OT: Teachers of Boneyard...Back to School Time

[Hey Adrien!]

Just got back from my beach vacation today. Still have until the 31st before I have to go in, but we just found out our new head of school was canned this week because everyone absolutely hated his guts. So it's going to be extremely weird.

Good thing that happened sooner rather than later.

We had an awful HOS hire five years ago where we had three finalists and NO ONE wanted the person the head of the board hired. No people skills and a poor administrator…lasted five months and with his buy out he was still the highest paid “employee” on the roster.

Our current HOS is an acceptable end-of-his career band aid hire who is starting his fourth year so my guess is we’ll get the gears turning for a new transition towards the end of this year.

Best of luck.

 

[QDOG5]

Year 15 teacher here in the RV production capital of the US in Indiana. Teach High School math at a public school.

Our 1st day with students was last Wednesday. We were the last district in the area to start school this year. Other districts started the 1st Friday in August.

Really need to get out!!!

Say hello to Elkhart for me.

 

[uconnfan68]

@M.S.G. ....not sure if this will help. I have heard some crazy stories as well.

My girlfriend is a school psychologist. Top of the scale. Over 20 plus years of experience, plus it's a shortage area in CT right now. Was offered a job in early July at one of the better districts in the state after interviewing twice, and after getting glow reviews from her references. She accepted.

It took HR a week to get back to her to set up an appointment to finalize everything. The HR director was almost an hour late to her meeting, and then said the district was offering her 25 grand less than top of the scale because she had taken 2 years off total during her career (1 each for the birth of her children, which were complicated births).

The HR manager met with her on a Tuesday afternoon, and gave her a Wednesday deadline of 5 p.m to take it or leave it as he put it. He said any questions let me know.

She had one question, emailed him, left 3 voice mail messages over 2 days, and he never got back to her. Finally, on THURSDAY, at 6 p.m. he emailed her and said they were pulling the offer because they never heard from her, and he had consulted with someone in the district who wasn't even part of the interview process. She called the principal who hired her, the Super, and no one would take her call.

Beyond this being ridicilous, unprofessional, etc. she lost almost 2 weeks of time where she could have applied at other places.

Luckily, she just found another job, but it is a wacky world out there.

At my school, we can't find anyone for our psychological services team. Everyone seems to be leaving the field...

Name those idiots! We need to start shaming more. Let’s let everyone know where the jerks are.

 

[Minicoop69]

Say hello to Elkhart for me.

You local? Used to do business with RV company?

 

[98Uconn]

My brother is a teacher in Philly public school district, middle school. Paid his dues for years but for last several years is at a target school for the Philly school system that the kids need to apply to,
teaching STEM. He loves it so much he said he’d teach year round.
My wife is a school counselor, my father taught high school biology for 30 years and a chemecology course he designed 30 years ago before it was a “thing”. My mother in law taught kindergarten for 40 years and my father in law was a college professor at Harrrisburg Community College for 50 years.
I have great respect for all of you in education. I strayed and became a pharamacist because I couldn’t survive teaching for a week. Best of luck to you all.

 

[husky429]

father in law was a college professor at Harrrisburg Community College for 50 years.

Community college is where it's at for PhDs these days. The tenure-track, publish or perish rate race is not good for 99% of people. My wife is making close to 100k teaching 4 classes a semester at CT comm colleges with a 3 month summer. Amazing gig.

 

[shizzle787]

This thread is just one of the reasons why US schools are behind their East Asian and Northern European counterparts.

 

[M.S.G.]

My guess is that When the recommendation to the superintendent, he's shooting it down for budget reasons. If you're not sped, math, or science that is likely the reason. I've been on 23 hiring committees in the past year and justifying hiring a 15 year English teacher vs some brand new kid from Central is tough. We had a few recommendations for hires shot down for that reason.

If you're sped, math or science it's probably something else. Are you white and straight? Right or wrong, that's a factor working against you too if you are.

@Dream Jobbed 2.0 and I have gone on and on and on about how ridiculous hiring can be via DM (including my own district shafting him pretty bad).

Good luck.

Yep, this has been what I've been thinking - and what my wife has been saying.. It's nice to see it typed out in print, what a racket it is.. There just has to be a better way, but this is what we all must suffer through. Thank you for your honesty.

 

[M.S.G.]

@M.S.G. ....not sure if this will help. I have heard some crazy stories as well.

My girlfriend is a school psychologist. Top of the scale. Over 20 plus years of experience, plus it's a shortage area in CT right now. Was offered a job in early July at one of the better districts in the state after interviewing twice, and after getting glow reviews from her references. She accepted.

It took HR a week to get back to her to set up an appointment to finalize everything. The HR director was almost an hour late to her meeting, and then said the district was offering her 25 grand less than top of the scale because she had taken 2 years off total during her career (1 each for the birth of her children, which were complicated births).

The HR manager met with her on a Tuesday afternoon, and gave her a Wednesday deadline of 5 p.m to take it or leave it as he put it. He said any questions let me know.

She had one question, emailed him, left 3 voice mail messages over 2 days, and he never got back to her. Finally, on THURSDAY, at 6 p.m. he emailed her and said they were pulling the offer because they never heard from her, and he had consulted with someone in the district who wasn't even part of the interview process. She called the principal who hired her, the Super, and no one would take her call.

Beyond this being ridicilous, unprofessional, etc. she lost almost 2 weeks of time where she could have applied at other places.

Luckily, she just found another job, but it is a wacky world out there.

At my school, we can't find anyone for our psychological services team. Everyone seems to be leaving the field...

Holy moly.. It does help. I appreciate you typing this out. Thanks for sharing. Mind boggling, yet totally believable considering what I've dealt with and seen!

