So wrote and sang Bob Dylan. And lately its lyrics have been in my mind at work.
In three short weeks, my department chair will be retiring. His retirement affects the entire English department, which is the largest in the school. When he is replaced, all of us will feel the "weirdness" of working under someone other than him. By my count, of the sixteen department members, he hired or welcomed as intra-district transfers ten of us. So there are ten people who have known only him in that role. As for me, I was hired by his predecessor, who left the job six months into my first year. So I as well have really only known him in the role.
It is pretty much known who his successor will be. But since it is not official, I won't write of it here. But it is someone from within the department, which should hopefully engender some sense of continuity. But the elevation of a department member combined with his retirement itself presents a series of challenges (both large and small) for the new chair and the department. Fortunately, much of these are foreseeable and have been planned for in the last few weeks. Questions like, who will teach the sections of Advanced Placement Senior English currently taught by the chair? And once those go to someone, what two classes will he/she give up in return? Department chairs teach two classes whereas the rest of us teach five. Which two will the one who is promoted keep and which three will be reassigned? Will the classroom vacated by the new chair go to a brand new teacher or will someone else be given the "right of way" to the room?
Those are some of the small ones. The biggest challenge, of course, is to hire a new teacher to fill the void that will be left when all the shuffling is complete. Recognizing that his stake in the hiring is very small since he will be gone, the chair has formed a hiring committee to handle this task. I am on this committee and we began the interviewing this week.
Less than a week after the change occurs, we will have our February "contractual day," after school departmental meetings and projects. And that meeting will be led by someone new. And that will feel weird.
