Just had ours today for a smaller district I work for. It is one of the very few districts in my area that are returning to in-person instruction right away.
The Good:
We were told there will be a lot of work available and probably can easily work every single day school is open.
Class sizes will be very small and manageable
Very organized sign in procedure
Kids Will Only Be In School for Half days
New Principal seemed very friendly and welcoming
The Bad:
We have to wear masks all day and I do have problems breathing when I have it on too long.
We have to be there a half hour earlier, even though looks like our pay will be less, to help take student temperatures in the morning.
Temperature check will be optional for staff, relying on honor system of reporting your temp taken at home before arriving. (Just dumb....I will still have staff take mine)
Even if we have a slight sore throat or any minor health issue that comes on suddenly, we have to stay home and not get paid til we feel 100% better.
Regular Teachers will be on other end of PC cameras in the classrooms teaching the children, while we supervise in person (meaning we will have more eyes on us).
The Ugly:
No transparency on how much we will be paid if we leave at same time as students (even though it is only 2 hours earlier than normal). Literally told they are still working on that and we are two weeks from starting.
Pay will be LOWER unless we stay to help out office staff or with after care for the full day, but no guarantee we will have that option every time.
Told that even IF we stay the full day, we are not promised a Lunch Break (illegal and against the law), but when I pushed the issue, was told that we can probably remove our mask to have a snack in the room if no children are present. (Note, I wrote the Superintendant an email regarding these concerns in the friendliest way possible after the meeting)
Still have people willing to work, especially with a pay decrease in this environment, are you kidding me! I am thanking the good Lord that my Social Security has kicked in and as much as I sort of still need to work at least 2 days a week, and I want to work —when push comes to shove, I don’t absolutely have to work. I am still trying to figure out what I’m going to do, but this situation for the money and the risk just seems not worth it.😬
How many hours would a half day be? I go one minute over four hours in any district I’m in and they have to pay me for the full day. Doesn’t sound very promising.
I don't honestly think there is any other position where people are treated as if they are expendable and paid less than a living wage to boot. My district assumes I am returning even though they deleted my email access and have not provided any reassurance of employment paperwork to sign like in years past. They don't want to have to pay unemployment benefits when schools close early again this year. Yet they have started just assigning me to jobs on Aesop. They will wonder what happened when they see I have cancelled their jobs. Well, they have not officially employed me so there is that!
I wouldn't reject any jobs because that might affect your unemployment. I would just not respond.
IF we sub (we are 100% online), the day ends at 1:30. They didn't say anything about docking our pay. I'm not doing it, anyway.
I wonder if we don't take 100% online jobs, if that would make us lose unemployment because that job is 99% different from our normal job. If I were offered a construction job, I don't think turning that down would affect unemployment.
There have only been a few jobs offered, anyway, and by the time I saw them, they were gone.
Again, who knows how long it will be before this goes through. Last time it said I did good for making my first post .
Does anybody know if they offer me a 100% "distance-learning" job, and I say "I don't think I'm competent" to do it (which is what I said), would that be "rejecting" a job? Even though the job they offered me isn't even close to the job I used to do? (In person). I don't want to get in trouble with unemployment, and if I thought I was capable, I would do it, no problem, but I honestly don't think I could do it, at all, even after the "training."
I feel like it would be like them offering me a job to put a new roof on their building.
'I am reporting the 3 days I worked this week. I will not take any job going forward any time soon. I do not feel I have been given enough training on all the tech issues that come up. In the two days I was online, I had my computer log off (from home, my own laptop) Had issues with the students portion on assigned work that had to be ported or inserted. I was mentally drained. Not enough thought has been given to what substitutes will have to be on top of at any moment. If you have a great staff willing to help when u call that's great. I know of many schools where I would not feel that my immediate online glitches would be addressed quickly.I don't want to feel inadequate.
My laptop is really old. It has a camera but I doubt it works very well. I’m going to do the virtual training, but if they refuse to give me a computer( which I’m sure they will, why would they?) and try to deny my benefits when I can’t take jobs, I’ll make the case to UI that I shouldn’t have to supply/buy my own computer. Not to mention we will be paying for the internet out of our own pockets. My teacher friends are supplied laptops every year, but most of them have not been compensated anything for the internet they have had to use from home.
