My Rookie Year

I became an elementary school principal in 1977.  I had two interviews prior to getting the job.  The first was with the superintendent, Roger, the high school principal, Don, and the middle school principal, Rick.   They liked me and invited me back for a second interview which was held in a local restaurant.  This second meeting included my three original interviewees and added Muriel, the curriculum director, and Pam, a member of the school board.  I was officially hired on August 16 the day Elvis Presley died.

My first meeting with the school board that August night was enlivened by protesting teachers.   The current teaching contract had expired and negotiations had not resolved the outstanding issues.  I had been on the teaching side of such a dilemma and now I found myself on the  administrative end.  Over time, like all such issues, the contract was eventually settled but each time I suggested something that I believed might be of benefit to our new staff and students, I was reminded of the lack of contract, and thus, I received a lack of cooperation.

My staff was composed of three groups of people who had operated under three different administrators in three different buildings the year before.    Sue had been the principal of the Wayne Gray Elementary School staff.   Rick had been the principal of the Intermediate Building which housed the higher elementary school and junior high grades.   A new middle school was opening as I arrived, and Rick took several teachers to the new school.   I inherited those who had either decided to stay to teach fourth and fifth grades or Rick decided to leave  behind.   The Devils Lake School closed as a part of the opening and realignment of the new middle school.  Its teacher/principal, Iola, was now a member of my staff.  I was a thirty year old newbie, leading a staff composed of several teachers who could have been my parents or at least my older brother or sister.

After my official arrival in Addison I met with the former principal, Sue, and she provided me with insight into the staff that I had inherited from her.  Everything that she told me proved to be incorrect. The teachers that had supported her, didn’t particularly embrace me. Those that she described as “uncooperative” were my greatest allies. I didn’t know anything more about Sue than I gained in our one brief encounter, but I expect that we were two different people which resulted in two different alliances.

I wouldn’t have made it through my first year without the help of my secretary, Donna. She knew everyone in the area and provided me with great advice every time I sought her counsel. She was loyal to me and never gave me cause to second guess any of her words or deeds.

Friday night football was BIG.   Ruth and I were welcomed to the group that gathered after each Friday’s game.  It was a great way for us to establish new friends.  The work day conflicts were set aside each Friday night and everyone enjoyed each other’s company.  Most of the attendees were members of the high school or new middle school staffs.  A few members of my newly aligned staff attended too.

The final approval of my arrival took place just prior to the Christmas Holiday break.   My office was on the corner of the school site.  It had two large windows that faced the street.  I arrived each morning prior to most of the teaching staff.   As I turned the corner, I noticed that the lights of my office were on.  This was unusual.  I also saw two men in the office and one appeared to be holding a chicken.

I parked my car, and as I walked towards the school, the two men that I had seen in my office were walking out.  The larger of the two was carrying a rooster.  His hand was bleeding.  Apparently,  the rooster didn’t like being carried by his new care giver.  Another man, appeared out of the darkness and retrieved the rooster.  The third man turned out to be the rooster’s owner, Buck.

I continued into the school and the roosterless of the two original men followed me into my office.  Tommy was the custodian charged with opening the building each morning.  He explained that as he was going through his customary morning duties, he thought he heard a rooster crow.  He went into my office, and sure enough, he found a rooster perched on my telephone.  My desk had been cleared of everything except the phone.   It appeared that the rooster had spent the night atop the phone and there was rooster $%&# all over my desk.  He called for backup and the second custodian retrieved the rooster while he cleaned my desk and telephone.

It took me several weeks to figure out who was responsible for placing the rooster in my office, and no one has actually admitted being involved in The Great Rooster Caper of 1977.  The best explanation that I can determined is this.   The night before the rooster siting, part of the Friday night football party gang was out singing Christmas carols.  They undoubtedly  decided to curb the winter chilled air with the consumption of alcohol.   The revelry and alcohol sparked the prank that they decided to play on the new principal, me.   One of the football gang, Buck, had a rooster.  Either knowingly or unknowingly, Buck and his rooster became a part of the prank.   While drinking may have influenced their decision, they were sober enough to clear my desk before depositing the bird.

The remainder of my fifteen years in Addison were spotted with additional pranks that I’ll write about on subsequent days.  None of the additional pranks involved animals of any sort unless you count snakes and bats.