Teaching Positions in Orlando area??

[MovedfromFL]

Tenure is being denied to anyone who didn't get it this past June. So teachers with 2 years in are suddenly finding out they will never get job protections.

Yes, in theory if you please your manager (Principal) and do a good job (bring about documented student learning gains), then you will keep your job. However, for non-tenured teachers, this is simply NOT true. You can work yourself to the bone and have the highest FCAT scores of your entire grade team (8 teachers) and still be told you have no job because a tenured teacher had to be placed into your position. This happened to my husband over the summer. He was lucky to land at a much better school for the coming year, but we're wondering if he will be laid off all over again in June!

The district HR people said "Annual contract teachers have no expectation of re-employment." There is no "recall" procedure or anything. You're back to "stranger on the street" status. Nice way to treat your high-performing teachers. Meanwhile, tenured teachers have NO worries and can focus on complaining about the lack of pay increase this year. Must be nice.

$60,000 for a teacher? Are you kidding me? The salary scale in our county doesn't go anywhere NEAR that high. They can't even afford to give us raises this year and we're paying $50 more a month for the health insurance this coming year.

The annual contract thing is a BIG deal because counties can use it to get rid of anyone who doesn't "fit in" (ie you're too old, too fat, too black, cost too much on the health insurance plan after you had an expensive surgery, etc) They just say "We aren't renewing your contract" and think that excuses them from federal employment law (I used to work in HR). Plus, you'll get "non-renewed" for speaking out about waste, fraud, etc. It's a great way to keep teachers in line and quiet.

We have a new rating scale. The highest rating will be "highly effective" meaning that you are a great teacher who demonstrated student learning gains way above what is expected. Well, the teachers who earn that rating will still be annual contracts only. Lawmakers refused to even recognize that these are the type of teachers we *say* we want. We can't even give them a 2 year contract or whatever. Nope, still need to be able to fire them easily. The way the new merit pay plan is supposed to work, the best teachers will get big (in FL terms, LOL) raises every time they earn that top rating. Well, after a few years of earning that, and the permanent salary raise that is supposed to come with it, these great teachers will find themselves too expensive! (we just cannot afford to pay teachers more, even the best of the best)