Oh the disappointments involved with being a public school teacher in Florida. On Monday morning I got the phonecall. Summarily laid-off due to seniority and lack of funds.
It seems the Longer I am employed, the lower my seniority gets, since they keep chopping off the feet of the arts totem pole. My Principal and several others have come up to bat for me, I even spoke with the head of the district arts dept, who said "Gee, you have a lot of fans rooting for you!" I told her, of course I do, I'm nice, the kids like me, and I do a good job. Duh.(not that last part.)
But in public school overrun by a useless union, it doesn't matter what my skills or effectiveness are-it only matters that I was hired on 2/20/08. It is very sad, and I hope somehow the word gets out to parents when an underqualified randomly selected person with more seniority is attempting to teach my digital and AP classes next year. How can we fix public education? It's the worst run business I have ever experienced, where skills have nothing to do with your job or compensation.
