Any Veteran Teachers Here Successfully Switch School Districts/Jobs? (attorney, look for a job)

[zhelder]

Long story short: As I’ve mentioned over the years here, I’m a teacher in one of our state’s more... “infamous” school districts. I’ve been there many years. I make good money. It was never an easy job, but I was grateful to have a job that paid me a decent salary and benefits, and I actually had some pride in it back in the day.

After a whole bunch of years with a spotless employment record, things started to unravel about two years ago. I received a major change in assignment, and to this day I have no idea why. After the change in assignment, I started to come down with a whole bunch of illnesses. After having to take a few weeks off for one of the illnesses, my assignment was changed again, in the middle of the year. All of a sudden, I was getting bad observations and written reprimands for things out of my control. I started to get sicker and sicker, and had to take a long-term leave of absence (first time I ever had to do that).

I thought things would get better this year, but they haven’t. I’ve been sicker than ever, I had to take a few long-term leaves of absence. Administrators started “visiting” my room almost daily. Without revealing too much information, I’ll say that observations were (deliberately?) conducted at times and in ways that made it impossible for me to succeed. When I asked for suggestions for improvement, I was chastised and told to “figure it out”.

My summative evaluation for this year was horrific. That was really bad, but the straw that broke my back was a written reprimand I received making a rather strong false accusation, without any notice or discussion about the alleged incident. I’m tenured, so I have a job for next year, but I am now ready (desperate) to find another job.

But will I be able to do this? Here’s the “problems” I foresee:

- I’m in my late 40s.
- I make decent money.
- I am a less than ideal physical specimen.
- Ain’t no jobs out there.
- Because of the years I have in the pension system, I have to limit myself to a public sector job, at least until I get my 25 in (I’m too close to give that up).
- I refuse to go to another “infamous” school district. Things are simply too out of control these days. Last year was the first year I was ever hit by a student, and I’ve had a whole bunch of tough kids over the years. Getting hit and cursed by students at is bad enough, but to then be told it’s your fault by the administration while no consequences at allare allowed to be imposed on the students (no detention, no calling parents about problems without permission (which you never get), no separating violent kids, even temporarily, from other students) is just insanity.

Stay and fight? Sure... the “association” has already told me the administration won’t read responses to observations/reprimands, they can’t do anything, and the association president herself actually told me I should look for a job in another district. Talk to an attorney? I might, but that could be a lot of time and money going down the drain too.

I’m considering getting a middle school math endorsement to open up options. I have to take a few classes, but I’m OK with that since they can be taken quick and cheap at a community college. I am also probably only two courses away from a supervisor endorsement, so I’ll be looking into that too.

But I want to switch jobs now. I’m so broken and jaded right now that I have no allegiance to teaching anymore, so I’m fine with another job, but, again, I have to stay in the public sector for now.

So, have any veteran teachers out there in a similar position been able to switch school districts or jobs? I’d be grateful if you could share your experiences. I gotta get out of where I am. I’m willing to take a pay cut. But I have to make enough to pay the bills.

Thanks for letting me vent, and for any tips or advice.