Saturday: Holy Shockeroo! I went to the mailbox and pulled out the pile. A large brown envelope from Bryan County Board of Education stood out from the rest. I opened it. It was a job contract to work at Richmond Hill High School!! Was I surprised? Yes! I hadn't heard back from the principal since we had our interview a month or so ago, and I assumed that if he was interested, he'd call first. I felt that our interview went well, but you never know. There are so many reasons why an employer doesn't make an offer, ranging from 1)they already have a favored internal candidate but must talk to two others 2) they don't want to pay the salary of a step 21 T-7 when they can get a nice young thing straight out of Armstrong with no experience and a Bachelor's Degree 3)the moon is full. The principal hadn't called, so I figured what the heck, it's probably one of the reasons above, no harm done, at least I have a job even if I have some issues with the administration(not the students), I can stand it for another year, etc. But when this contract came unexpectedly in the mail today, it has sent me into high gear. The possibility of working at Richmond Hill High has sent my heart a-pounding.
There's just one little problem! I already signed a contract with Chatham County in April, on the last day of the deadline for signing contracts. I've heard rumors that if you try to break your contract, they can suspend your teaching certificate for a year. Without a teaching certificate, what good would a new teaching job be?
Hmmm. Now we've got a little problem, don't we?
I need to investigate this. I need to call some people in the know, maybe other teachers who have managed to flee Chatham County for greener pastures, or maybe our neighbor friend who works at the BOE. I'll also call the Union president to ask if she knows anything about the repercussions of breaking a contract. I have to think about what the financial ramifications would be if they did suspend my real state certificate and Bryan County put me under a provisional certificate.
But...the fact that the administration at my school gave me an Unsatisfactory evaluation (based on those b.s. things you've all heard about) might come back to bite them. Surely, they will release an "Unsatisfactory" teacher from a contract! Why would they want to hold on to the likes of me? I found out that the Chatham County system doesn't even have a review or appeals process for teachers who get unsatisfactory evaluations. That gives individual principals unlimited power to abuse and control. But I suppose it's that way at any job, isn't it? A friend recently told me that the teacher in our school who got the most consistently high evaluations is one who had his students play with Play-Doh on his evaluation days. I was thinking of stocking up on Play-Doh this summer, if that's what it takes.
Oh, so much to think about! And I'll have to churn this over for a week before I can do anything because we'll be leaving tomorrow and will be out of town for a week. Luckily, the contract doesn't give a deadline but merely says "as soon as possible." They also want me to return some form signed by an "Authorized Official" stating how many year's prior experience I was granted when I came into the school system (answer: 18 years). Obviously, I cannot go to the principal with this, so I'll have to go downtown to Human Resources when we get back. I'm sure they're totally indifferent and don't care why they're filling out such forms, so maybe there won't be any questions asked.
Bryan County goes from August to May. Since Chatham County goes from Sept. to June, my summer break will be cut short by a month. Ask me if I care? NOOOO!!
Liberto said when I had the interview that if we had to, we could buy or rent another house in Bryan County if that's what it took to justify breaking the contract.
Deep breath, deep breath. Now I'm all worked up into a tizzy. And I've still got to pack for the trip, clean the house, and get ready for the party tonight.
The reason I'm writing about all this right now is to help center myself. There's nothing better than a good write-a-thon to help one focus.
No comments:
Post a Comment