Help! Is this normal??

amother

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 9:19 am

My husband and I both work at a Jewish school. This is out first year and we came in on one year contracts. After waiting a long time we were finally told that we would be offered our new contracts this week, but that we have only ONE week to get back to them with a "yes" or a "no." The problem is, while we were waiting for these contracts my husband and I began applying for other jobs and have gotten a lot of interest, but we will probably not have a good idea where we stand until after Pesach. Most of these jobs pay better and are in better parts of the country.
What do we do?? I am scared to end up with nothing!!

yo'ma

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 1:01 pm

Not necesarily. I find honesty is the best policy. I know it could backfire, but if you don't have any other choice. You could tell them that the other offers are in another part of the country, so you're not 100% sure if you want to stay there.

bubby

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 3:16 pm

Surely if they waited a long time to offer you new contracts you can explain that's the reason you need more time. If you weren't sure they were going to hire you back of course it's very reasonable to start looking elsewhere. Now you're in the enviable position of having options. That's their bad luck, they should have nailed you down before.

Why do Yeshivas treat their staff like this? Then they wonder why they can't get good teachers!

Hatzlacha in whatever you decide.

amother

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 4:53 pm

Thanks so much for your help and advice!
The thing is, we got a lot of "verbal" offers, like "of course you are being offered something for next year", HOWEVER, we wanted to sign our daughter up for school but didnt want to without a real contract since her nursery program said if you sign up you are required to pay the whole amount (something like 5 thousand dollars) and that was just too much to risk if for some reason, we weren't offered something.
So we asked them for a least SOMETHING in writing saying that we would be offered jobs for next year and they said no. This was in early Feb. Now it's the end of March and here we are!!

amother

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 5:20 pm

amother wrote:

Thanks so much for your help and advice!
The thing is, we got a lot of "verbal" offers, like "of course you are being offered something for next year", <snip> So we asked them for a least SOMETHING in writing saying that we would be offered jobs for next year and they said no. This was in early Feb. Now it's the end of March and here we are!!

Sarcasm alert:

And schools wonder why teachers will sign those contracts and then take a better offer and leave anyway. Rolling Eyes

amother

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 6:05 pm

We are not going to sign anything at the moment, I believe. There is no way we can do that knowing that we aren't 100% sure.
I mean, we already committeed to some interviews in the next coming weeks and can't cancel them. How could we sign something when we know we have interviews?

amother

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 7:51 pm

I also teach at a Jewish Day school. Here is my take on this situation. Firstly, do you want to work in another Jewish school or in the public system? Reason I ask is that it is different. A few years ago I took a sabbatical from my job and I got hired to the public board. Way it works in the public is that you get hired to a pool. Around Feb the job offers come through and first dibs go to the present teachers, then a few months later to the new applicants. My school required me to let them know by April 1st. By then I had not yet gotten hired, and was afraid Iw ouldn't get hired, so I came back to teach in my Jewish school. However, I knew all along that contractually I would have to decide by April 1st.

So, first I would check my contract. When do they have to let you know you are hired and when is the cutoff date? Check these dates because one week certainly seems too little. I think it is usually longer. Also, if you are looking at other Jewish day schools, the same thing could happen the same way next year at another school. What is the job situation in your neighbourhood? If jobs are hard to come by, like they are now where I live, then I'd think hard before giving it up. However, if you don;'t like the school or anything else about thejob, then, you could always get a job supply teaching or working in a Yeshiva ketana, where there is no contract (with less pay, probably). These are just things to consider.

amother

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 8:03 pm

The issue is my husband and I both teach limudei kodesh, so it has to be a Jewish school, but doesn't need to be Orthodox per se.
Right now the area we are in only has one Jewish school, so we cannot find another job in the area. The areas that we are looking to maybe move to are much bigger Jewish communities with lots of schools.

Iam not sooo worried about getting another job, like I said, we have a lot of interest..but when you have a family to take care of it is still scary to think you may end up with nothing!

Toot

Mon, Mar 24 2008, 8:13 pm

When I mentioned to the school I'm at this year that I was potentially interested in looking elsewhere, that snapped them into reality! They really wanted me to stay, and the 'threat' of me leaving made them work really quickly, and in a couple of weeks they offered me a significant raise, etc. So maybe mentioning to your current school that you are looking elsewhere will make them realize that in order to make you stay, they need to treat you better. Making realistic demands of them (like asking for more time) is ok, and may work since you have other offers on the table. Best of luck!

Starhavah

Tue, Mar 25 2008, 5:52 pm

amother wrote:

Way it works in the public is that you get hired to a pool. Around Feb the job offers come through and first dibs go to the present teachers, then a few months later to the new applicants. My school required me to let them know by April 1st.

Every public school district is different. I have taught in 4 public school districts in two states and none of them worked like this.

Be careful of generalizing from one specific case.

Star Havah

amother

Wed, Mar 26 2008, 5:55 am

Oy! This is the OP.
I have meeting today with the principal, headmaster, and financial director today to discuss the contract! My husband has one later in the day.
I am so nervous! Should I point blank tell them that we have other options?????

Starhavah

Wed, Mar 26 2008, 10:03 am

amother wrote:

Since you both work at the same school, I would insist on one meeting for the two of you. I would say you want to negotiate a package deal (that for legal reasons will be split into two individual contracts). Before hand I would decided how serious I was about moving. You are playing from a position of "sort of" strength. You have offers for interviews, not offers of jobs. I would insist that I would not sign a contract with this school until after the interviews unless the offer this school makes is really good. Remember you have two positions at this school. That is a lot of limudei kodesh teachers for a small school to have to replace. Yes, I would tell them that there has been interest from other schools, but that you are committted to staying at this school if the offer can reflect your (plural) value as teachers to the school.

Good luck,

Star Havah