WHY IS THERE AT TEACHER SHORTAGE EVERY YEAR?
Comments From a Retired Educator
by
James K. Aumack

The answer is simple. It’s a thankless job that has many pitfalls. The first is the pay scale that professional educators have to deal with. A new Doctor gets the same amount of payment as a Doctor with years of experience. A teacher starts at the bottom of the pay scale and has to work fifteen or more years to get to the top of the pay scale. Yet, they still have to pay for their college education, including a Master’s Degree or more and also eat, pay rent etc. I can make far more than driving a truck or any number of other jobs that continually seek people to work. Working in the classroom is almost slave labor considering the demands that the job requires.

After thirty-eight years in the classroom and a Master’s Degree plus thirty post Grad credits, I still made less than the average truck driver. Yes, I had two months off but I also had to work those months at another job, to continue to make ends at home! In addition, teaching children isn’t for the weak. You have to be able to control thirty or more children and be responsible for their learning and behavior. This alone is discouraging and drives people away from the profession quickly…some don’t last the first week! When a kid stands up and challenges you, for the first time with a “Go F — k Yourself” you start to reconsider your choice of a profession.

In the inner-cities, where I taught for 38 years, the above could happen almost everyday or any day. In addition you’re responsible to keep kids alive even when they’re in a knife fight in the back of the classroom. Guns are not out of the question either. All of this could also be generated by intruders from the gang outside and this could include guns, bats, and almost any sharp object you can think of, including a sharpened heavy plastic ‘rat-tail’ comb. You think teaching is easy(especially in the inner-city)…try it!

As the kids get older and start to mature, you have to guard and separate the males from the females or you’ll soon have expecting females. This normal desire for pro-creation knows no bounds, can happen at the drop of a hat and in any situation or circumstance. Somehow, this experimentation by two individuals will somehow fall back on you for not doing your job properly and you’ll be amazingly held responsible!

Throughout all of this, the Principal/ Supervisor will likely come into your classroom unannounced at any time and proceed to evaluate your teaching skills.

The above is what makes new unskilled/teachers immediately consider changing jobs and leaving the profession forever. In addition to everything else, there will probably be ‘after-school’ meetings eliminating the possibility of keeping a second job because you must sit and listen to someone who hasn’t been told yet today, to go ‘F — k Yourself’! Somehow I get the feeling that this might just happen during this after school required meeting. In addition to all of the above, the pay really is very poor considering the danger and the insults you deal with, every single day and the amount of education you must have to become a teacher! These insults are not only from the kids but in many forms also from the administration and often the parents.

If you want to hear more, I can tell you true stories that can be supported by newspaper articles(New York Times). For example, I personally was sentenced to 30 days in jail because I supported the NJEA/JCEA teachers strike in the 1970’s. Our beloved Principal, after she was told she’d be replaced if she didn’t cooperate, named almost all of her faculty that was picketing outside the school. All of these people were arrested and jailed. Old ladies and young female teachers as well as male teachers of all ages. All received a 30 day jail sentence with 20 days suspended, requiring 10 day stay in the Hudson County Jail. (Not a fun place to be!) After this, they put us all back in the same school, with the same Principal. Do you think our professional relationship flourished after that?

This situation set off a very quiet investigation by the State and Federal Authorities. Teachers have friends and family everywhere…even in high places. Considering the circumstances they couldn’t understand the sentences. Their question was, ‘Why and how did this get so far out of hand?’ The FBI started to ask for contract copies that the City of Jersey City agreed to. They found that some were strangely missing or incomplete. They started to ask teachers quietly, what they knew and how they knew it. Almost every teacher in the city had a family member or friend in the construction business. They were always refused work with the city unless they ‘contributed 10% of the total cost of a contract in question’ to the Mayor’s office in order to ‘move things along! This information started the ball rolling and soon the Mayor and members of City Council were under investigation. Indictments came down as a result. The Mayor and The Hudson County Democratic Chairman, along with several others were investigated, charged and convicted of the embezzlement of over 50 million dollars that they could prove without a doubt. There was far more but the trail was well concealed. They were all sentenced to 15 years in Federal Prison because it was ‘Federal Money’ as well as State money that they stole as well as City property tax money. They were skimming off everything they could get their hands on for years and covering it up as best they could. The NY Times also maintains this story in its files.

