TL;DR: I was already short changed for necessary work, and it seems that I will not be getting my second payment for services already delivered.
I am a teacher. My last job at a private school asked me to do some curriculum writing for this current year, and when it came down time to hash out the details, my colleague and I asked for $3000 each to build a cohesive integrated curriculum for middle school science -6th, 7th, and 8th grades. This translates to $50/hr for 60 hours, which is comparable to public schools' compensation for curriculum writing. I made it known that I felt I should not be paid out of this one grant program because it's purpose does not align with the need to update curriculum. The purpose of the grant program is to provide optional professional development, not to fund changes to the schools academic plans. At this point, the school already starting publishing info about it.
Well, low and behold, the program didn't have enough funds because of the “volume of applicants.” Rather than the $3000 we asked for, my colleague and I were told to work on our year and given just $1000 each. This is the same amount of money others received for less work through this stupid program. I was pissed and let them know (professionally of course). The head honcho in charge responded quite condescendingly and essentially said suck it up.
Well I did $1000 worth of work – certainly not the comprehensive curriculum I was excited to develop. The problem is that this $1000 was split between two payments, one in July and one in August. I gave my notice at the end of July, after receiving my first payment because I realized I'd rather not have a job (or my freaking beautiful apartment!) than cast my pedogogical pearls before these private school swine ever again. Well, now that August is coming to a close, I have yet to receive my second check – colleagues of mine received it last week and today. I have reached out to my former boss twice, and my former science department chair about it. The chair was kind enough to say that she'd ask around about it, but my boss has said nothing. I'm hoping that it comes tomorrow, but in case it doesn't, should I contact a lawyer??