Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD, good place to work? (private school, live in)

[TeacherNFW]

Does anyone here currently teach in Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD? I teach at Northwest, but it is very high pressure and they are making a lot of changes currently. Some of us are just not happy with these changes and want to go where we can actually teach and enjoy teaching again. I would like to get some info. on EMSISD before I apply. I made a mistake with Northwest and I don't want to make a quick decision to leave until I know Eagle Mountain would probably be better. I don't want to make another bad mistake.

Is EMSISD a good place to work? What kinds of staff development do you have? Do you feel like the admins and superintendent put too much pressure on you to have a million things perfect? What is the work environment like? Are they friendly and helpful?

Any info. you could provide is greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!

[loves2read]

don't you think your head is in the sand by asking for a district where you can "actually teach and enjoy teaching again"---which implies that there are districts w/o pressure and changes---

the state and federal govt are constantly raising the bar of performance and districts are forced to attempt to meet or exceed those goals or face losing funding, ranking, and regard of those who judge them...

every teacher I know in public education is facing the same thing--pressure to perform at higher and higher levels..
you can't escape it by going to the district next door...and it might be worse
which you seem to be aware of...

from what I know about Northwest--it should be going through changes. It has grown significantly over the past 4 yrs and in the past had mediocre test results so it is probably feeling very challenged to meet the pressure of its parents/public to improve

a year or so ago a FTW Star Telegram article about local ISDs showed that Eagle Mtn-Saginaw had one of the lowest turnover rates in Tarrant co but that does not explain why teachers stay--maybe because it is a good district, maybe because many of them live in the area and don't want to commute elsewhere or have their kids attend ISD w/different calendar than they work--maybe they tried to get out and could not get jobs with better districts---
I know people stay in HEB because it has good pay scale, fairly good admin staff, and lots of teachers live in district--they don't want to have long commute or calendar different from their kids...and while HEB does have a challenging demographic to teach, teachers have made great strides under difficult goals and achieved high levels of success...most of them probably feel pretty satisfied even if the conditions are demanding...

[ilovetoteach]

EMSISD is very high pressure for TAKS scores. Not alot of relationship building opportunities.. just straight academics. Very strict on teaching methods and benchmarking scores.

[bandmomemsisd]

I think you need to go to a private school. One where athletics and dance team aren't the top priority. That is emsisd in a nutshell. Athletics and Dance (I should add cheer leaders now with the latest news) take priority or the parents in Lake Country threaten lawsuits.

[EducationLover]

As a former EMS teacher it is not a place you want to go. I thought it was the best most awesome place to be during my first year. I soon learned otherwise. The administration is NOT supportive. They are ALL about the money and how to get more of it. Teachers are pressured to doctor their gradebooks so that no more than 20% of their entire student population fails a class. The state gives money to schools with high percentages of passing students. Also the high schools have three rooms of ISS (rather than only one) because the state gives money to schools based on attendance and therefore the schools would rather stick a kid in ISS than truly disciplining them.

At the end of last school year, 2010 - 2011, just at Boswell High School, there were six sets of student couples who were caught having sex standing outside up against a wall of the school building. There were two couples caught performing oral sex in the stair wells and one young man decided to defecate in the hallway ON the floor in front of the Principal's office.

As the previous poster mentioed EMS is ALL about its athletic activities. Teachers are coerced into sponsoring some activity and the stipends for those activities do NOT even remotely match the amount of time you have to spend with that activity. Football, Dance, Band, and Cheer....those are the "activities" that bring in the most money and those are the "emphasis" for ANYTHING at both of the EMS high schools. I am sure the new HS will follow suit.


Try to find another district. I've worked in Birdville and HEB...BOTH are fantastic districts to work in. Much better than EMS...you will find your love of teaching again going to either one of those districts. If not, try a private school....it is what I did and I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching again!

[loves2read]

I guess the new poster saw the original thread stopped in 09
so this was mainly a shout-out to relieve past issues I guess