For Bob Mandell, the bad news came on a Wednesday evening.
Dial-A-Teacher, the homework-help hot line to which he had devoted nearly two decades of service, would be closing for good the following day.
For the first time in 31 years, the hundreds of calls from students seeking help with their homework would go unanswered.
Mandell, a retired teacher who earned a reputation for taking on the Miami-Dade County School Board, wouldn't stand for it. So the night of the next School Board meeting in April, he stood before the board and pleaded his case.
''We all got together before the meeting, but I was sure it wouldn't do any good,'' said Mandell, 74, of his Dial-A-Teacher colleagues. ``We had to try, but I was telling everybody to prepare for the worst.''
He was in for a surprise.
Before Mandell could finish making his appeal, School Board member Evelyn Greer interrupted and offered to fund the program for the rest of the school year with a $12,000 contribution from her law firm.
Said Greer: ``They're the essence of what we want to offer in the public school system: Dedicated people there at night, helping students who don't have parents at home to help them.''
School Board members later expressed support for keeping the program alive in 2008-09.
The teachers involved in Dial-A-Teacher have a unique bond.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools launched the program in 1977. The concept was simple: Students across the district could call the hot line on weekday evenings and connect with teachers, all of whom were ready to provide homework help.
The teachers fielded so many calls that in 1984, the district turned it into a live television show.
''Kids could call in, which was incredibly dangerous,'' said Mandell, who only once went in front of the cameras. ``We were live on the air. There wasn't even a few-seconds delay.''
Antics ensued. During one episode, a science teacher came in with a snake on her shoulder, and it made its way down her blouse. Thankfully, only the teacher's face was on camera.
In the late 1980s, the program's budget had grown to $1.1 million, Mandell said. More than 10,000 kids called in each year.
The teachers helped some kids from kindergarten through their graduation.
''Adults would come up to me on the street and tell me how much their children enjoyed Dial-A-Teacher,'' said Robert Cummings, a social studies teacher who is now at Westland Hialeah Senior.
But budget cuts followed. The show was forced to go off the air in 2000. Teachers, however, remained available by telephone.
Nearly every year thereafter, the program was scaled back further, Mandell said.
He took over four years ago.
At the start of this school year, the budget allowed for a rotation of seven teachers and one substitute.
The teachers set up shop in a small conference room tucked away on the eighth floor of the district office. They fielded dozens of calls each week.
They worked until early April, when Mandell received word the program had been shut down.
VICTIM OF BUDGET CUTS
In light of major funding cuts from state legislators, district administrators were shaving money everywhere possible.
Dial-A-Teacher needed only $12,000 to finish out the school year, but even that was too much.
''I found out on a Wednesday,'' Mandell recalled. ``I was told that Thursday would be the last night. We had to turn off the phones.''
The program went off-line.
Even so, the teachers wanted to appeal to the School Board.
They asked Mandell to lead the charge.
Why Mandell?
About eight years ago, Mandell had asked the School Board to let certain retired teachers work as substitute teachers. His passionate speech at a School Board meeting one night persuaded the board to change an existing rule.
The night of the April School Board meeting, the Dial-A-Teacher team sat together in the audience.
When the public hearing began around 6:30 p.m., Mandell approached the podium and spoke directly to the School Board.
That's when Greer spoke up and offered to fund the program.
For a moment, Mandell stood speechless at the podium.
''I'm usually not one to fumble for words, but I was at a real loss,'' he said. ``I honestly couldn't believe what had happened.''
GROUP CELEBRATION
The Dial-A-Teacher team regrouped in the hallway outside the auditorium. They embraced and celebrated their victory.
The following night, Mandell plugged the phones back in.
But there was still another challenge: Given the dramatic budget cuts from Tallahassee, it was unclear if Dial-A-Teacher would be funded through 2008-09.
Less than two weeks after Greer's gesture, the Dial-A-Teacher staff got a tentative answer: At a School Board budget workshop, board members advised Superintendent Rudy Crew to leave the program's budget untouched.
''They're a dedicated group of teachers,'' said district spokesman John Schuster, whose first job in the school system was a part-time television camera operator for Dial-A-Teacher.
On a recent evening, the teachers gathered in their eighth-floor conference room and waited for the phones to ring.
When all was quiet, they reminisced about their days on television and chatted about students they had helped.
Then, the phones started ringing. The questions came pouring in.
``Are blue eyes dominant or recessive?''
``What play was Lincoln watching when he died?''
``What is a superdelegate?''
Mandell was happy to help.
''We provide such an important service to students and parents,'' he later said, smiling. ``Especially for those kids who have nobody else, this program means a lot.''