As a final insult, the Mayor and City Council after the strike was settled, named the school after the Principal that jailed her staff. Thirty other Principals told the inquisitor that the windows hadn’t been washed or repaired in over twenty years and they couldn’t see through the windows and couldn’t see who was outside picketing. Only one said she could see who was carrying a picket sign and she named seventeen teachers on her staff. After this strike was over, they put us all back in the same school with the same Principal. Think about that!

I hope that this brief small example of Inner-City teaching enlightens you as to why ‘Inner-City Teachers’ have to be made of very hard and tough stuff!

What We Did As A Result Of the Above Experience

Getting locked up for ten days in the Hudson County jail wasn’t fun but it was a life experience that most, thankfully, never have. For this author it was a particularly difficult decision to make because my wife was near term with our first child. I certainly didn’t want to have to leave her alone delivering our first born child while I sat in jail.

Without question, walking back into that school with the ‘Idiot” Principal and the Assistant that wasn’t much better, really it was worse than the jail. However, we all went back and did our jobs without ‘killing’ anyone, although I’m certain that this possibility crossed more than one mind.

We all felt that our lives were now ‘tainted’ by the above experience. We expected that we would be ‘passed over’ when we applied for a job within the school system. As it turned out this wasn’t a factor in job applications. In fact, many supervisors and people that controlled possible extra jobs were in our corner regarding the ‘job action’. They were not only surprised by our arrest and subsequent jail terms, they were angered as well, simply because they also could have suffered the same situation, if they also worked for the same school leaders.

Our professional possibilities didn’t change because of this. If we applied for an ‘after school’ extra pay position we were as likely as anyone else achieving it. However, the desire to continue to work in that same atmosphere with the same Principal was gone forever. Instead, we started to think about opening our own ‘After School’ project funded by outside sources and not the Board of Education. We started to really consider seeking funding for our own project that we would operate ourselves, for better or worst. We needed money and a lot of it, to get our idea ‘off the ground!”

Did you know or even realize that New Jersey, ‘Grant Watch’ is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars, waiting for someone to ask for it? In most situations, the grants are made to Non-profit Corporations and often they are ‘continuing and/or recurring Grants’. How do I know this? I was deeply involved with teaching grade school children before I retired from the school system. I served in for thirty-eight years. I wanted that ‘extra’ job because I loved what I did everyday in the classroom. I also needed the extra income that an extra job would produce. I had a wife and also two kids to educate.

Like most systems, those people that are chosen for an after school teaching position are ‘connected’ or at least favored by administration because they hopefully do their job successfully. These extra jobs pay well and are often considered for increasing income. Like many things today, it’s not ‘what’ you know but rather ‘who’ you know. It seems that those in favor succeed. Those that make waves, ask questions etc. are left behind the door. At least that’s how we viewed the professional job scene. There were many, like myself, that felt this way. If we were to raise questions, we were a threat and subsequently didn’t get hired. Perhaps we knew too much?

This is frustrating and frustration caused many educators to find a way to go around obstacles. The following is what we did as professionals. I was working at Dartmouth House at this time, an offshoot of Dartmouth College that was centered in the ‘inner-city’ of Jersey City. This was through the Jersey City Board of Education. I was teaching Math Skills to children using the Dartmouth Computer Time-Sharing System. As the job situation ended, I asked the resident Catholic priest if he knew of anyone that could use my skills, as this contract and job was soon to end. He gave me a name and address of a Catholic Priest that might be of assistance. I thought it strange that the address was on a heavily traveled truck route but I searched out the address anyway. This address turned out to be an abandoned storefront. I looked through the glass door and there was a man sleeping in a lounge chair. I knocked on the door and disturbed the sleeping figure.

Rev. James O’Brien, it turned out, was isolated from the mainstream of Catholic Clergy by the Bishop, because of his outspoken defense of people of color. He was removed from his assignment as Pastor of a major church and left in limbo, with no assignment. This is like the kiss of death for a Catholic Priest. So, ‘O’B’ as he became known, spent his time administering to the people living in Marion Gardens, a low rise and low income housing project in the Marion section of Jersey City. This project was almost entirely populated by under or not employed people of color. The many children that lived here were students of the local area public school. This entire area was also crime ridden. O’B was accepted by all of the families that lived there and truly was loved by them, as he did everything he possibly could to help them become successful and improve their lives..

