1. Introduction -- Is This Even Real?

Introduction – Is This Even Real?  Yes.

Perhaps I’m too old.  Maybe so.  Let’s let the younger science and STEM teachers take the reins.  Gladly.  Oh wait – there aren’t nearly enough of them.  That's the problem that brought me here in the first place.

It’s not because there aren’t willing entry-level career-changing teaching candidates.  We are out here.  Stuck out here.  While they need us in there.

Everything in my story is absolutely true.  Everything happened.  It was mind blowing, and not in a good way.  I'm posting the entire account on April 1, 2017, but this is no April Fools joke, no matter how ridiculous or outrageous this seems.  

Read this account.  You will not only discover what happened to me, but also what is happening to all teachers and students, and to education in general.

I went into the entire career-change mission of being a STEM teacher with high hopes, ambitious feelings and a sense of service.  I was exactly who they recruited – a desperately needed and recruited career-changer who could come teach science.

I am Kristine Westover, RDN.  I'm a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Clinical Nutrition, with experience as an adjunct college instructor in Biology, Microbiology, Nutrition and Foods.  I’ve taught Foods and Nutrition (and other science courses) in colleges and graduate schools (medical and dental), along with writing and presenting,  I've worked in hospitals, out-patient clinics and physician's offices.  

I wanted to teach again. Dietetics is an applied Biochemistry field with many college credits in various Chemistry courses.  I have a Post-Bacc degree with a high school teaching license, and endorsements in Chemistry (“high demand” I was told.  Yeah, right.) and Biology.  I want to teach Family and Consumer Sciences as well (Foods, etc.).  I’ve got well-beyond the academic qualifications needed to teach high school.  I like kids.  I actually enjoy subbing.  I have a fine public appearance, good grooming, a mostly winning personality.  I even speak a little Spanish.  I have all the basics required to be a good employee and classroom teacher.

The problems have only worsened.  My Oregon district will face a $45 million short-fall for the 2017-2018 school year.  Cutting the course offerings, the teacher jobs and over-crowding the classrooms continues.  Read on....

2. Bamboozled

Bamboozled

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education (STEM Ed) is at a crisis point in our country.  They say there aren’t enough qualified teachers available in these areas.   

Additionally, obesity is reaching a crisis level in our country, especially among our youth. 

I decided to become a high school teacher.  What seemed a simple, yet noble goal ended up like a vacation with Kafka.

With my background I was offered an adjunct position at our local community college, teaching their nutrition classes.  The position was underpaid -- barely break-even -- and wouldn't move our family forward financially, even though I would be working nearly every day.  I decided to keep looking.  

I found another teaching listing as an adjunct at a nearby university.  I inquired, and was invited to interview to teach nutrition courses.  It didn't even offer a break-even salary after commute expenses, so I passed.  No sense going in the hole to work.  

One of the local high schools placed an ad for a Foods teacher in our Medical Dietetics job letter.  It was a better job and salary and benefits than the community colleges and local university adjuncts.  I applied.  I was immediately contacted and turned-down because I didn't have an Oregon teaching license.  Why did they advertise in my jobs letter, if they didn't want to consider an RDN for the position?  I asked if there was a provisional, temporary, emergency or grandfathering route to a license.  They said no, there never is (even though I have seen this very thing happen locally).  They suggested I get a license, and I felt great about the idea.  I talked with my family and decided to do it.

To teach Foods and Nutrition, I needed a current Oregon secondary education license endorsed in Family and Consumer Science (FACS).  The licensure instructions listed the only two Oregon universities that could endorse in FACS.  I did not want to enroll at the nearby one, as it was the same university that wanted to interview me, where I was needed to teach the very courses that I was required to take.  Instead I inquired at the other school (OSU) where they looked at my transcript and work experience and advised me to not enter their program because it repeats courses I had already taken in college, or taught at the college level.

No one had the authority to waive or side-step the required classes in a case like mine. Odd, don't you think?  I was backed against a wall, unable to do what they needed to fill the position.  I was still looking, and the high school Foods job was still open. 

