Abbott Elementary – Development Day

By starrymag | September 27, 2022

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

It’s the first day back. Well, sort of. Technically it’s just Development Day but on the car ride to the Janine’s (Quinta Brunson) approaching it with all the enthusiasm of a real first day. She’s telling whomever is behind the camera that this year she’s new and improved and not at all sad because her now ex-boyfriend (Zack Fox) is moving to New York. Janine has parted her hair on a different side, she’s taking her break-up as an opportunity to grow, she’s not going to bring her personal problems into school and she’s excited. Unfortunately, not everyone on staff shares her enthusiasm.

 

Ava (Janelle James) is absolutely enthusiastic – just not about Development Day. When Janine arrives at school she can’t park in the parking lot because Ava’s using it to tailgate. It’s never too early for beer and BBQ in Ava’s world. Plus, she’s saying Janine has to either pay her $50 to get the guy cooking ribs in her parking spot to move or park on the street. Janine has to choose the street.

 

Jacob (Chris Perfetti) is back too and helps Janine with a bunch of heavy boxes. Then tells her about his summer of service in Peru. Janine missed him and the feeling was mutual. He’s excited to tell her all about how he mastered American Sign Language and mostly failed to win over the locals. After their chat we get some background. Most people assume that school starts when the kids have to return, but teachers typically take a week before classes start to prepare.

 

After she decorates her class Janine is thrilled to see Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph). Barbara had a good summer vacation which she spent one part of a cruise to Jamaica and the other part of helping Ava properly budget the funding they got from the school board. She also found out in July that this year she’d have a class who uses a wheelchair. Barbara is happy to have him and some of the grant money went towards getting a wheelchair ramp installed over the summer. Although she wants to do whatever she can to accommodate his needs, the school board hasn’t been less than expeditious about getting her new student an ADA-compliant desk.

 

It’s presentation time and of course Ava is presenting. She uses the time to show off pictures of her beach vacation and flirt with Gregory (Tyler James Williams). Speaking of Gregory, say goodbye to Gregory the substitute and say hello to Gregory the full-time teacher. He’s excited…in his own subdued way. Gregory spent the summer studying and has a lot of lofty lists and goals for what he wants to teach the kids this year.

 

In the assembly Ava is forcing the staff to applaud her for hula hooping for no real reason. We also learn that Janine will be leading a mentorship mixer to give older teachers a chance to share their wisdom with the newbies. At first Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) and Barbara aren’t into it and Janine has the impulse to plead with them but then she resists and just reminds them that it’s mandatory. Barbara and Melissa still aren’t sold on the idea but they respect Janine’s display of backbone. In unrelated news, Melissa spent the summer with the vending machine guy at the Jersey Shore. Unfortunately, due to teacher shortages, Melissa learns she’s getting a combined group of second and third graders #overcrowdedclassrooms. For obvious reasons she’s not thrilled to have more kids and not an increase in resources to go with them.

 

On a lighter note Janine has good news – she’s getting Gritty to come to the school. Gritty is Philadelphia’s very popular mascot and the kids will love seeing him on the first day. Everyone’s hyped, except for Gregory. He doesn’t get the appeal, but then backs down when people start staring. Next, he walks and talks with Barbara. She’s still valiantly trying to get that ADA desk for her student, but the district stopped taking her calls.

 

Jacob goes to Janine’s classroom to bounce some ideas off of her about his ASL presentation. She’s all in and wants to jazz up her own presentation as well. So, Jacob goes to her computer to look up some crossword puzzle ice breakers and he stumbles upon her emails. He didn’t mean to snoop but there are several emails from Janine’s landlord about her being late rent. When he asks her about it Janine says she’s got it under control, but Jacob is worried.

 

Gregory unveils his color coded teaching plan to Barbara where he has every moment of the school year scheduled. Barbara says he thinks it’s great he wants to help the kids learn as much as he can, but kids can force you to go off book sometimes? What if half the class gets sick? What if there are snow days? What if some kids need extra help? Barbara tells him it’s great that he has high expectations, but he needs to be more flexible.

 

It seems Janine’s ex used to pay 20% of the rent and with a teacher’s salary the absence is felt so now she’s late on rent. Jacob is a little worried she might get evicted, as those emails seemed a little angry. Janine explains she and her landlord have an understanding. However, then she dodges another phone call from him. Jacob goes to Barbara and Gregory to share his worry for Janine. He asks Gregory to go and talk to her where he bluntly asks her if she’s about to get kicked out.  Janine doesn’t want to talk about it. So she focuses on her decorations and chides Jacob for telling…well everyone. He counters that he was just worried and homelessness would suck. She tells them not to worry and wants to push forward with her presentation. Gregory helps her set up the monitor for her presentation and they talk about if he’s seeing anyone. Then, before Jasmine can start, the janitor Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) comes in with bad news….

 

Janine’s car is illegally parked and it’s getting a boot paid on it. It seems that in an effort to move on Janine has decided to quit paying all of Tariq’s tickets. But since he racked them up in her car, she’s still on the hook for them. Unfortunately, Melissa doesn’t even have a connection in the Parking Authority who can lend a hand. So, Janine has a not great idea of moving her car as she doesn’t have the money to pay the tickets. It does not as apparently driving with a boot on your car is easier said than done. And she almost hits Gritty. Why is he here now? Because she gave him the wrong date by mistake. Gritty is high in demand, so he won’t be able to make it on the official first day of school. It’s an all around not good day for Janine.

 

After that ordeal Janine talks to the teacher gang and admits she’s sad. She’d been with her boyfriend since she was in middle school. But things have been really hard financially and emotionally. Barbara and Melissa tell her that break ups are hard, but you can’t fast forward – you’ve just got to go through them. Then, Gritty gives Janine a much needed hug. Ava inserts herself into it for a selfie and says she’ll edit Janine out.

 

A little later Gregory has a good talk with Barbara. She encourages to embrace a little chaos if he wants to make an impact because kids are unpredictable. Plus, Barbara explains that being a teacher is being asked to do the impossible and the only thing they can do is keep showing up. Gregory still kind of feels like they’ve been set up for failure, but he takes Barbara’s advice to heart. Speaking of showing up, Janine isn’t getting evicted because Jacob loans her some money. He was going to use it for student loans, but Janine needed it more and he’s confident Joe Biden’s going to cancel student loans any day now.

 

During the last scene Janine has decided to let herself feel the sadness. On the first day Gritty doesn’t show up, but the kids get the janitor in a tree costume courtesy of Gregory’s father. Speaking of Gregory, the school district didn’t come through with the ADA desk, but Gregory found one in the basement.  And Jacob has a deaf student named Imani (Mackenzie Lee-Foster) who can benefit from him speaking ASL. It’s a new year at Abbott Elementary.