Got my job back!!! I survived yet another round of annual layoffs. Funny thing is, I thought I'd never have to face this problem being a teacher in such a small community. I thought I'd be vital to the education of the children in the county. Guess not...most of it has to do with the fact that about 15-20 years ago, everybody and his brother got a Social Studies credential. So here I come, all new and full of life and the latest techniques in education, and all I have is one measly little Social Studies credential and that's what's been costing me my job.
Last year my job was saved by the 8th grade US History teacher, Graham, retiring. That made me sad because I really liked working with him (he reminded me a lot of a not so antisocial version of my dad) and wanted to try and get a couple more years in with him as a colleague. He was of the mind that he was so close to retirement age and it was time to let those young teachers with young families and new careers have the reins. I am eternally grateful for that.
This year, the Districts conspired to have me removed yet again by claiming there wasn't enough money to fund the art program at the high school. WTF?! They were actually gonna cut ART, a required course by the CSU & UC system for our students to be prepared for college. The art teacher was also on our list for "golden-handshake" retirements this year. She's been too nervous to retire as I understand in these tough economic times. Well, guess what. She's also got a credential for social studies. So my district was willing to put a woman who's in her 60s, hasn't taught world History in 20 years, and has NEVER taught junior high kids into my position. Nevermind that in doing so, they would have to cut the entire Art program at the high school and the entire Home Economics program...AND legally they would not be able to replace these classes back into the school schedule for 39 months (that's 3 whole school years). Yup, legally they wouldn't be able to hire another art teacher for 3 school years.
Anyway, back to the job. The lawyer called me yesterday to say that district's lawyer had called him to rescind my RIF (reduction in force) and offer me my job back in full for next school year. Nothing like being a permanent employee whose job seems to be never permanent. The teachers union save my job. We voted last week to reduce the number of days in the calendars for 2010-11 & 2011-12 by 5 days. 3 of the days will be our buy-back days and affect everyone with the 11 or 12 month employment status (teachers/admins/secretaries/DO). The other 2 days will be actual school days and this affects the children and the 10 month employees (all the support staff). We had to wait for the support-staff employee union to vote to approve this change, but apparently they did. We also had to wait for the school board to approve the change, but that meeting wasn't scheduled until Apr 15th. I guess the district doesn't want to wait that long (probably because they need to start getting the class schedules down for next year's enrollment). The money saved by cutting the 5 days was enough to save the jobs of the 4 teachers who got pink-slipped. And now I have my job back for next year. :)
This is helpful because it brings some weight off of our shoulders. We're currently drowning in the monthly rent we pay and were hoping to move into a lease-option home owned by one of my colleagues (the only one who's taking the golden handshake this year and also has a friggin' social studies credential!!!). He's going to charge us $200 less in rent a month + I'll be closer to work. But we weren't even gonna think about moving until I heard that I got my job back simply because we didn't know if we'd be moving, or moving in with parents, or what-not. This also means that Jon and I can hopefully start thinking about trying to have another baby. I really wanted to start this summer during my belated birthday vacation. And of course, Jon wants to go back to school too (and so do I).
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