Mis-Delivery

Kate, the other person who lives in this house, teaches second grade in Oakland. She likes her school and principal and teaching colleagues and loves the kids. And working for the Oakland Unified School District, which is often mistaken for an ongoing experiment in dysfunction and waste, does provide its lighter moments — usually when someone in the bureaucracy is left alone with a word processor. This evening’s exhibit comes at the end of a letter informing Kate her renewed teaching credential is ready to be picked up. For teachers’ convenience, the district will mail the credential; all a teacher needs to do is supply a mailing address and read and sign the following waiver, reproduced here verbatim:

“I understand that so long as the District address my credential to the location listed above, I will not hold it responsible for lost or mis-delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.”