| |
As Belinda Shaw sat in the syndicate leaders' staff meeting, she gazed out at the warm September spring weather and thought back over the year. She had been an assistant principal in charge of Tern Syndicate from when the school opened and like many of the others, she guessed, had been quite apprehensive after Owen Fessey had announced his retirement. There were different reasons, of course but her own fears were that Michael White would get an internal promotion or that an even worse scenario, was that Peter Niles from Westview Intermediate would win the position. But Karla had won and new fears had crossed her brow, for the new incoming principal was about her own age. How could somebody that age win such a high position? Was she going to be one of those arrogant pushy sorts who tried to prove that women could do anything better than a male or had she risen through the ranks by using her sexuality. This was not uncommon in the teaching profession with many boards of trustees controlled by males and the vast majority of teachers now female. Belinda grinned to herself for Karla was neither and in her opinion was the best thing that had happened at Joseph Ward Junior High since it had opened. She was a strong principal but had that talent of making staff, including herself, feel part of any decision making.
The senior meeting she was at now was about staff appraisals. All New Zealand schools were expected to have these and replaced the old inspectorate of twenty-five years before that Grandad spoke nostalgically about. Before her grandfather had retired he had been a principal of a mid-sized primary school since she was child and had stated on numerous occasions that he could never survive in the present climate. In those days, teachers were ranked by school inspectors and the so-called best teachers were promoted faster than ordinary ones. She remembered that when she had told him about their new principal, he just shook his head in wonder and muttered that in his day one needed to have at least another twenty years experience before winning such a prestigious position.
"You seem to be deep in thought, Belinda," Karla said to her. "What to you think of cross-syndicate appraisals?"
Belinda jerked up and grinned. "Sorry, I was daydreaming, I guess."
In previous years, the syndicate leaders appraised their own staff; in her case there were twelve Tern Syndicate teachers that she had to assses. As well, the senior staff appraised each other while the board of trustees appraised the principal, often with the help of another district principal. Karla's suggestion was that each of the syndicate leaders appraise teachers from the other three syndicates and meet together afterwards to compare their results so there would be a school-wide consistency in the methods used.
"Dreaming about your world trip?" Michael almost taunted. "Weren't you going to take a year off and have your great overseas experience?"
Belinda glowered. She knew he was just joking but his barbs annoyed her. "No, actually I was thinking about our school and how much it has improved this year with Karla at the helm." She turned to her principal. "I think your suggestion is great. As well as seeing other teachers across the school we may find ways to improve our own syndicates. Working in isolation as we did last year meant that, I for one had really no idea what was going on in three quarters of the school."
"My thoughts, too," Felicja from Shearwater Syndicate added.
Only Michael expressed doubts about the value of the new system. Belinda caught Felicja's eyes and turned her nose up. He seemed to oppose everything on principle; perhaps it was because Karla had pulled rank on him at the beginning of the year over trying to get the best sporting students into Petrel Syndicate.
"Good," Karla replied. "We'll refine the details next week and bring it in next term. Thank you all. I know it's four-twenty but could Felicja and Belinda please stay for a moment?"
Belinda wondered what Karla wanted to say but didn't mind. Gone were the days when there was always something ominous when the boss wanted to say something to a couple of them.
After the two DPs left, Karla smiled. "You know how I made your senior teachers and the first year teachers' positions permanent? "
Belinda nodded and glanced at Felicja who appeared as bemused as she felt.
"Well, I am about to make a similar offer to both of you. Due to our expanding roll, we can upgrade both of your positions to DP, meaning a salary rise. On my recommendation, the board has agreed to offer you both this promotion rather than advertising them as upgraded positions."
"And Michael and Sandra's positions?" Belinda asked.
"They will remain the same. We will have four deputy principals all at the same level and your present positions as assistant principals will disappear. With four DPs, I intend to alternate the position of Associate Principal between you all, to take over from me for day-by-day running of the school when I am away at meetings or on leave." She ran a hand over her now quite pronounced tummy. "I will be having some maternity leave later in the year."
Felicja spoke. "Michael wouldn't like this."
"He and Sandra have already been told and that I would be promoting both of you. He commented of course. That is his right and he accepted both changes."
"Sandra wouldn't mind," Belinda added.
Karla grinned. "We will still have to work out the final details but the positions will officially start in October at the beginning of Term Four. The board agreed to give you the extra term before next year's intake. Our new four-classroom block will be arriving before Christmas so each syndicate can have one extra classroom and teacher."
