I (24m) work at a Montessori School as an assistant per the title. For those unfamiliar a montessori school is effectively a private school that does not adhere to state funded standards while engaging in practical teachings and “divergent” academic methods. Essentially they think young people should be taught different and this is their way of doing it. My issue is not with the program though my child will not attend one. My school has struggled with staffing, I am confident this is the case because the majority of assistants started at the same time as me (2.5 months ago) lending the idea that turnover seems frequent for assistants. This unfortunately was also outright stated during my interview framed as, “young people these days never commit”. To further set the stage the pay across the board through interviewing other assistants is $14.50. Due to staffing issues and callouts Montessori Accredited “Lead Teachers” are not frequently in the classroom as of late leaving us assistants to take command of a classroom we have no formal training for. To qualify this statement, as an assistant our job description is to assist the lead, guide students back to work if distracted, clean up the classroom, organize, grade, and assist lessons the lead has already introduced. There is other small particular responsibilities that do not involve the classroom I deemed not worth mentioning. Ages in potential classrooms we are set to take command of at a moments notice range from infant-14 years old. My questions are as follows, is it fair/illegal to neglect to notify parents there is not a legitimate teacher present in their child’s classroom for up to 4 weeks consecutively? Should we as assistants taking on the lead role be content making the $14.50/hr or should days where no lead is present and we are fulfilling their roles and responsibilities come with a bump in our hourly on those days? I acknowledge it is an entry level job as an assistant though I feel we are being taken advantage of in tandem with students not getting the education their parents are paying for ($18,600/yr to attend this school for 3 year olds and up, $19,800/yr for below 3 year olds, 10 month school years).
First post apologies for any issues with it, just curious about the situation and trying not to be greedy or complaint driven.