3. Updating My Quantum Mechanics Was The Easy Part

Updating my Quantum Mechanics was the easy part

Happily, since Oregon State University told me not to enter their FACS program they sent me to the science department.  They said, “We have analyzed your transcript and experience.  Your transcript qualifies you to endorse in Chemistry where you are desperately needed.  We are sending your paperwork there.” 

Science education is in crisis, and I could still teach Nutrition principles, so I was thrilled.    

I went to the Science Ed dept.  They were very encouraging as they met with me and read the note from the FACS dept. and my list of classes and grades, and my work experience.

When my interviewer actually saw my hard-copy paper transcript, and that it was from Brigham Young University, she began to balk. “You went to BYU?  Is that still a faith-based school?”  She grilled me on my views of the origin of man and earth.  My interviewer seemed to want to make certain that I did NOT believe in Creationism if I wanted to be a science teacher in Oregon.  She did this in a side-stepping, tip-toe sort of way.  It was clear by her questions that she knew nothing about Latter-day Saints, and that Christianity in general was a problem.   

When I politely stood my ground and explained my views, then all of a sudden my transcript wasn’t good enough.  What had been enough chemistry background a moment before, now wasn’t enough coursework, even though I had over the required threshold for an Oregon license.  

I pinned her down to explain to me how the entire pre-med chemistry series, one class shy of an undergraduate minor, major classes up to 400 level biochemistry applications, and then grad school on up to 600-level nutritional biochemistry courses were somehow inadequate for teaching high school students how to do an acid/base titration (which is as far as they get in a good year).  She backed down, and offered me admission to their Masters in Science Education program.

I declined.

I enrolled instead at our state’s Education university (Western Oregon University), in a full-time four-quarter "Licensure-only Post-bacc Program" that could endorse me in the sciences:  Quicker, closer and without getting another Master’s degree.  I took out loans and paid thousands of dollars in tuition.  I passed the CBEST test.  I had to take Ed pre-requisites and Chemistry and Biology review/update courses online at the same time I was in full-time school, which required many months of 4 AM study sessions and writing for my Ed classes until midnight.  It took a year and a half.  Thought I was gonna die. 

I took the Ed classes with the seniors in Education, all subjects and grade levels.  I enjoyed the amazing fellow-students.  Most were young adults, but some were career-changers like me.  The faculty was immensely talented, and I had a lot to learn.  The courses were – and remain – extremely valuable.  I got a 4.0 GPA.  I passed first-try the required national Praxis exams in Chemistry, Biology and FACS. (Sorry if this sounds like boasting -- not meant to -- it is a detail that figures-in later.)

I student-taught.  I worked with the juniors and seniors in Chemistry and in Anatomy & Physiology, also with some time in sophomore Biology.  I loved it, and felt privileged to work with high school students and the teachers.  I was supervised by a retired Biology teacher who inspired me with wonderful classroom ideas.  My mentor teachers were equally inspiring and became friends and peers, whom I still admire.  I received glowing letters of recommendation from them. WOU could not endorse me in FACS, but they could do just fine for Chemistry, Biology and related courses.  I got a license endorsed in Chem and Bio, with the school’s assurance that I could easily add a FACS endorsement to my license later.

Upon graduation in Dec. 2008 there were no mid-year teaching positions within a range of 50 miles (commute more than that and the paycheck doesn't pencil out).  Then the economy tanked and the local Salem district had to cut-back and froze hiring.  I began to substitute teach for a small rural district.

My very first day of subbing there, they found an arsenal of weapons in a locker, and a hit list of people some students were planning to kill.  The threats were real and the students were found guilty, but thankfully the police and the administration handled it safely and no one was hurt. It was my introduction to the teaching profession, the first day I drew a paycheck.  I was grateful that we all went home safely that evening.

I had been accepting science-writing contracts since 1980.  Fortunately, this continued.  Now that I was a teacher, I was asked to write high school Nutrition and Foods textbooks.  I have now done three textbooks and their three companion teacher’s editions and lesson plans and revisions that are used in Foods programs across the country.  Between this and subbing, I was able to earn money and pay back my school loans.