"You mean the new block will hold one classroom from each syndicate?" Belinda asked.
"No; your Tern Syndicate will have two new Floor 2 classrooms and Petrel will have two Floor 1 classrooms. However, both of you will have one of your present classrooms made into a specialist room."
"What about Felicja's and my own syndicate?" Sandra asked.
"The specialist classrooms on Floor 2 above the gymnasium were originally two classrooms when the school opened and before the last two wings were built. They will be upgraded and revert back to become general classrooms, one for your Gannet syndicate and one for Felicja's Shearwater. Being at your end of school they will not be isolated from the other classrooms in your syndicates. Does that sound okay?"
Belinda grinned. "I like the idea." Again Karla seemed to have thought everything out carefully and had the knack of making her ideas appear to be one shared by them all rather than being imposed from above. She had actually tried a similar method in her syndicate and found that it worked well, even with Adrain the only man in her syndicate who in some ways was like Michael though not so openly negative. Adrain had been at the school for over three years and had come back to a basic teacher's position in the city after being a country school principal for much of his career. The rumour was that it was his wife who had persuaded him to come to Auckland but they had split up a few months before, why... she had no idea.
*
After the meeting, Belinda headed for the supermarket, bought a few basics and arrived home at the neat seventy-year-old house in Takapuna, one of the older suburbs but still on the northern side of the harbour. She had lived there most of her life, firstly with her mother and grandparents but now there was only Grandad and herself. Her mother had died from cancer when she was ten and Nan and Grandad had brought her up. After leaving school she had left home for a few years, trained to be a teacher and had a couple of years at a country school before Nan became ill and she returned home fifteen years before. Nan had died about the time Joseph Ward Junior High had opened and she had stayed with her grandfather ever since
She sighed as she drove in and parked in the two-car garage beside Grandad's pickup truck that he had recently bought after owning an ancient one for twenty years. She had never married or even had a long-term relationship, even though Grandad had often told her not to let teaching rule her life and she should get out more. He never complained about missing Nan but she knew that even though he led quite a social life at a local bowling club and couple of charity groups, he was lonely.
Perhaps she had slipped into a comfortable rut herself and the years just seemed to fly by. Grandad, now in his late seventies and had been retired for twenty years was still healthy and in summer would go swimming at a nearby beach several times a week.
As usual when she had a school meeting, an evening meal was being cooked. She placed mail with his name, Warren Shaw on the envelopes, on the table.
"Mail for you Grandad," she said. "You forgot to get it from the letter box."
He turned from where he was turning something in the frying pan and grinned. "Never get anything important anyway. Even the bills usually come through the internet." He glanced at the two envelopes. "Just as I thought, another rates bill and a bank statement. How was Karla?"
"Good. I just got promoted." She continued on to tell Grandad about the senior staff meeting.
"Saw her at the mall with her hubby and little girl the other day. She came right up to me for a chat and knew my name even though I've only met her a couple of times."
"Yes, she has that knack for names."
"Nice lady," Grandad said. "Getting fat, though."
"Well she is pregnant, Grandad," Belinda retorted.
Grandad stared at her, grimaced but said nothing.
"I'm not her, Grandad," she said. "And before you say any more, no I don't mind being here with you and I don't need a man in my life for company but come on, I'll help you serve up. Haven't you got that Red Cross committee meeting in an hour?"
*
Belinda sat in her office that was adjacent to her classroom in Tern Block and swung the computer monitor so the teacher with her could see it. On the screen were two documents with the one on the left filled with graphs, data and two photos of children working while on the right was a half page statement with no extra graphs or photographs.
"I don't normally make a comparison between the planning teachers in Tern do but I feel that you are not pulling your weight." She nodded at the screens. "You know your one, of course but compare it with the page on the left that one of my other teachers created. Who teacher is doesn't matter for they all produce similar work." She glanced up at Adrain Williamson, the tall almost lanky teacher sitting in a chair beside her.
Adrain shrugged. "Isn't how the children learn more important than pretty little window dressing? Those photos show kids in Tracy's class so I guess this is her work. She always does dainty little things but I bet that if you did a comparison of test results between our two rooms, my kids would do better."
Belinda grimaced. It took Adrian about five seconds to pick up whose planning she was comparing with his. So much for trying to be discrete! Both Tracy and himself took Year 7&8 classes so were directly comparable and in a recent school wide testing, his students did do better than Tracy's.
