School's out!

Today is the first official day of summer vacation for Austrian students. Yesterday, I went to the end-of-the-year gathering for all the teachers and staff at the school where I taught this year.

Wow.

It was probably to my benefit that the teaching assistant program ended in May and I didn't have to teach during June. Apparently, in the last few weeks, there have been intense disagreements between the teachers and the administration about everything imaginable. Austrian schools don't even have teachers' unions to communicate between the two parties, so people have been taking many of the criticisms very personally.

The entire end-of-year ceremony for the teachers and staff was about how not everyone always sees eye-to-eye, but they all must present unified views to the parents and public in order for the school to remain strong.

Apparently, the school has had serious trouble recruiting students for next year. (A little bit of background: Students must apply to this academic / college-prep school, as opposed to trade school, as soon as they finish elementary school. This leads to another criticism of the Austrian school system: Twelve-year-old students are forced to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives because they can't switch schools after elementary!) Whereas my school normally accepts enough students to fill five or six full classes, this year they only had enough for four classes. However, someone (presumably a former parent, who had something against the school or its administration) told the city council that the school only had enough new students for two new classes and now the school is battling a tarnished image. The other academic school in the district is now transferring some of its newly accepted students to the other school, which is an embarrassment for everyone involved.

I'm sure the saga will continue over the summer. I'm just glad I don't have to be involved in the politics of it all!