I write this on the morning of the first day of school and I find myself unemployed.
This is a little story about what loyalty to a school gets you.
Ever since I was in high school, I wanted to be a teacher. I was an instructor in the JROTC for 3 years. I was a peer tutor as an extracurricular in high school, and took 3 classes worth of Co-Op over 2 grades to work with teachers to learn the craft. I tutored in University and obtained both my BA and BEd.
The teaching market in the early 2010’s was garbage, so I had to enter the private sector, and found a job where training employees was a huge portion of my duties, so I did that for 8 years.
In 2019, I was lucky enough for my wife to obtain a very high paying job and become the breadwinner, allowing me to get back into the proper teaching game. I did 3 years with one school board at an absolutely toxic school (admin and students), before being able to make the jump to my current province last September.
And this is where my story begins. I applied for a full time replacement spot. I interviewed for it along side someone I’ll call A. A had several years more experience than I (overseas), and A was awarded the position. Fair enough. I don’t mind being beaten for a job in a fair fight. I interviewed for a lesser position at the same school and scored the spot.
Fast forward a month October 2022. A interviews for a Contract position at a different school that would place her on the board seniority list and scores it. The catch? It starts immediately, like ‘24 hours from end of interview’ immediately. So A bails on her position for a new one, leaving (you guessed it, me) to pick up the majority of her classes.
I do it with a smile because a) It’s good money, b) it’s all classes I really like, and c) I was stupid and thought that picking up the work would equal recognition from the School and Board.
Fast forward again to December. I’m making a mark. Colleagues like me. I’m coaching a competitive team. Student reviews and admin observations are overwhelmingly positive. I’m taking sub work at every opportunity to save admin the stress. I didn’t miss a single day, even the days when we had literal inches of freezing rain and only 5 teachers out of a staff of 30 were able to show up. Principal approaches me and tells me, quote ‘If you want it, there is work when the next term starts.’ I say I do, and we shake.
The jobs for Term 2 are posted, I apply. No call, no nothing. Turns out that A applied for the job as well, and was awarded the position despite leaving the school completely in the lurch just 3 months prior.
I was furious. I busted my butt at the school to make a mark and demonstrate loyalty, and was left at the start of Term 2 with nothing in one hand and a 'thanks' in the other. You can probably tell which I thought was more valuable.
I managed to grab another spot after Spring Break that took me through to the end of June, which was lucky, and I tried to put it all behind me.
Jobs over the summer have been few and far between, and nothing my Quals will even grant me an interview for.
Suddenly I hear that Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 are retiring! Fantastic! They both teach subjects I qual for. Teacher 1’s position is posted. I apply and get… nothing. No call, no interview. Teacher 2’s position is not posted. Weird.
Fast forward again to a few days ago. I find out that, you guessed it, Teacher 1’s spot was awarded to A, and Teacher 2’s course load was cut up and divvied out to a bunch of other teachers, specifically to allow the a job to be given to a gym teacher. A gym teacher whose classes (I’ve covered them before) consist of ‘play whatever you want’ while in the gym and ‘build a work out routine’ while in the classroom.
So that’s what loyalty gets you. An angry and bitter rant the morning of the first day of school by a 34 year old who is unemployed, despite being a teacher in some capacity since he was 15.