"I realise that but staff appraisals are starting soon with a change that Karla wants." She continued on to explain that Sandra from Gannet Syndicate would be appraising him. "I know that you're doing a good job but why hide it? For another quarter an hour's effort you could easily have planning and evaluation as good as any of the other teachers in Tern."
"Why not?" Adrian muttered before he broke into a smile. "By the way congratulations."
"What for?"
"Your promotion to DP. I always thought it was silly that all you syndicate leaders do the same work yet two of you got paid less."
Belinda smiled. "It's just the numbers, Adrain. Our roll is going up so we are entitled to these positions. I'm just lucky enough to have my position upgraded."
"Yeah but if you were over at Westview Intermediate they'd have advertised the positions, brought in somebody new and you'd be out of a job. We're damned lucky to have Karla here."
"I never thought of that," Belinda whispered. "We had a similar system with the senior teachers that Karla made permanent."
"Yes. Morale over there is rock bottom but here..." He grinned. "Okay, I don't all like the changes like this latest one but... I'm rambling aren't I?"
Belinda stood and watched as Adrian did the same. "Just add that little bit to your planning, that's all I ask?"
"Okay," he said but instead of walking out as she expected he just stood there looking at her in a strange way.
"That's all, Adrian," she said.
"Not quite," he replied.
It was so sudden that it wasn't until afterwards she realised what had happened. He stepped forward, grabbed her in a massive hug, squeezed her chin and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. She squirmed and pushed against him but was held and kissed again. Finally she placed both hands on his chest and pushed him away, her heart was thumping and she realised her whole body shook.
"Why did you do that?" She wanted to scream angrily but somehow her words came out as a nervous whisper.
"If I asked first you would have said no."
"You're right there." She now had her control back. "Don't you ever do that again, Adrain."
"No!" He stepped forward and she found herself being kissed again with even more force. He let her go and stepped back as if he suddenly lost his nerve. "Would you like to come out with me, for say a nice little meal somewhere and movie of your choice?"
"What?" she gasped.
"You heard."
"You're a married man, Adrain." She found her face burning.
"No more," he whispered. "My divorce came though a month ago but what difference does that make in this day and age?"
Belinda pouted. "My old fashioned upbringing, I guess. My grandparents brought me up and there's still Grandad."
"So how about that date?"
"So you can fondle me afterwards?"
"Next time I'll ask first and that's a promise."
Belinda stared at him in a whole new light. She had not been out with a man for five years. The last time had been a disaster with the guy only wanting sex and he had become sulky when she stopped him. But this felt different. Sure it was unexpected and she should be offended but wasn't. In fact, her racing mind realised that Adrian had gazed at her as a woman a lot during the last few weeks. It had taken courage for him to do what he just did for if he had just asked her for a date, kiss or whatever, she'd have turned him down but now...
"Why me?" she whispered. "There would be close to twenty single girls on the staff."
"That's the word," he replied. "They're just girls whereas you're an attractive woman that I work with every day. So?"
"So what?
"That meal and movie? How about Saturday evening?"
She looked up into his eyes. She was quite tall but he still towered above her. They looked almost apprehensive.
"Okay," she whispered. "But don't expect me to leap into bed with you at a motel afterwards."
"Perhaps in the back seat of my car."
"No way!" she almost spat but caught the twinkle in his eyes. "You're the limit Adrain Williamson. I was going to tear strips off you but instead end up being kissed. What would our principal say if she knew?"
"Knowing Karla, she'd smile and say not a word. What sort of movies do you like? There are a couple that I think you could be interested in. Restaurant, too. Any favourites?"
"Nothing too exotic or expensive. I quite like Chinese cuisine. I'll see what movies there are and get back to you tomorrow."
"Right," Adrain reached out, squeezed her arm and was gone.
Belinda just stood there with her heart still thumping wildly. Damn it, she felt like a teenager anticipating the school ball again!
*
Like a burst bubble, Belinda found her live changed that Saturday night. She suspected that Adrian was almost as nervous as herself as they had a delightful meal at a small Chinese restaurant run by a family who had recently immigrated to New Zealand from Mainland China. A girl, who would hardly be any older than students at school spoke English with no accent. However, conversation with her parents was in Mandarin, a language that Belinda understood quite well for she had studied it for a couple of years as there were quite a few of their school students who spoke it as their first language.
Afterwards they attended Event Cinemas, an eight-screen complex in Albany not far from the school. The movie was a modern drama about a judge with known actors and actresses, not that Belinda really followed them with more than a passing interest. It was just before eleven as Adrian drove out of the parking lot in his modern Mazda, he said it was.
