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.