The textbook writing kept me busy with late-nighters.  It was just as well.  I kept a close eye on the teaching job openings, and there were none in the sciences, but there were a few in FACS.  However, I still needed to have the FACS endorsement added to my license to be eligible to even apply. 

That is another story.

4. Just The FACS Ma'am

Just The FACS Ma'am

“. . . must be specifically approved by the Executive Director.”

I had my newly minted teaching license, endorsed in Chemistry and Biology, but there were no science openings within 50 miles.  The Foods position that had started all of this had eventually been filled.  There were, however, other FACS jobs. 

Though not eligible, I always applied anyway, and got an interview once.  The interview with that school’s Principal and Vice Principal (who used to be a Chem teacher) was wonderful. 

I could be hired to teach science, then assigned to teach a FACS class, and thereby gain the FACS endorsement, as long as I pass the Praxis test in that content area, which I have done.  

More specifically, a Principal can “misassign” a teacher to teach a class in that building in an area outside of that teacher’s license endorsements, but the teacher must first be hired to that building in an endorsement area.  A misassignment can be considered a practicum supervised by the Principal, and can lead to the added endorsement.  

The kindly Principal tried to work something out, but he couldn’t because of the budget and the hiring freeze – he needed a FACS teacher, but didn’t need a science teacher so the district would not approve his hiring me.  OK, that route didn’t work yet.  

I attempted to gain the FACS endorsement to my license directly through TSPC.  The legalese of Oregon Teacher’s Standards and Practices Commission says that only the Executive Director can make exceptions to endorsement requirements. 

I prepared my case, explaining my experiences trying to get a FACS endorsement through the university channels approved in Oregon.  I also outlined my education, work experience and professional credentials.  I included a copy of my current Oregon teacher license endorsed in Chemistry and Biology.  I called to make an appointment. 

I was not allowed to. 

So I went in-person.  I was told the Director was not available. 

Her glass-walled office was right next to the receptionist, and she was organizing papers on her desk.  I asked for an appointment at her convenience, and offered to wait.

“She is not available today, you can leave.”  I asked for a future appointment, and was not allowed to make one.  I was told to call or email.  I realize that the receptionist was just doing her job, but it was a brick wall for me.

I telephoned and left messages.  She never called back.  I mailed a written request with my support documentation and return receipts, directly and specifically to the Director.  Someone else answered, and told me to go back to college for the endorsement.  I mailed another packet.  Someone else again signed the return receipt. 

I emailed.  I again received an answer from someone other than the Director, who, therefore, was not authorized to approve a request.  She told me to gain the endorsement through a university FACS program’s practicum. 

A practicum?  That’s student teaching.

Sounds reasonable enough, but just where and how am I supposed to do that?  Who can supervise me:  The university that needed me to teach their classes, or the one that said I was already beyond their program?  Where could I enroll?  

Are my license, WOU ed program, student teaching, work samples, and FACS Praxis, along with my RD credentials, state healthcare license and work experience enough?  If I could figure out a way to do the practicum, could I use this as my required continuing education to help maintain my teaching license?

I could never even ask these questions.  No one would talk to me, other than to tell me to go back to school. 

On the personal side, how much tuition would I have to pay for the privilege of student teaching and writing another work sample unpaid full-time for a term?   How much paid writing and subbing work would I lose in the process?   

I repeated variations of these steps in creative ways over the next four years, always to the same response, or to no response at all.  I was never allowed to contact the Director, and was always told to go back to school for a FACS endorsement. 

The answers I received were always from people not authorized to grant my request – and therefore not authorized to deny it either.  The TSPC Executive Director was the only person legally authorized to consider my case for a FACS endorsement.

Meanwhile, teachers whom I had trained in their college FACS courses have been teaching in Oregon for years.  They are now using my textbooks in Oregon FACS classes.

Our district has 6 major high schools, plus 3 alternative programs.  Due to another $20 million shortfall, the district cut funding to Foods programs at some of the high schools, including a very well-equipped new high school campus.  They deleted the courses and removed the new kitchen-lab appliances.  Parents and students there were so anxious to have kids learn some basic cooking skills that they formed a Cooking Club under the direction of the French teacher, for which she can receive extra salary as a licensed teacher leading an after-school club.   

