Another blow for teacher assaulted at bus stop

After a vicious assault at a bus stop nearly a year ago left him brain damaged, Adams Elementary School teacher Joseph Skillings has been recovering faster than doctors expected and working part time in the classroom.

Known for his frequent art, music and dance field trips, on Saturday the 2007 Teacher of the Year at the Ballard school led a small group of his first-graders and their parents on a tour of the Seattle Art Museum's Edward Hopper exhibition.

But just a day earlier, his principal told him that, come the new year, he'll no longer be on the Seattle Public Schools payroll.

"I'm a very motivated teacher," said Skillings, 53. "I'm very emotional and upset."

In January, Skillings intervened to help a woman being harassed by a stranger at a bus stop. When the man — who has never been identified — punched him, Skillings hit his head hard on the pavement and suffered brain damage.

Adams Principal Anne Johnson and district administrative officials found creative ways to accommodate Skillings in the aftermath.

Rigorous therapy

And with constant therapy at the University of Washington Medical Center, Skillings made a remarkable recovery, returning to his classroom as a half-time teacher at the beginning of this school year.

In his conversation now, there's rarely a trace of the struggle he had for months to find the words to express himself.

But the day before his Hopper tour, the school district's financial reality — a potential $20 million cut in state funding — delivered a new blow.

Johnson told him the district can no longer pay for the half-time position.

And since he isn't recovered enough to go full time, she said Skillings would be taken off the payroll as of January. He'll be eligible for full-time disability benefits.

Skillings said that one lingering aspect of his brain trauma is that he can't control his emotions the way he used to. On hearing the news from Johnson and UW vocational counselor Karen Ball, he broke down.

"I'm sitting there crying with women that really care for me," Skillings said. "But there's nothing they can do."

School district spokesman David Tucker was unable to comment on Skillings' situation, except to say that as of Saturday his employment status was unchanged.

Sick pay was donated

Former Adams Principal Barb Nielsen, a friend of Skillings' who has been close to him since his injury, said many in the school district worked to help him in practical ways after the attack.

Teachers donated enough sick leave to allow him to be paid full time through the end of the last school year.

Then for this year, Johnson found independent funding so that a half-time substitute teacher could work full time in Skillings' classroom — an arrangement that cannot be stretched into 2009.

"It's like having a teacher and a half in a classroom," Nielsen said. "That's pretty pricey."

She said district officials cut Skillings' position with great reluctance.

"I don't think anybody is doing anything without feeling," Nielsen said.

Skillings' stepbrother Greg Paulson, a Minneapolis attorney helping him deal with the practicalities of his circumstances, said the half-time salary is about $30,000.

Skillings said he understands the budgetary position his principal is in. And he acknowledges that he isn't yet fit to take the mental stress of teaching full time.

Nielsen said Skillings' UW therapists, his family and his friends are "astounded and excited that he's ahead of the curve" in his recovery.

But she said the daily challenges of teaching — the routine planning, scheduling and constant multitasking — are all-consuming in normal circumstances and understandably exhausting for someone less than a year away from a traumatic brain injury.

Now Skillings has money worries on top of everything else. The disability payments will not make up entirely the loss of his income.

"Everything is falling apart on me. I worry about being able to stay in my house," Skillings said. "Am I going to be able to live? I don't know."

A friend has invited Skillings to Hawaii for Christmas and donated frequent-flier miles to get him there. He had intended to stay for the two weeks of the district's winter break, but — with no job to come back to — he said he'll now likely stay a month to help him recover mentally.

In the new year, Skillings plans to continue his therapy and go back into his former classroom as a volunteer. He said he hopes one day to return to teaching full time.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com