I am a preschool teacher for a very big and well known school and im so tired of it. I am one of the best employees in my hallway/age group (been told many times by management and got employee of the month out of 70 workers) but make two dollars less than the new people that just got hired. I also have all my certifications and 4 years experience under my belt so that is not an issue. My co teacher just got a 50 cent raise which still puts her at 1.50 less than the new people. I could not run my classroom so well without her and she deserves much more than they gave her.
Last week a teacher passed out in my classroom and once again our school phones werent working. Someone had to leave the class out of ratio and run upfront for help. They keep telling us phones are a luxury, but if that was a child that needed help those seconds matter. It is a big school running to the front isnt quick.
Ive seen teachers put children in knee locks, trip children, put diaper cream on their thumb so they wont suck it, leave children outside unattended and treat fellow coworkers terribly to the point of panic attacks but they never even getting a talking to because of favoritism.
We are forced to take an hour and half break. So im stuck there from 7-4:30. It takes me 45 mins ish to get home. This job pretty much ruins my whole day.
Our maternity leave is bullshit. 6 weeks unpaid for vaginal birth and 8 weeks unpaid for csection. If you go even a day over (even with a doctors reccomendation) you will start over as a new employee and lose all your pto and benefits. They will not even place you back into your regular classroom most times. They start calling around 4-5 weeks and pressure you to come back early.
To top it off my classroom is constantly hot. Like 78-80 degrees and no air flow. Ive told them many times and theyll fix it for an hour then itll be back to the way it was.
Teaching young children is already exhausting. I cant keep going like this anymore and being treated this way. Teaching is all ive ever done but im debating going to another school or just quitting the profession altogether.