IF we are not being offered the jobs we were originally hired for and the jobs that we normally accepted then I would think that not taking these “new” jobs would not disqualify us from EDD. I think we could make a case. One of my districts just sent us a technology skill survey, so I anticipate being “laid” off or not called since they will be 100% online at least through January. I seriously lack the skills. I made it clear to them that I was interested in subbing for the district, but that it would depend on the requirements and schedules. I never took long-term sub jobs before, so why would I now. I never worked on all of that technology before and I don’t have the skills and yet I was hired, but now the job has changed.
Many districts near me have pushed the starting date back to the Tuesday after Labor Day in order to provide staff development to its teachers. One district has a requirement that subs attend the mandatory safety protocol meeting to be held virtually via Zoom. Here’s the good, bad, and ugly.
The good.
At least they are doing something that includes substitutes instead of us walking into a building and having to figure out things for ourselves.
The bad.
It’s unpaid and required if we want to work in this district this school year.
The ugly.
If we don’t work in the district this year it will be viewed as “job abandonment” and we will “be removed from the system” meaning they will take us out of Aesop. As an aside the district hired a new HR director this summer.
Bodhimom2- I wish we had the option of online. My district has not actually hired me back so any job they try to assign me without my acceptance will be cancelled with reason of childcare needs. I am homeschooling my kids full time this year. I am not receiving unemployment as it is because I taught summer school online for the past few months. I had signed up to do it before the quarantine so had to keep my word. So right now I am in limbo looking for something that I can do part time to pay the bills while still homeschooling full time and keeping my kids safe by not bringing anything home. My one kiddo is severely immune compromised, visiting the doctor and hospital multiple times within a "normal" school year, and can't afford to have me bring covid-19 home with me. As it was, the school I subbed for had 2 cases BEFORE closing in March. So right now I am between a rock and a hard place trying to jackhammer my way into a part-time job that will meet my family's needs.
I had the same problem and spent a lot of money trying to find a cloth mask that works for me. I finally bought a 50 pack of the blue surgical masks and found them much more breathable.
Then yesterday I found these at Ocean State Job Lot. I think there are a few stores in NJ and hopefully you live near one. They are only $1.99 each and are much more easy to breathe through than the others. They are light and comfy too. The designs are a little odd but I can live with that.
Reading this I am now thinking .
Is it like the regular teacher see us what we doing in classroom every moment ?
That is little more tension to think .
We will be recorded and at any time the P and Ap can join into your classroom to watch or just to listen. You will be able to see that they are in your classroom either way.
Subasaurus, yes I do have other masks at home I purchased from ebay that are very thin and more comfortable. However, I am skeptical how well they protect me compared to my thicker mask that my wife's friend handmade for me. But I will probably go with the thin ones because comfort is most important to me in a state with a very low infection rate.
Yeah, my one district wants subs to arrive 30 min earlier (7:30am) to help with temperature checks. I may still test those waters and get there at 7:40 (my normal arrival time for 8am start) especially if they are going to pay less.
Yes, they tell us we have to stay home for a sore throat or even a headache. Basically if we are feeling less than 100% healthy.
Yes, in many cases teachers are choosing to stay home and teach remotely only. This is a problem all over NJ right now causing many school districts to delay reopening a lot longer. If they have enough subs, they want subs to supervise the classes and hook up the "virtual classroom teacher" so the kids in school can still be taught by their actual teacher. We just have to keep the students focused in person. In fact, my other district which delayed in person instruction til mid Sept already hired me long term for a position just like I described above.
Yes, I just spoke again with the sub supervisor about pay and she told me they are working on it and will send me an email with the info. But, at least the district that hired me long term promised me $100/ day for 8 - 12:30 each day. Therefore, I may only have to deal with the "Ugly" district for the first few days of school, IF they open on time.
So the teachers stay home, but the subs are in the actual class with students? It isn't safe for the teacher, but it is safe for the sub? What am I missing, here?
Yes, this will be the case in both districts I work. Here in NJ, there is a special Family Leave of Absence teachers can choose allowing them to teach from home only, but collect a far lower paycheck. They have to prove they have a good reason whether it be their kids are stuck home because their home district chose remote learning or if they have a valid medical excuse from their doctor putting them in a high risk category. The problem is many teachers just found out about this at the end of August and starting applying for this all at once. This forced many more school districts that could easily have opened to stay all remote, this lead to a domino effect causing more students to be forced to stay home, and therefore even more teachers to request leave to be with their children at home. It was a horrible approach our Governor took, but he caved into teacher union demands. I rather not get any more political, but in a place like NJ where the virus is basically contained, there should not be any reason for schools to start remotely unless there is an emergency of some sort.
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08-27-2020, 06:01 PM
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