I was, however, ineligible to teach students how to boil an egg, unless we cooked it over a Bunsen Burner.  Which just might be how it’s done, if they remove the appliances.

See what I mean about a vacation with Kafka?

5. Finally, A Job Opening!

Finally, A Job Opening!

The bad economy continued to flatten our local large school district and it had a $50 million short-fall the next year (and yet another $20 million the following year).  They eliminated teachers in a massive lay-off, so there was a “reduction-in-force” (RIF) by seniority. 

They “RIF’d” a teacher endorsed in Chemistry and Physics, who promptly left for greener pastures.  They froze hiring.  They added no new teachers to their Guest Teacher Pool (substitutes), except those who had been laid-off.  Another Chem teacher retired in June.  

In August there was a job opening, more than four years after I had first inquired with the district about the Foods job.  In spite of the hiring freeze, the district advertised for a full-time high school teacher endorsed in both Chem and higher Math (such as Calculus).  I applied, even though I don’t have the Math endorsement.   

No one with both endorsements applied, so they split the job into two positions, a Chemistry job and a Math job.  They were re-posted as new listings, each now a part-time job. The Principal called and asked me to reapply for the new job.  He wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the posting. 

The students started the year with a sub.  A sub without a Chem. endorsement could only stay three days at a time.  An excellent retired Chem. teacher took it for a couple of weeks.  A retired teacher had a strict limit on the number of days of subbing, due to limits written into their retirement system.  I could not be a sub, because the hiring freeze and RIF lay-off prevented them from adding me to the Guest Teacher Pool.  Therefore, the students had a number of substitutes as the year progressed. 

I applied as soon as it listed, around Labor Day.  I was called for an interview in late September. The interview was with the Vice Principal and another person.  They needed a teacher for Environmental Chemistry, which includes big units on Food Science and Nutrition.  Woohoo!  It seemed like the perfect fit.  I let them know that I was already working as a writer, with a few projects still going.  Fine with them.  We were all smiling and encouraged at the end of our chat.  They sent my file to Human Resources at the district office.

The Vice Principal specifically told me to NOT call district HR to check on the progress of this application.  I was told that even the Principal couldn't call to see how things were going.  We all just had to wait as the interview and hiring process continued.   They had my complete and current job application, support materials, references and fingerprints.  

I wanted to teach these students, and was already forming lesson plans in my head.  I wanted to get my hands on one of their textbooks.  I would need to organize both the students’ curriculum and their attitudes, since they'd been with only subs thus far.  Ideas were coming together.  

I heard nothing.  Week after week, I heard nothing.

Over 2.5 months after the initial job posting and 1 month after my interview, having heard nothing from HR and being told NOT to inquire, not even the Principal could inquire, I asked another chemistry faculty member if those students were still with a sub.  Yes, but they had found someone who would begin soon.  I had thought my interview had gone well, but it had been a long time ago by now and I couldn't inquire.  Since I’d heard nothing from HR, and someone was going to begin soon, I figured it was someone else they had hired. 

Meanwhile, I had continued working and writing.  Now, since they had found someone else who would start soon, I went ahead and committed to a big writing gig and business travel in May.

6. A Foot In The Door

A Foot In The Door

It had been over a month since my interview, and I had heard nothing from anyone at HR.  I couldn't call them.  Another faculty member mentioned that they had found someone who would start soon, so I took on some other projects and made other plans.  I was puzzled, because I thought the interview had gone well.

A week or two later, a friend who works for that district told me that she’d just been called by HR as one of my references.  They were checking my references now, weeks later?  It was nearly Halloween!  Maybe things hadn’t worked out with the other teacher they’d found.

HR called me on October 27 (Thursday) and offered me the position, to start the 31st. 

I knew it was part-time, but now it was 0.47 FTE, no benefits.  They had divided 120 students into three classes of 40 each with no prep period.  For prep, I could arrive a bit before my first class, and stay a bit after school.  The job’s 11 AM – 2:40 PM schedule smack dab in the middle of the day meant that I couldn’t sub the other half of the day. 

The lab classroom, which was built for 24 students, was in another hallway, and to be able to use it, I’d have to arrange a swap with the other classes housed in the lab.   

