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22 June 2006

WifeJobFilter: Good news, bad news →[More:] In the ongoing saga of my wife's employment, some good news: She was extended and accept a job today!!! w00t!

The bad news is this: She received a letter "confirming" her employment at the old charter-school-corporation-from-hell that she is leaving. Texas state law says if she is going to resign, she needs to do so at least 45 days prior to the start of classes (or else the state can suspend her credentials for a year). Her old charter school had followed the local city school's schedule previously, which would give her until June 30. We're trying to figure out whether the letter is trying to imply she's already inside the window where she is locked in (which would mean starting school a week and a half ahead of the local city district).

We're hoping they don't give her a hard time about this.

We think legally they don't have a leg to stand on since they traditionally follow the big city district schedule and haven't sent notification of any change to that policy... not to mention we think the state education agency would side with her if it came to a hearing. But still... what a pain in the @ss!

(And to top it off, my son got a ticket for expired inspection. It expired last October while he was at school, and since we weren't driving the car regularly, we simply forgot to get it inspected. Damn.)

post by: Doohickie at: 19:41 | 3 comments

Sorry for the distress. Perhaps they're hoping to "scare" her into staying. And I hate car inspections. I've always got my fingers crossed when I get there-that they'll find some minor thing and fail me. I guess this is a...congratulations/so sorry thread!

posted by redvixen 22 June | 20:04

I think "scaring" her into staying is exactly what they're trying to do. When the school year ended, 16 of 19 teachers said they were staying next year; much better than any previous year (and the three that left were the ones they wanted to lose, if you know what I mean).

The day after classes ended, they pulled the rug out from under the school, cutting back programs and letting several teachers go. They cited enrollment numbers being too low as the reason, but cutting the extracirriculars was a sure way to lose even more students; it made no sense.

Out of the teachers, I think only two are left now; the rest have all found other jobs. And those last two are looking.

The motivations for this whole purge are unclear; they were either strictly financial as stated, or financial from the standpoint of trying to get rid of higher-paid teachers and bring in uncertified teachers who are in the certification process; they get paid less. Or, he was caught skimming money that was supposed to go for instruction and had to pay it back, hence the fire sale, or he was trying to get rid of the principal who was not a "yes-man" to the CEO of the company.

In the charter school company, this had been the biggest and most profitable one and it will likely never reopen. I hope the guy got what he wanted.

And I hope he doesn't try to keep my wife from taking the new job.

posted by Doohickie 22 June | 21:21

Okay, update:

I don't think they can question my wife's resignation; she learned that if they wanted to pull up the start of school date to before Aug. 15, they had to file a waiver with the state back in February and if this had happened, she would have heard about it. And if they do argue it and try to get her certification suspended, it should be a simple matter of determining that no waiver is on record, therefore as long as she resigns before June 30, she's good.

In the meantime, she's accepted the job at the high school and may still interview at another charter school near our house "just in case" any problems come up with her certification and the high school backs off. The charter school is more likely to work around the certification issue than a big city high school.

Who knew becoming a history teacher would make her an expert in Texas education law?

posted by Doohickie 23 June | 00:03

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