Is It Possible for Me to Get a New Job? (career, principal)

[guntakuntex]

Hi all. Using a secondary handle for this post, for a variety of reasons...


I have been in my current school district for 18 years. It is a mid-sized, low income urban district. I have worked in a variety of assignments over the years, but most of my years (11) were spent as a technology teacher/coordinator.



At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, my assignment was changed to third grade. The entire school knew about the change in assignment before I did. To this day, I have no idea why this happened. I had 12 spotless years in the building, and excellent observations during those years. When I asked the principal why my assignment was changed, she basically told me that I "lacked initiative" and didn't do anything the way she wanted. Again, she never gave me any indication before this day that she was unhappy with my performance.



The timing couldn't have been worse for me. I was buying my first house, and in the process of going through a pretty big move. The stress of everything affected my health badly, and just after the 2017-2018 school year started, I got sick... with mono... in my mid-40s. I could barely stand or lift anything, and I eventually had to go out sick for a few weeks. I probably returned to work before I should have, and I was still pretty weak when I returned. I was suddenly barraged with visits from the principal, vice-principal, and other administrators in my class. I received my fist poor observation in many years. Over the next several weeks, the principal started to complain that I walked too slowly ("You're not moving fast enough!"), that I sat too much ("You will stand at all times while in class with students"), that I sat in chairs strangely ("You're going to fall and I can't pick you up") and told me that it was time to consider looking for a new career or go on (implied permanent) disability. Several days later, my assignment was switched to kindergarten... probably the worst fit for me.



The barrage of visitors didn't stop. Supervisors that I had known and worked with for years started coming into the room and giving me bad observations. I received no proper training for the kindergarten curriculum. I was just thrown into the class. My TA was out of the room more than she was in. The stress got to me, and for the first time in my life, I started getting severe panic attacks, and started to suffer from severe anxiety and depression. I had trouble focusing and concentrating (definitely NOT like me). I got the flu, after getting a flu shot, for the first time in my life. I broke my toe without any known cause. I got gout. I was out almost half the year due to my health problems, and was enrolled in a treatment/therapy program throughout the summer.


Fast forward to this year. The year starts out with a bang, with my TA yelling at me that I wasn't in over the summer enough to set the classroom up. (Um... hello? I was sick in treatment.) The old principal who gave me a hard time is retiring. The new principal is a young hot shot, and she is an immediate relative of a long-time teacher in our school. (Great.) I don't know whether the old principal or relative provided any "intel" to the new principal, but I suddenly found the instructional coaches in my room every day filling out reports, under the directive of the new principal. I had two observations so far this year... one conducted on a day when the TA was out, and a second one where I was told by the coaches it was a testing day and centers weren't to be conducted, but the principal decided, after the day started, that the coaches would conduct the testing on another day. I explained this to the principal, but she still cited me for not conducting centers properly. In fact, the whole observation was about as bad as it can get.


In our post-observation meeting, she was astonishingly nasty to me. When I asked her for suggestions for improvement, she said she had none. She told me I may need to prepare to have tenure charges certified against me. And it went on and on...


The panic attacks, the anxiety, and depression got worse than ever, and a whole new host of other first-time illnesses started to visit me (strep!). I had to take medical leave again, because I was having a difficult time functioning not only as an educator, but as a human being.


That brings me to now. I have completed a second, more intense treatment/therapy program, and I am due to return to work in two weeks. I am losing my mind. I have decided that I am in a no-win situation in my current job, and I would like to find another job, but I have so many things working against me...


- I'm in my late 40s.
- I'm overweight (but have lost weight recently).
- I make a very high salary. I'm more than willing to take a cut to save my sanity, but it still might not be enough to satisfy most places.
- I'm in NJ, where job competition is fierce.
- I'm too close to my 25 years to give up a public sector job.

Finally, I'm concerned about references. I could certainly get some from some co-workers, but I may have an issue getting some from administrators. I had a good relationship with the principal of the school who was there before the one who gave me a hard time took over, but he can be a bit of a blabbermouth and might spread the word to others that I was planning to leave, even if I asked him not to do so. I also have a former supervisor that I had a great relationship with, but I think she would tell me I'm crazy for wanting to leave and I don't know if I want to get all into that. I don't know what other administrators I could ask, as the new principal(s?) poisoned the well pretty good for me. The attitude of the district is likely, "Even if we don't want you, we want to make sure no one else wants you, either."


HR is no help. The association/union/cabal is no help. (In fact, the union president told me I should look to teach somewhere else, and I was a union rep.) I'm thinking of talking to some personal attorneys, but would that be a lot of time and money down the drain?



I know this post was very long, so if you read it, thanks. Any if you have any advice for what I could or should do, it would be most appreciated.



tl;dr: Things are a mess at my current job. I'm getting old. I'm not pretty. I make a lot. How do I get a new job?

[Oldhag1]

1- You taught middle school before, correct? Sit down with your principal, tell her you used to teach middle school, explain that you are coming to the realization that your current position is probably not the best fit for you, so you would like to see about returning to the middle school level. Ask her if she could help you transfer or support your quest to transfer. Trying to hide any attempts to leave, at this point, is frankly stupid. It’s what they want.

There are several reasons this might work:

• For you:
  • You could use a fresh building/start, regardless.
  • Middle school teachers can be less physically active.
  • Middle school teachers generally repeat what they are teaching and generally can use the same lesson plan multiple times during the day.
  • It is easier to find meaningful lessons that students can do independently if you are occasionally feeling poorly or have a sub.
• For them:
  • Middle school positions are harder to fill.
  • At a district HR level, it will help settle whether the issue is you in general, just you being a bad fit for younger children, or that you encountered principals who targeted you.
  • If you are as bad as they think you will have less impact, both for the kids and the district report card, since you be one of 6 or 7 of your students’ teachers instead of the only one

2- You need to get yourself to the doctor and get a letter stating you are temporarily disabled and request accommodations. These can include the need to sit for short periods of time during the day or on certain days - I had to have this accommodation about 75% of my career. The caveat is that whatever accommodations you request it can’t interfere with your ability to do your job, which makes many physical accommodations difficult for a kindergarten teacher.

3- Start exploring both long and short term disability options.

But..... I have a question. Is your weight such that it is impeding your ability to do your job? I only ask this because of your remark about weight loss and couple of the things you said you have been told are a bit odd, such as complaints about your walking speed and the way you sit, along with the remark about not being able to pick you up. I have know a couple of teachers through the years that had weight related issues, whether because their weight really did negatively impact their ability to effectively teach or because some principal decided that anyone that size automatically couldn’t do their job (and yes, weight discrimination is real). If this is the case, as unfair as it sounds, you do need to either find a way get away from lower primary grades or perhaps look into a long term medical solution, such as surgery.

[teachbeach]

My suggestion would also be to "go over your Union rep" and contact a representative from NJEA directly. You have not only been paying dues to your local association, but also to the state and national association as well. They may provide you with advice, counsel or another resource to help you navigate this situation.

[DawnW]

Just reading this now, at the end of the school year. Any resolution?

[jetgraphics]

Get prescribed a wheelchair, then sue the school district for attacking you for not standing enough.