Bailing out

What? Really?

Vlad bailed out. He turned up one Monday morning, and while I was otherwise occupied announced his sudden and precipitous departure. We have no idea why, and no one who might know has ever said, which suggests that the only person who knows is Vlad himself. Did he take his mistress with him? That’s a moot point, but, I think, he’d be cold-hearted enough to dispense with her.

We were certainly expecting him to last to the end of term, and it’s possible that some personal business affected his decision.

He also left leaving various threats in his wake, but like the story last year, it may not be till sometime in the 2020s that the story emerges.

No time was wasted in dispatching his replacement, who may not have scrapped all the mandatory extras we’ve been lumbered with, but who has got rid of some of them. He also listens to people (or does a good job of feigning it) where Vlad merely seemed to be waiting for you to stop talking and made you feel that everything you said was trite and insubstantial.

My own elevation is likely to come as a fait accompli, but one of Vlad’s gifts was to besmirch what little (all right, non-existent) reputation I have. I’ve been hearing about adverse comments from people who I’ve never spoken to and who almost certainly couldn’t pick me out in a lineup.

The choice is between me and the Lone Star Kid, who isn’t planning to remain beyond the next academic year and probably doesn’t really want the job. Admittedly, he’s probably better candidate than I am, but he’s too quirky and mercurial, and like Ms. Giggles, only interested in his own agenda. He’d be good in the right sort of school or programme, but here, he’s a nightmare.

The difficulty is going to be cohesion because, in truth, we have little or none unlike three years ago when her Ladyship and I ran the show between us and the others were happy to go along with what we were doing. Mr Blond, for example, seems to waste his time reinventing the wheel instead of using resources that we already have because he can’t remember that I’ve already given him everything.

I think the importance of the post is exaggerated because the idea comes from a school system where each department has many teachers, which really would make HoDs middle management. Here our numbers are tiny, but the inclusion of an extra layer in the structure may make the management of the centre a little more effective.

The holders of such posts should not be allowed to act as if they’re deputies to the Crown Prince, which is what Vlad did in effect.