One of the things he was most concerned about was the free time after-school and during vacation periods, where the kids had lots of ‘free’ time and almost zero supervision. This was a road map to destruction for these children. As we talked about our own situations, we realized that if we, together, made an effort to change what was, we’d be doing these people and their children a big favor. In addition, if we were successful, we’d also be employed after our regular day-job was complete.

After hours of discussion, it was decided that education was the key to success. The kids needed supervision and at the same time they needed to learn to love learning. We also decided that an ‘After-School’ project was necessary to start to make changes in the kids attitudes and help kids to gain success with school grades. After-School programming is a big ‘chunk’ to bite off. We started to organize all that we felt that we would need to start our own “After-School Project!”

We started the ball rolling with a small Saturday Morning project. O’B had contacts in the suburbs where high school and college students also needed direction and a way to demonstrate and successfully use their newly learned skills. He agreed to pick up eight or ten students early every Saturday morning, who would volunteer to tutor the kids from Marion Gardens. He also placed this author in charge of teaching the volunteers how and what to do to go about this process. This Saturday Morning Program lasted an entire school year. It was a success because the same children came to the project, rain or shine, every single Saturday morning.

O’B had a contact at the Methodist Church located at Journal Square. The then Pastor of ‘Christ United Methodist Church’, the Rev. Dave Pierson, volunteered to allow us to use the church basement hall every Saturday from 9 AM to 12 Noon. The kids came every Saturday and the teenagers looked forward to seeing ‘their’ students every Saturday as well. This project really came together and provided children and their tutors with an enjoyable learning experience. This small project also proved that our concept of a free after-school project, operated by independent educators, would work!
HOW IT ALL BEGAN

This small effort became the birthplace to a far greater effort. We started to discuss the possibility of an ‘After-School Program’ independent of the local Board of Education. As we considered this, we also realized that this would take an enormous effort and a great deal of time, to get it ‘off the ground’ so to speak. We also understood that there would also be a number of problems that would need to be addressed before we could proceed with any plans for an After-School Daycare /Homework Help Project.

The first element we had to address was the need for a ‘Board of Directors’ that would guide us and maintain total control This had to be operated by people outside of the professional education staff. This ‘Board of Directors’ would be responsible to promote the project with the potential political powers, that would assist in the area of obtaining funding. As always, ‘funding’ on a continuing basis, is essential to the success of any educational project. We started with zero money and support but we also knew that there was an enormous need for this. The potential for success filling that need was obvious. All we needed was funding for rental of classroom space and salary for professional educators.

Soon we realized that we also needed funding for ‘Insurance’ covering injury of children and/or staff accidents. We also needed secretaries to handle payroll, State and Federal taxes, ordering of necessary materials etc, etc.. We also needed a ‘full time ‘Director’. As we started to really put together the necessary components of this potential project, we realized that we were actually building a ‘Non-Profit Company/Corporation’. As we went along, adding’ this and that’ as a required need, we discovered that our plan became a Major Educational Non-Profit Corporation. We hired an attorney, that filed all of the necessary paperwork to become a State of New Jersey ‘Not for Profit Corporation’ eligible to apply for State and Federal Funding for Educational Purpose’. Our idea became the employer of three full time staff members and eight professional (part-time)educators that ‘wanted’ to work and continued to teach after their regular school day. All of this occurred slowly, as the need required. We needed full time staff to deal with payroll, taxes, ordering materials, keeping financial books etc. These people were necessary if we were serious about establishing a project that made a difference. As time went on, we established three physical sites for after-school and summer programming. These sites were near public schools that served the minority communities. All of the teaching staff had earned a Master’s Degree or better and wanted to work after their daily ‘full time teaching position’ was completed.

Each site had a N.J. Certified Teacher in charge of the site. We interviewed local ‘High School and College Students’ to work as tutors. Each tutor had one or two elementary school students that they were responsible for and in charge of. They were to help their elementary school students with homework assignments everyday. In this way we were sure that the kids got their homework done. We encouraged the high school/college tutors to become involved with their students and also consider their own future as a possible ‘teacher’! We paid the high school/college kids the minimum hourly wage and this encouraged them to be there everyday for their charges. The funding for this came from a recurring annual grant from the State of New Jersey. The project remained in this form for several years. At the same time things were changing and soon a new framework was starting to appear in order to meet the demand of more elementary school children needing attention and security after-school and in the summer school vacation period.