  

They offered me a salary based upon their published pay-scale that can be accessed on the internet by anyone.  Yet the salary she quoted was unexpectedly low.  I thought I’d heard it wrong.  This was much less than my rate on their scale. 

But I had crunched numbers on Labor Day.  I’d failed to factor-in daily pro-rating from the beginning of the year, because I had no idea it would take so long.  Obviously, it was reasonable to pro-rate since the teacher hadn’t yet been working.  By pro-rating it from Halloween, including budget-driven furlough days through the rest of the year, the salary had dropped by a few thousand dollars from what it would have been at the beginning of the year.  And since they were only offering $14K before taxes -- not even $10K after my taxes -- this was a significant drop.  It was 0.47 x $38,000 entry level teaching (no full-time K-12 experience, with a Master's) - daily pro-rating = approx. $14,000 for the school year.

This contract was only temporary until June.  Due to the hiring freeze, all new contracts were temporary.  The woman at HR carefully explained what that meant:  There were no plans nor promises nor expectations for the following school year, other than “a foot in the door”. 

A foot in the door?  Should they need more cuts, my lack of seniority would make me the first to be RIF’d if I should even get a contract for future years.  Seniority is based upon date-of-hire, which caused this mess for the students, since the district had RIF’d a very good Chem/Physics teacher with low seniority.  But if there were no lay-offs, I might be able to keep teaching.

In theory, my part-time writing jobs plus a part-time teaching job should have fit together to make a full-time career with a reasonable salary, but here was a problem:  I had just taken on a big project, plus business travel (not unusual) for one week in May for which I would need a few days of unpaid leave.  The teaching contract had no provision for this.  The lady at HR wouldn’t budge.  I’d have to cancel the trip. 

The students could have subs in Chemistry every day of the year, but they couldn’t have a qualified permanent teacher (me) who needed a sub for a few days to see to a previously scheduled commitment.  Unbelievable.

This was all-or-nothing.  It was their contract and they could offer any terms they wanted to (or were required to).  

But did they understand what they were requiring of the candidate?   

They were looking for an unemployed scientist who:

•    was content to be a part-time 0.47 FTE employee, no benefits 

•    held a current Oregon teaching license, BS and MS (Oregon requires).   

•    passed the Chemistry Praxis (a daunting task in itself)

•    student-taught in Chemistry

•    had a Chemistry endorsement  

•    would teach 120 high school students, 40/class, who had been with subs all year

•    would be only a temp for a seven month gig 

•    would not be in a Chem lab classroom

•    would have no prep period

•    would do prep, lab prep, tutoring, parent contact and grading on unpaid time

•    would be willing to negotiate the use of the Chem lab   

•    would work for an income below the poverty line  

•    would not have obligations to a supplemental job or other half-time slot 

•    would be willing to sit unemployed for months in the dark while waiting to hear back from Human Resources  

And I was most of these things!  The only thing I had against me was that I would require a sub for a few days in May.  Even though it was a ridiculous job offer in the world of employment, I wanted to get started teaching those kids.  

The lady at HR expected me to accept the offer right then and there.  I asked her for a day to think about it, which she was reluctant to give me because they needed a teacher in that classroom immediately.  This was an emergency-hire situation!  After they'd sat on it for months.  She finally relented, so I got my day to think it over and put a pencil to it.

7. The Only One

The Only One

I was creating plans for teaching the students, and I wanted to get into that classroom.  Human Resources wanted an answer, and wanted a teacher. 

I kept looping this contract back around in my head and on paper, doing the math.  I spent the day and a mostly-sleepless night crunching and re-crunching the same numbers.  I tried different options and scenarios.  I consulted with many loved ones who are teachers (including a retired high school Chem/Math teacher), and some who are business and tax advisors.      

We file taxes jointly so I am taxed in the same bracket as my executive husband which, while not in the highest brackets, is enough to take a huge bite out of the salary of this teaching job.  Not the district’s concern perhaps, but it was my reality.  So, minus federal and state taxes and FICA etc, and after subtracting fixed expenses, including those for maintaining my teaching license, this pay would be worse than the college-level adjunct jobs I had side-stepped, with longer hours and more work, on a temp contract.  Plus – and most importantly – I would have to back out of my other part-time gig due to the few days of travel in May.  That job paid better than the teaching job.   

