This is mostly to vent.
Background
I'm a math teacher at a high school that is conjoined to a middle school. We had a lot of teacher shortages this year. Partly due to the pandemic and also because teachers quit due to bad behavior and lack of student discipline school-wide. For a particular middle school cohort, the math teacher quit at the beginning of the year. The school hired new teacher and she quit after a month. Then, they hired another teacher who quit before coming into the school because they wouldn't pay her what they negotiated at first. Now, we are nearly halfway into the school year.
To solve this problem, the principals told the high school math teachers that we will be teaching the middle school math for the remainder of the year. We signed a contract stating that we will be teaching and we would receive additional pay. The pay would be more than that of a traditional substitute since we would be acting as their teacher. Basically, we would get our regular paycheck from the school district AND an additional paycheck from the organization over the school (we're a public-charter).
I expressed that the stress wasn't worth the extra money and asked if I could be removed from teaching middle school. He said that if I didn't do it I would be considered “insubordinate”.
I noticed about a month ago that I didn't see paychecks in a while. The vice principal over checks was out for a long time so I had to wait for him to get back. When he got back, I still wanted to wait because he had gone through a deeply personal issue and I felt bad about burdening him with my problems. (I know this is silly, but w/e)
Anyway, I finally asked him about the checks, and he said that my payment was discontinued. He said, “It's my understanding you weren't actually teaching the class so payment was discontinued two months ago.” I'm not sure how he came to this understanding. I had to stay after school to call parents because of the simple fact that students were talking over me while teaching. Students were berating me for “being a sub who actually tried to teach” and saying that I'm “just a sub” so why actually teach and give work. I was yelled over while teaching. I had to stop students from leaving out the room while teaching. Was it hard to teach? Yes. Did I have to stop teaching sometimes because I kept having to raise my voice? Yes. Did I have to not teach some days because I needed to let students make up work? Yes. Mind you, I am a high school teacher used to teaching 11-12th graders. I never had experience with middle school. Add that on to the fact that these students NEVER had structure because they were without a solid teacher for half a year. They weren't used to rules. Yes, things WERE chaotic.
But this vice principal NEVER gave any communication to me about performance. He never told me that he would void my contract. I kept going into the classroom thinking I would be paid. Yet the whole time he knew I wouldn't. I feel blindsided. He never came into my classroom for any reason — not to help, not to give advice on how to adjust to middle school, not for anything. He was never around and as I said before – GONE for nearly a month. So I'm confused as to how he came to the “understanding” that I wasn't “actually teaching”. Had he come to me earlier and said “we're terminating your contract” I would have had a chance to show my proof and clear up his misunderstanding. How can you decide you won't pay someone but see them still coming into work and NOT say anything. I have gotten my regular paycheck for teaching high school but not all of the additional paychecks for teaching middle school.
I'm not sure if I will take this issue far. If they pay me, great! If they don't I will weigh my decisions with my union rep but I am not one to put up a lot of fight.
Please ignore grammar, punctuation, etc. I am typing in a hurry and quite flustered!