As we continued on we included a music teacher and a professional art teacher. The first music teacher we hired was a professional guitarist who turned out to become the famous female rock star ‘Blondie’ lead guitarist. Our ‘Art Instructor’ was also a professional artist working with water colors as well as oils. This was an enhancement that proved to be a tremendous draw over the standard Board of Education after-school/summer projects. We also transported our kids to summer afternoon Major League Baseball Games and other public events that were nearby. We took all the students to the Bronx Zoo for an afternoon. We used local movie houses when there was an appropriate film available. We had picnics at Liberty State Park almost daily because it was a fifteen minute drive time to get there. Soon we found ourselves emptying the public school projects in favor of ours. Needless to say, this was very satisfying.

Our initial effort regarding this was a direct result of the ‘slap in the face’ that my partner and I received at the hands of the ‘Title1-Board of Education Crowd’. After opening our own program we found ourselves beating the Board of Education Title 1 Program at their own game. My partner, Michael Warjanka and myself were replaced at our original Board of Education ‘After School positions by favorite sons, so to speak, and they failed in every respect. Mike was a Certified ‘Master Degree Reading Specialist & also a State Certified Learning Disability Consultant Specialist’ and I was a ‘Math Specialist’ for the Board of Education with extensive Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) experience. Both of us earned advanced Degrees and Certifications.. The people that replaced us were not nearly as experienced and/or as knowledgeable. Several had not even completed college. However, they were part of the “In Crowd”!

Our independent “After School /Summer Program” was a success because we loved what we were doing and also it provided the satisfaction that goes along with doing what you do best. Our little fledgling program over the course of twenty years brought into Jersey City and for its children, over five million dollars for this simple project alone. As we became more comfortable in our situation we applied for other grants that included federal food grants, needed to feed the children a hot dinner during the winter months and breakfast and lunch during the summer months. Needless to say this effort required more staff for kitchen operations preparing meals for 150 children during the summer camp part of the program.

We, through our professional and community contacts, also had all of our children checked for obvious physical problems by a licensed Medical Doctor. If a problem was uncovered, the child’s parent was notified and provided with direction as to how and where to seek medical attention.

Many if not most of the children in our care were local public school students. All of our teaching staff were also public school educators. Because of this unique situation, we were able to identify learning problems and find a treatment before these, sometimes simple problems, became major issues in a child’s life. A simple pair of eyeglasses often became a cure for a non-reader. Sometimes, it’s the little things that amount to a big success. Hearing loss was another problem that was discovered in some children. Simply moving a child to the front of the classroom, sometimes cured or at least reduced the problem of diminished hearing. All of this became a possibility because two simple and very angry teachers, decided that they could do a better job than their replacements. As time went on more and more assets became part of the program.

All of this happened because we were removed from our jobs as teachers from a Public School Title1 Project in favor of ‘friends’ of the then Administration. One of the favored replacements was legally blind and not a State Certified Educator but that didn’t seem to matter. In our estimation, this alone puts the students at risk. However, we had no opportunity to change this direction in the public arena. So, we opted to make a go of a new project on our own and start our own publicly funded educational program. The success of this project was in our hands alone. We either made it happen using our skills as educators or we folded our tent, so to speak, and went home.

This project alone, without its support projects like food and transportation costs, transportation materials (vans,fuel insurance, potential repairs etc.) increased costs. These costs were also part of individual grants by the State of New Jersey, Department of Youth/Human Services. They are the essential components that insure the protection of the children enrolled. The total of the annual grants to this project , over the twenty years of its existence, brought into the City Jersey City, was in excess of ten million dollars.

Every single year, the main office that handled all of the financial aspects of this project, was audited by the State of New Jersey and also the Federal Government via the (IRS). It was necessary to have on board an accountant and an attorney that were both familiar with ‘Not For Profit’ corporations and the funding processes that they employ to maintain necessary income and support. This was to secure continued funding under the current State and Federal laws.