I was so upset, and felt increasingly more sick in my stomach.  Sadly, taking this job would cost more than turning it down.    

Finally, I called HR.  I explained my position and asked if they might make an adjustment of some sort, so this could work for everyone.  Could I have the unpaid leave days?  No, no wiggle room.  Maybe we could negotiate my prior college- and graduate-school-level science teaching into an experience step-up to improve this salary, so I could afford to let other things go?  HR said no, only K-12 licensed public school teaching counts, and I hadn’t done any of that yet. 

The woman who worked with me at HR was extremely nice, but didn’t have authority to make changes.  She was only doing her job.

I declined the teaching job.  I wished them the best in hiring the right teacher for those students (my students). 

I was heartbroken.  So was the lady at HR.

That’s when she told me that I was the only Chemistry teacher who had applied.  I had been their only interview.

I hung up the phone and cried. 

The district can have as many as 50 applicants for an opening as an elementary school teacher.  They can have a rigid contract and be selective.  In this case, I was the only option.  There was no other Chemistry teacher, and these students would continue with substitutes. 

The slowness of the HR process meant the newly hired teacher wouldn’t have the chance to start the year with the students, to say nothing of the students’ chance to start the year with a teacher.  Why had it taken them two months of the school year (and all of the summer) to figure this out?  

Is HR swamped during a hiring freeze? 

By Halloween I had already committed to other work, none of it full-time and all of it flexible, which they could have accommodated, but wouldn’t. 

I had come seeking employment – the entire reason I was going back to work in the first place was to meet financial goals.  I had also come there to serve my country and its youth.  I thought teaching could do both, which is why I spent time, money and effort (intense) to get the license.  I’d seen the pay scale before I ever went to WOU.  I knew what compensation a full-time standard teaching contract would yield after taxes and expenses.  But this job offer didn’t work at all.

Should I have taken it anyway?  Is teaching a career or a charitable mission?  Should I take a job that would have no net financial yield?

They never did find a Chemistry teacher. 

They reposted the job without the Chemistry endorsement requirement, and hired someone mid-year.  Perhaps that teacher could have gained the endorsement with the Principal and taken the Chem Praxis (grueling).  However, that teacher was not re-hired for the following year.         

(So why couldn’t I be hired for a FACS job without the endorsement?)

The best solution, obviously, would have been to divide those 120 students into five classes of 24 each, the safe class size for using the Chem lab (built for 24), provide me a prep period like every other teacher in the building, and hire me in August to be their Environmental Chemistry teacher on a standard full-time contract with benefits.  Keep me for 15 - 20 years, like other high school teachers.  And maybe as a bonus, have the Principal assign me to teach a FACS class to gain the endorsement.  

It was not to be.

I guess if they could have done that, they could have kept the other Chem/Physics teacher they had lost to the RIF.  Had they kept him, the students would have had their teacher in September and October and now November.  But they let him go.

I kept the writing jobs.  Writers still teach – but don’t get to see the students’ faces. 

I grieved the loss, but there it is.  I walked away this time.

I had no idea that things would actually get worse . . . .

8. A Substitute Job

A Substitute Job

Remember that offer to teach Environmental Chemistry?  I was still trying to get in there to teach those students.

If it had to take Human Resources over two months with my application to make the offer, perhaps I could get in there as a long-term sub from the beginning of the year.  They had my application in August.  They couldn’t do it.  I could not sub for these students because I was not in this district’s Guest Teacher Pool due to their hiring freeze. 

One hundred and twenty students have a Chemistry class on their transcripts, even though for months sat 40-to-a-class with a sub.  Not unprecedented.  This happened to other students (including my son) at this highly regarded school several years before – they had most of a year of high school science with subs.  It was a wasted science year, even though some of the subs were good science teachers.  It put those students behind for future high school sciences, to say nothing of college.

