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Yesterday the principal gave me a copy of an email she had received from the guy whose job I am contracted for right now.  He had written out an itemized list of all his personal belongings which he'd left in the theatre and wanted returned to him.  She wanted to know if I knew the whereabouts of any of his stuff and if I could pack it up for him.  Fortunately I had already packed up most of it around Christmas when I found out I was staying until the end of the school year.  Mostly it was books but the office also had several pictures of himself in various plays and some memorabilia from The Beatles.  

The email, however, had all kinds of things on the list that I had never seen in the theatre, including some expensive microphone and camera equipment.  The strange thing is that this man has been out of the school for two years now and there have been several different teachers working in the theatre on short term contracts who have come and gone - and in spite of knowing this, he has left his belongings there the whole time.  It's unsurprising as it is sad that it seems that some of his things have disappeared.  

My sympathy for him faded, however, when I saw that his itemized list of things he wanted returned also included office supplies.... staplers, rolls of tape, and file folders.  From two years ago!  The principal laughed when she showed this to me and told me to go ahead and get him all the office supplies he wanted out of the storage room.

On the plus side, perhaps this means he won't be returning to the school and I could keep the job.  Here (as opposed to there) the unions are very powerful and seniority means more than competence, which means that because I am new to this district I am not qualified to apply for the "first round" of positions that are posted, nor the second, in spite of my excellent evaluation and administration's direct statement that they want to keep me.  Whether or not I am actually permitted to apply for this job will be based upon when (if) the teacher announces his plans to leave officially.  If he does so immediately I will be out of luck.  If he is spiteful and hangs on until the last minute I could be in good shape.  Fortunately I am starting to get the impression that he may be spiteful.

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We're going to the inlaws' for breakfast.  I like it when someone else makes me breakfast.  :D

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