“More?” I queried, coming into the room and shutting the door behind me. Our school secretary could be a bit of a gossip, and Reagan preferred to keep her out of any school talk unless things were official because she wouldn’t be able to help herself.
“Budget cuts,” Reagan scoffed, pushing her keyboard away from her in disgust. “We’re surviving on scraps as it is. The entire art department is going to end up being cut if we can’t scrape together enough to keep it going.”
I made a face. Someone, somewhere convinced the higher ups that children don’t need art to do well in school. They obviously had no true experience working with children to see the way art shaped their little minds, and nothing we could do or say would make any difference. We were a small school, sharingthe same grounds as the elementary school next door and the high school across the street. I got the feeling we’d eventually be forced to integrate and shut the middle school down completely. I wasn’t looking forward to that eventuality.
Blowing out a breath, Reagan shook her head. “Nothing we can do about it right now. I might need to call another staff meeting though.” Her gaze dropped to the file in my hand and she grimaced. “More bad news?”
“No, actually,” I corrected her, handing her the file. “I’m here to talk about Jasper Reed.”
“Jasper…” She frowned, flipping open the file and glancing at me, confused. “Is this the same kid that’s been starting fights?”
I nodded. “Yes. I’ve met with his guardian and we’ve got his support on that aspect. He even volunteered to follow Jasper around school to keep him out of trouble if he doesn’t straighten up. It’s helped thus far.”
She snorted, reading through the file again. “I think that kind of threat would work on most middle school boys. Okay, this sounds good. Is this what you came to tell me? Because honestly, keep it coming. I’d rather hear news like this all day long than another email from the superintendent.”
Chuckling, I leaned forward, flipping the page in the file to show her the assignment I’d tested Jasper with the week prior. The one he’d aced when he had the promise of no homework for an entire week. The one far above anything we’d been learning in class.
“After my meeting with Jasper’s guardian, I began tutoring him at home to see if I could find where he was struggling and help him get past it. I thought perhaps he’d fallen behind with the transition to his new home and just needed to catch up. That turned out not to be the case.”
She listened intently, her eyes scanning Jasper’s work.
“Jasper is incredibly gifted in mathematics. I noticed when he pretended he didn't understand, he would answer the harder questions on the assignments and not the easy ones. He thought if he only answered one or two, he’d still look incapable.”
“While proving the exact opposite by doing only the difficult work,” she continued, nodding. She raised an eyebrow at me. “You think he needs to be bumped up a grade?”
“I haven’t discussed it with his other teachers to see how he’s doing in his other courses, but I know in math, he’s outpacing his classmates by a lot. Between boredom and emotional turmoil in his home life, it explains why he’s been getting into trouble.”
Reagan nodded slowly. She’d been working with students longer than I had, and she knew potential when she saw it. Her brows furrowed slightly.
“His math skills might be worth testing, but unless we get his temper under control, the conversation would be moot. Any more fighting and he’s looking at expulsion.”
I couldn’t argue that. As much as I liked Jasper and his family, I couldn’t risk other students’ safety just for him. We tried to be as fair as we could, especially with cases like this, but there had to be a limit, and Jasper was close to reaching it.
“What about a trial run? He’s behaved well enough with me. I’ll ask John for copies of his lessons and give them to Jasper to work on during class. If it keeps his focus and prevents him from causing trouble, we can look into sending him to John’s class to see how he does there.”
Reagan nodded thoughtfully. “That could work. You’re sure? You know that means you’d technically be teaching two math classes at once. What if he has questions?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I drawled. Jasper was hardly my first advanced student, and John Karlsen’s classes didn’t always have the space for me to send him another student. Therewere times that I’d done something similar in the class. I’d do what I had to in order to make sure my students thrived.
Huffing a laugh, she gave me a droll look. “Don’t act put out. You love it. If you wanted more stability, you would’ve taken those private school offers years ago.”
True. I had the skill and discipline private schools liked, but I wasn’t willing to leave the kids who needed me. I knew when I was just starting out that I would go to a small town. I wanted to give those kids the opportunities I got thanks to teachers who cared enough to push me.
Patting the file, she nodded. “Alright, let’s see how he does with the new material for the week, and if he takes it well, I’ll talk to John. You said he’s been behaving in class?”
“In my class, yes. Like I said, I haven’t talked to anyone else yet. And we still have his guardian waiting in the wings to deal with him if necessary. He’s been through a great deal lately. Let’s give him a little more time before making any drastic decisions.”
Her eyebrows lifted slowly. “You’re vouching for him?”
“I see his potential,” I countered. “He needs a firm hand and time to heal. We can give him that.”
I should have assumed my speaking up on Jasper’s behalf would trigger Murphy’s Law. Less than forty eight hours after my conversation with Reagan, I was waylaid on the way back to my classroom after lunch when I noticed two students shouting at each other. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised when one of them turned out to be Jasper.
“What’s the matter? Don’t want to admit it? Embarrassed that your dad is in a biker gang?”
“He’s not my dad!” Jasper bellowed, shoving Evan Williams hard enough to make him stumble. Evan was in my class the year prior and a bully. I lost track of the number of in school suspensions he spent in my class after bullying his fellow classmates. Since he was never caught being physical, Reagan couldn’t expel him, but he spent most of his lunches in my classroom doing his school work than he did with his friends. Somehow, that still hadn’t taught him not to pick on his classmates.
Evan didn’t take kindly to Jasper pushing him and shoved back, lip lifted in a sneer. “Don’t lie! You look just like him! I saw you two together over the weekend!”