 

[JJTB]

Kudos to those in the profession….their love of kids is overwhelming. Unfortunately, today so many are undermined by ambitious administrators, overbearing parents and catering board members. I retired in 2009, 34 years experience….still miss the kids. Lotta fun! Can’t imagine what virtual learning has done to the development of kids….educationally and socially. Then the mask issue! Just let teachers teach and eliminate the B.S. Best of luck to all kids and teachers…..and parents….do your job!

 

[History Geek]

About to start year 16. Teachers report this Tuesday. Kids’ first day a week from Monday.

 

[Greedo]

I go back on the 29th, with kids coming back after Labor Day. I’m excited to have a school year feel “normal” from start to finish.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Thank you teachers.

Also, Oh My God, the boneyard is in charge of our youth.

But mostly, thank you teachers.

 

[Austin316]

Anyone out there with kids in daycare/pre-school?

We’ve seen massive jumps price recently. I knew it was basically a mortgage going in but a 20-30% jump in cost is a lot ($5k-$6k more per year).

Anyone see the same thing? They say it’s because of inflation, teacher gas costs, they want to increase teacher salaries because they aren’t making much more than minimum wage, budget balancing. I don’t mind paying more but we’re barely getting by as it is. Wild.

 

[lange10]

Year five for me as a 5th grade gen. ed teacher in NY. Staff reports on the 30th and students on Sept. 1. A nice and easy two day week to start the year off before LDW.

We’re departmentalizing this year which is an exciting change of pace. I was hoping to teach math, science and social studies but as the untenured teacher (entering my third year in my current district) I didn’t have a lot of say when my principal told me they needed me to teach reading and writing. C’est la vie.

Best of luck to everyone!

 

[NJHoops]

I’m a school psychologist who works with preschoolers. We work year-round, so not a true “back to school” for me, but there is a definite different feel to August/September.

 

[Travelman6]

Wednesday here.

Been at the place for 2.5 years but I've had one foot out the door for over a year now. Admin has pulled all sorts of fun stuff. Last March (2021) they told me I would move from Year 6 to Year 4 for the next year and then, in June, told me I wasn't going to be a Year 4 teacher anymore and they didn't have a position for me, but they wanted to keep me. So everything was up in the air for part of summer. Got called in the middle of the summer and they asked me to take a position in secondary. Weeks later they asked if I could also teach secondary Maths (no! Don't even have the qualifications.)

Oh ya, and I was told they would be withholding my summer pay, so that was a stressful summer, vacations were already planned. I finally got my summer pay in installments over the course of the first few months of school. They wanted to make sure I wouldn't take my summer pay and leave at the start of September. Gee, wonder how many times that happened to them in the past.

One important person in admin left and they never said a word about it, or explained it in any way to the staff and we all just had to pick up the slack for her unexplained absence (termination or she quit).

That is it for now.

 

[husky429]

Wednesday here.

Been at the place for 2.5 years but I've had one foot out the door for over a year now. Admin has pulled all sorts of fun stuff. Last March (2021) they told me I would move from Year 6 to Year 4 for the next year and then, in June, told me I wasn't going to be a Year 4 teacher anymore and they didn't have a position for me, but they wanted to keep me. So everything was up in the air for part of summer. Got called in the middle of the summer and they asked me to take a position in secondary. Weeks later they asked if I could also teach secondary Maths (no! Don't even have the qualifications.)

Oh ya, and I was told they would be withholding my summer pay, so that was a stressful summer, vacations were already planned. I finally got my summer pay in installments over the course of the first few months of school. They wanted to make sure I wouldn't take my summer pay and leave at the start of September. Gee, wonder how many times that happened to them in the past.

One important person in admin left and they never said a word about it, or explained it in any way to the staff and we all just had to pick up the slack for her unexplained absence (termination or she quit).

That is it for now.

Where are you teaching now? Last I heard was the Balkans maybe?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Start my first full year as an administrator at a state approved private tomorrow. Hired for the position last October. It was a terrible year and after a handful of interviews I can as offered a position in a large urban district. However, the person who offered me the job called me a couple days later saying HR wants to go another direction. Think I ended up being too straight white and male for a leadership role in this specific district

 

[Travelman6]

Where are you teaching now? Last I heard was the Balkans maybe?

Yes! Balkans!

 

[crazyUCfan23]

I report on Wednesday, the kids come the following Tuesday the 29th. My district, for whatever reason, is switching from Google Classroom to Schoology - anybody have any experience using Schoology? I had a PD on it at the end of last year and didn't find the interface to be particularly user-friendly.

 

[TXHuskyFan]

My wife is a diag in a public school district here in Texas. She went back to work July 20. Kids started August 10.

 

[Ts5034]

Community college is where it's at for PhDs these days. The tenure-track, publish or perish rate race is not good for 99% of people. My wife is making close to 100k teaching 4 classes a semester at CT comm colleges with a 3 month summer. Amazing gig.

Ive been saying the same thing for years…state job, state insurance, state pension, and good pay with plenty of time off. Absolutely an amazing gig.

 

[husky429]

Ive been saying the same thing for years…state job, state insurance, state pension, and good pay with plenty of time off. Absolutely an amazing gig.

Jobs are getting harder to get. They basically don't hire without a PhD in this state. Great career though.

 

[Greedo]

I report on Wednesday, the kids come the following Tuesday the 29th. My district, for whatever reason, is switching from Google Classroom to Schoology - anybody have any experience using Schoology? I had a PD on it at the end of last year and didn't find the interface to be particularly user-friendly.

Once you get used to it and figure out all the ins and outs it’s way better than any other LMS. Everyone will complain. There is a learning curve - more so for the older teachers. But once you get there you’ll realize it blows google classroom out of the water. Google classroom is prettier. That’s it.

Edit to add: feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I used to run PD for it at my old district.