quality of food in
the teacher cafeteria, and matters of courtesy.
Every school has a few teachers who could be classified as “malcon-
tents.” Mr. Green made sure that almost all of these teachers in the school
were on his Consultative Council. After the first meeting, Principal Thelen
asked him why he chose these teachers when there were so many highly
regarded professionals on staff. Mr. Green’s response was instructive:
Having these more negative teachers meet and speak with the principal
regularly would reduce the negative comments they made elsewhere.
This made sense to Mr. Thelen. Usually, the malcontents were the staff
members he would avoid when walking around the building. By making
them members of the council, Mr. Green gave them a way to commu-
nicate directly with the principal, venting in a controlled environment.
Maybe this did improve the overall quality of life in the school.
Intermediate supervisors, called chairpersons or assistant principals in
most school districts, also need to vent. These underpaid and underap-
preciated professionals are the middle managers of a school, carrying
out the decisions of the principal. They turn the school’s vision and the
principal’s ideas into realities. Ms. Niles-Perry, now a principal in Los
32 Chapter 3