There are a few outstanding, yet retired, advanced science teachers who can sub when they are available.  They have a limit on how many days they can sub, which is considered “double-dipping” – being paid along with receiving a pension.  So, they couldn’t sub for the months required in either of these cases, even if they were willing.

After I turned down the job, I asked HR if I might please be in their district’s pool so that I could still help out as a sub in that classroom.  I could at least sub for the Food Science and Nutrition unit, maybe even sub until the end of the year if need be, except for the days I needed in May.  The HR lady liked the idea, and said she would send the Guest Teacher Pool office a recommendation that I be "invited" to their pool. 

I didn’t receive the invitation, so I called HR and she told me it had been requested.  Weeks later I finally received the invitation email, on the condition that I would first attend additional Guest Teacher training in January before I could sub.  It’s a state requirement (health and abuse issues).  I might be able to substitute for them by the mid-winter or spring. 

I had already completed the same state-required sub-training for my other Oregon district where I subbed.  It would not transfer. 

I waited until January and attended the training.  I was notified in December that there would be an additional waiting period after attending the inservice for completion of reference checking and criminal history checking before employment.  All of this had been done through this district's HR already, but the Guest Teacher Office had to do their own.

I wasn’t really the one waiting.  There were 120 chemistry students who needed a teacher.  By the time I had completed the training and the background checks, they had hired the teacher without the Chem endorsement.  I never subbed in their classroom.

The advanced culinary textbook series I co-authored is used in our district.  The Foods teacher (Chef) at one of our high schools has an advanced culinary team that he takes to national competitions.  His class uses these books.  Because I was the co-author, and since I was local, I had been invited to their classroom for their competition prep work (for which I had the added benefit of being able to eat their fantastic food creations).  He asked me if I could sub his other Foods classes while he took his team out-of-state to compete.  I was now in the Guest Teacher Pool!  I said yes!   

The district said no.  He would be gone a week.  

An absence of longer than three days requires a substitute endorsed in FACS.

I was deemed unqualified to sub for the teacher who was using the textbooks I wrote.  

I had a valid teaching license, but due to over-qualification and lack of response from TSPC, I did not have the FACS endorsement. 

Not being able to sub in Foods, and not being an Environmental Chemistry teacher every day, I loaded my life with writing deadlines, my May travel, subbing in my other district, and such. 

The Guest Teacher Pool office told me to take their online safety training (which was the same set of topics as the inservice I had just attended).  For some reason, I could not log-in as a user under the name and password I was told to use.  I also couldn't set up a new account to get a new user name and password as a workaround.  I couldn't get it done.  Again, the very same online program in the other district had worked just fine, and I had completed it.  I could not transfer it from that district to this one.  I had to begin from scratch, and I couldn't.  My subbing eligibility would run out soon if I didn't get this done.

I got a phone call from the Guest Teacher Pool office telling me to sub more often.  

I asked them if I please might just be a high school science sub when needed, so that I could combine it with my other employment.  I figured they would be OK with it, since it is a day-rate job with no guarantees or benefits.  They said no, that I would have to daily-sub more often (every school, every subject, every grade level), or send them a letter of resignation and not be in their Guest Teacher Pool any longer.  No other options. 

I sent the letter of resignation. 

I must say that here, too, the people I spoke with were very nice.  They were only doing their jobs.  I was only doing my job too. 

I kept subbing in my other district.  I greatly admire their science faculty.  They know that I have writing deadlines and sometimes can’t take sub jobs, and they work with me.  They have a wonderful office staff.  When their sub coordinator heard about my FACS predicament, she took it upon herself to try to figure out a way to get me enough days subbing FACS to count as a practicum.  TSPC would not accept it.

Sometimes students are stinkers to subs. 

A retired educator friend of mine who double-dips as a sub taught me to get the class photo list and completely MEMORIZE their names and faces within the first 5 MINUTES of class.  It works wonders when you can do it.

I enjoy the students.  I love teaching science – freshman integrated, biology, chemistry, anatomy & physiology (my personal favorite).  I learn more about teaching every time I’m in the classroom.  I love seeing the students’ faces as they understand it, when they had feared it would be too difficult. 

I kept my application active, and continued to check for openings.  I got a call one day. . .