"Like a coffee or wine somewhere?" he asked.
She smiled. "I'd ask you over to my place but Grandad lives there, too. He will probably be in bed but you never know." She laughed nervously. "He's all I have now and I love him dearly. Sometimes though he still thinks I am twenty." She gave Adrian a brief summary of her life and how she had lived with her grandparents for most of it.
"I have a small apartment that isn't far from the school. It's really just a short term place until I get everything sorted out with my ex who lives in our home and is trying to get a mortgage to buy me out of my half."
"That will be fine," Belinda whispered and again her heart began to race in anticipation of what might happen.
It did!
For the first time in her life she had sex on a first date and by one in the morning she was exhausted but had no regrets what-so-ever about what had happened. Even this was a first for on all the previous times she had had sex it had been followed by guilt feelings and the fear that she might have been impregnated. She grinned to herself at her own forethought of purchasing some 'morning-after' pills, just in case.
The lounge and veranda lights were both on. The goodnight kiss was almost an anti-climax after what had happened and she waved from the veranda as Adrian reversed out of the drive, gave a tiny toot and drove away.
Grandad was sitting in his favourite armchair in the lounge with the television playing one of those all-night shopping programs that several of the networks used to fill in the early hours. This was strange for Grandad hated them and reached for the remote whenever any came on air. Perhaps he had fallen asleep.
"Hi Grandad," she called. "I'm a bit late. You shouldn't have waited up for me."
He sat up and turned. "That's fine, Belinda, I must have dozed off after feeling a bit wheezy." he said. "I'm so proud of you. For years we have looked after each other, haven't we?"
She reached for the remote and turned off the television. "We have Grandad and that will continue. Just because I had a date that doesn't change anything, you know."
"Don't waste any more years, Honey," he said. "Thank you for everything. I've always loved you, you know."
"Oh Grandad, you're getting sentimental tonight."
He glanced at her, smiled, jerked and his head sort of tipped back.
"Grandad!" Belinda screamed for something was horribly wrong.
She ran forward and noticed a glazed look in her grandfather's eyes. "Grandad!" she screamed again and reached out to hug him but he didn't respond. "Oh my God," she sobbed. She reached for her mobile and punched in Adrian's number that had only been added to her phone the day before.
"Adrian here."
"Can you come back?" Belinda sobbed. "Grandad! I think he's dead. We were talking and he just slumped back. It was as if he knew..." She burst into shuddering incoherent sobs, dropped the phone and with tears rolling down her face, just hugged the old man in her arms.
*
There was a massive turnout for Warren's funeral the following Saturday with, as far as Belinda could tell, every teacher in Tern Syndicate attending as well as all the senior staff, Karla and her husband, teachers from other syndicates and other staff from Joseph Ward Junior High. As well, other relations attended, though there were not a lot left now. Representatives from all of the groups Grandad belonged to were there as well as dozens of elderly friends, many that she hardly knew. As well, the principal and several teachers from Findlay Grove Primary School where Grandad had been principal for a dozen years before his retirement came up to and introduced themselves before the service started.
When she began her eulogy to the mourners, she tried to keep her poise. She spoke of her life and stated that he was more than just a grandfather but together with her late Nan, had taken her in as a child, supported her throughout her life and ... At that point her chin shook, no words would come out and she broke into sobbing tears. Somebody was standing beside her. It was Karla!
"Would you like me to continue reading your speech, Belinda?" her principal asked.
She couldn't talk but nodded and discovered that Adrian was also there. He tucked an arm around her shoulders and escorted her back to the front row of the funeral parlour in the silent room. She listened as Karla read her notes and memories of her life flashed through her mind. Somehow Grandad's death affected her even more than Nan's funeral. She remembered him at the time telling her there were just two of them now but they were strong and would carry on together. And they did, even when he became weaker over the following few years.
Now he was gone! It was as if he had held on until he knew she found someone. "Oh Grandad," she whispered to herself. "Why now! I never knew my father and hardly remember Mum. Nan and you were my real parents and after she died I promised myself I would repay your kindness and never leave you. Without your encouragement I would not have become a teacher or even applied for the wonderful position I am now in."
A tiny hand reached out and squeezed her own. She glanced down and saw tiny Alexis looking up at her. "It's okay," the little girl whispered. "Mummy will look after you. She looks after everyone."
Belinda reached down lifted Alexis up onto her knees and smiled through her tears at Adrain who reached out and again placed his arm placed around her shoulders.
*