The bottom line in all of this is that you shouldn’t annoy your professional educators with your followers who display remarkable ineptitude. This was the case described above. The students that were originally enrolled in this project, left soon after their original teachers were removed. They followed these educators to their new educationally secure surroundings.

This is how our little independent “After School Project’ started. We became ‘outcasts’ from the Title 1 Project because we weren’t in the “IN” crowd. Very soon the realization of diminished student attendance in the Title 1 After School Programs that were near our program sites, became evident. The message of retaliation through our professional skills, was received and understood. We provided a quality program where children wanted to go to everyday and we provided a better atmosphere that wasn’t the school room situation but rather a large room with individual groups would gather together with their high school and college tutors. In addition we started to also provide a hot meal at least one site and soon this word spread and we started to transport meals to all our sites. The meals were prepared at one site that had a very large kitchen and we provided the staff to help with preparation and delivery each day. Most of the food that was prepared was provided through the Federal Government by a Federal Food Grant. This was so successful the the Board of Education contracted with us to deliver lunch each day to their summer school projects throughout the city.

Transportation of children and also food and equipment was part of our project that the public schools couldn’t match. We had our own vans to transport children around the city for various projects.(This was another Grant). We used Liberty State Park almost daily. Field trips were a major part of our program and the teachers were the drivers of the vans.(All had to obtain a N.J. Class 2 N.J. drivers license.) If we were out of the building on a trip, the kitchen prepared lunch for the children on that trip, and it went on the van as well as the kids. Our children were always fed and always had something healthy to drink with their meal. In this way we were supporting their families when food at home became a problem. If a child, during the summer months, was part of our project, they always had breakfast everyday, sometimes a hot breakfast was prepared by our kitchen staff. Lunch was also provided and the menu also provided for both hot and cold meals, depending the weather/ air temperature that day. During the winter months the Public and also the Private schools provided breakfast and generally a cold lunch. A Sandwich and a piece of fruit and milk. If that child was also part of our project, they received a hot meal for dinner, before being transported home to their front door.

This project needed dependable kitchen staff to prepare meals for field trips and for also children and staff the remained in the building. With a hundred a fifty children on roll this became a daunting problem. Finally I found the right person to control and lead the kitchen staff. This person was also the parent of two of our enrolled campers. In the summer portion of our project she prepared breakfast consisting of hot oatmeal, fruit juice, toast and fruit. Lunch could be pasta, a burger or hot-dogs and fruit. The raw food supply was made up of Government cheese and canned meats and fruit. Bread and rolls were purchased locally. The Government raw or cooked food was another Federal Grant. This parent/cook stayed with us for years at our site and she asked her sister if she wanted a cooks job at another of our sites. Both of these people stayed with us for years because our time schedules fit with their lifestyle.

Over the years we added to this project, professional staff that could address different issues and problems. We were funded by New Jersey DYFS(and often if we needed to have a child treated locally for a minor medical problem costs were generally covered by the parent, the State Child Welfare Program or completely forgiven by the Doctor. This is the type of relationship that developed over the years between certain doctors and this program.)

We would often bring in some local talent to entertain and educate the children. One of our favorite talents was ‘Corkey the Clown.’Corkey was a local talent that often entertained small groups of children at parties and other gatherings. He had a group of trained animals that the children learned about first hand and could actually touch and pet them. He had all sorts of birds and rabbits as well. He sometimes would bring his wife(Daisy), also a clown in costume and a pair of skunks that the kids could touch and pet.

Over time we would make changes that were required by circumstance. The students’ best interest was always the most important item we were concerned with. As we grew our reputation spread throughout the Board of Education and the entire city as well.

At one point we had student centers in the five voting wards in the city. This was wise because the children enrolled in those sites had parents that voted in every election. We let the local City Councilman in each ward know who we were and what we did in his ward. We also let him or her know how our parents felt about this project that their child was involved in and how they would likely vote if the Council disappointed us with a funding request. It was time to flex our relatively small but yet powerful muscles. This is how the game in played, not only in Jersey City but everywhere.

While the above was going on the Corporation obtained a grant to train adults through the ‘Comprehensive Employment and Training Act(CETA) Our CETA Grant cover slots for fifty unemployed Jersey City people seeking employment. Our Grant was for training these people to get a paying job on their own. We trained them to be ‘Teacher Aides’ and presented them to the Board of Education as trained teacher sides. They all were hired and most stayed until they retired…with a small pension. We kept one for ourselves and she stayed with us for several years before she moved to the West Coast and married. Were all of the above elements of the program a success? We thought so!

Our annual budget was running over three hundred thousand dollars a year and it seemed that each year we’d add a new component that cost more and hence needed another income source. This is where the grant search comes in. Our central full time office staff had the responsibility to continually observe and search out sources of new and continued funding.

Computer Assisted Instruction

As computers became more and more available both in the schools and also at home it became evident that we also needed to include them in our project. As time went on, we encouraged the kids to start to learn how to use a simple word processing program to write their stories. At that time we were using ‘The Bank Street Writer’ , a simple to use word processor that also saved what was written on a separate disk. The kids loved it. Now they could write their own story without a hundred erased words and holes in the paper. Everything was written on screen, corrections were made on screen and everything was saved on individual disks and could be recalled later to make more improvements or changes in the story. Suddenly writing became fun and the computer a useful tool.
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In my day teaching job I was using computers to teach math as well as writing. My kids at my day job were all writing and sending their stories to children’s magazine publishers, for possible publication. One day a young girl came up to me and showed me a letter she had received from a magazine publisher. One of her stories, written on our computers, was accepted for publication by ‘Cricket’ Children’s Magazine. The word spread regarding her success and every kid in my day job was waiting at my Math Lab door, seeking to learn how to use the computer and seeking regular computer time. Computer Assisted Instruction is a powerful teaching tool. So it was a necessity to also have them in our‘After School Program!’

An Internationally Acclaimed Children’s Author comes to our program.

I wrote a letter to a African American Author of books for children that I read about in the local newspaper, The Jersey Journal.. I read about his receiving an ‘National Award for his latest book for children! I wrote to him and I asked him if he would come to visit our Computer Lab and speak to our child authors. Walter Dean Myers had written over a hundred stories for children that were published. He won the Martin Luther King Award and the Corretta Scott King award for the best children’s stories. The list of awards that this man won, goes on for several pages. He also has one movie to his credit. It was a long shot but he was interested in putting computers and writing together to teach kids to write without fear and also learn math skills.

Walter Myers met me at our After School Project. He watched over one hundred kids eat dinner as we discussed his coming to my school and also our after school project to help us teach children to write without fear. This was an enormous success. Walter loved and absorbed the children’s attitude and behavior in answering questions they asked. He was writing about the children and the children were absorbing his comments and directions regarding their own stories. This was a perfect match! It should happen to every elementary school teacher.

I was now assigned to another elementary school on the border between Bayonne, N.J. and Jersey City. I established a Computer Lab when there as there really no use of computers at this school. We used this lab to teach both reading and math test preparation and review. It was a perfect set-up. We had eight Apple 2e terminals to work with. These were new at this time. I was finally happy to be removed from that Principal that had no professional morals. Working here was close to home and also to the after-school project. Because this school also served an enormous public housing project there were many students and their parents that were interested in joining our after-school project. I picked the kids up as soon as they were dismissed from their class and they got on the Van and in a few minutes they were at the program and started their homework under the direction of one of our staff educators. They also were provided with a small snack because dinner was over an hour away.

Our After-school building was a former partially closed and abandoned Catholic School building. OB, the leader of our Board of Directors, got himself appointed as pastor of the church that owned the building. The reason that they gave him the appointment was that the original Pastor was now senile. He either had to be placed in a nursing home or have twenty-four hour help. OB and a few Nuns were cheaper than the nursing home so OB was assigned to this parish as the new Pastor. Immediately he offered the two floor large school building to the After-School Program as a Center for the program. The Bishop was wise in appointing OB because he had a following in the ‘black’ community. Now there were people in Church on Sunday morning and they contributed what they could when the collection was taken up.

Our entire project was now located at this site, because of the enormous amount of room that we had at our disposal. We bused the kids in using our vans, from different areas that were were serving. The teachers picked up the children and drove them home to their front door when the program closed for the day.

When the program took over the school building we totally renovated the kitchen and ‘air-conditioned’ each classroom. When we took it over there was already a modern, up to date heating system. We didn’t have to do anything with that.

Our answer to Title1 was now well known and supported by members of the Board of Education. The Title 1 after-school program fell apart completely. Our program continued all summer long and every school day during the school year. We continued on for almost twenty years in some form. I could tell that we were getting tired and it was time to consider handing over the authority and slow down. I was tired and it was time to rest.

After long discussion with my wife, we both came to the same conclusion. It was time to leave. OB was gone to his final reward. He died as a result of a car accident. When he and his sister were on their way home after he finished his weekly ‘radio’ broadcast from Seton Hall University their car was hit in the side where OB was sitting. He never woke up. His sister survived. We lost a great leader and friend.

The main office staff members were never at the program site unless they were delivering something. They were not a help in relieving the pressures that I felt everyday. They had their own pressures in their office. It was time to hang up my spurs regarding this project. I wrote out my resignation decision and handed it to the folks at the main office. I could tell that they were not happy regarding my resignation, but it had to be. I worked three jobs every school day and every summer for over twenty years…it was time to rest! Several years later, I did the same thing regarding my full-time teaching job. Again, I wanted no fan-fair upon leaving.

After I resigned, others started to do the same thing, resign, and soon the program closed. We all worked hard to help children; however you should not work so hard that you put yourself in a grave. When we made the decision to retire we learned that there was no one that wanted to take our place. They didn’t wish to expose themselves to the pressures and also the dangers that could very possibly occur doing this type of independent educational work in the deep inner-city. Doing this sort of job puts everything on the shoulders of the leadership and this takes courage and belief in yourself.

Retirement:
I’ve now been retired for over fifteen years. I miss the excitement of teaching children. I miss the look on a child’s face when he/she finally understands how to solve a Math Problem correctly and transfers that knowledge to their own school classroom. I miss the hugs from the 1st graders in the morning in the school yard, when their parents drop them off for school.

For the last fifteen years my wife and I have traveled to warm winter places.We traveled to Europe twice. We made new friends, many of which were also retired and traveling to see America and other countries as well. We also have spent a good deal of time on the west coast of Florida during the winter months.

Our children are very successful in life and have given us a total of five grandchildren. The life that God has given to us has been basically wonderful and I believe, hope and pray that we have used His gift in a way that pleased Him.

Your body and mind will let you know when the time to slow down is approaching. You should heed the signs and roll with the punches that life as a senior citizen will ultimately provide. Not everyone makes it this far!

I forgot to mention that the Mayor and Democratic County Chairman that engineered putting the teachers in jail for not working, without a raise and a signed contract, was eventually indicted for embezzlement of State and Federal funds and was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in Federal Prison. The Chairman died in jail. We didn’t attend the funeral! The money they stole should have gone into our proposed contract and not their pockets.

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If anyone after reading the above, needs more information about how to go about what we did, please feel free to contact me at my e-mail address jaumack64@gmail.com and I will respond. There are numerous entries found on the Internet regarding how to seek funds for after-school programming. They offer information regarding funding, from both State sources and also Federal sources. I suggest that anyone seeking this type of opportunity contact their local elected Mayor or City Council member and discuss with them opportunities for the children in your area to receive after-school and summer daycare activities. Emphasize the need clearly and also the possible outcomes, from this sort of plan. The City might also have employed a person that is successful in writing Grant Proposals. This will be very helpful and rewarding.

I also recommend that you contact an Attorney that is willing to assist you(hopefully, initially free of charge) in you efforts. You should develop a plan to start a State recognized Not For Profit Corporation through which you will submit any applications for funding. You will also need an Accountant of record to certify any application and be the contact person regarding funding. The accountant should have experience dealing with the budgets of Nonprofit Corporations.

Any staff involved in the application process and the potential program as a staff member should be holders of advanced College Degrees and experience, that support your application of this proposed project. None of this is impossible and yet it appears daunting… it isn’t. With the above in place you will be ahead of most applicants. If the above is done correctly and applications are spread over all areas seeking applicants for funding…you will likely be successful. If not on the first try …do it again and again. You will be successful! Success for our project lasted over twenty years. For several years we had to remind the City Council, regarding how many votes we could provide if they did not robustly support and vote to fund our program. They got the message. With one hundred and fifty kids in the program we could probably raise 600 + votes, enough to put a ward councilman out of a job. We didn’t ask for much from the City but we did need their support and seed money.

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