Drawbacks of working in public school

amother

Goldenrod

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 10:53 am

amother wrote:

Not in my public school. Maybe in NYC but I am in NJ and the maternity benefits stink. You take a major major paycut when you take 6 weeks after a baby. They have a private disability plan, not the states plan, and it pays pennies.

And they hold your job only up to a year. (without pay obviously)

This must depend on the district you're in--in NJ every one is different. In my district, they hold a job (without pay or benefits) for up to 2 years. You can take 12 weeks of FMLA (with benefits that you pay for, and 6 weeks of those you can get half-pay from the state). You can also take a certain number of sick days before and after your due date (if you have those saved up).

I was thinking about something that others mentioned: I mentioned that I don't take off non-essential days. This means I don't expect to get off for morning brissim and things like that that are during the week. I don't have school-aged kids yet, so I don't have to worry about daytime siddur plays and things like that, but I know if I tried to take off all the time for those kinds of things it would be frowned upon. Occasionally a coworker will take a personal day for something at their child's school, but not many times a year. It would be considered unprofessional if I did try to take off frequently in addition to the holidays, so I really try to keep it to chagim, unless there is something I absolutely cannot miss. I don't think this is different from other jobs in the secular world, though.

gnomey

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 10:54 am

nicole81 wrote:

I'm a public school administrator in NYC. There is no such thing as maternity leave, let alone paid maternity leave. I can explain in more detail the terrible policy in the NYCDOE if anyone wants information. Policies do vary by district, so the specific nyc policy isn't really relevant if the OP is not looking for a job in NY.

You may be right about paid maternity leave but under federal law, anyone who works there a year + must be eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA maternity leave. If your school(s) are not complying with that, they are violating both federal law and NY state law and should be reported so they can be brought up to compliance. Laws can vary by area to give more time than is federally mandated, but not less.

NY DOE FMLA policy

Shendellah

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 11:16 am

amother wrote:

I've been teaching in public school in NJ for almost 10 years. Based on the things people write on here about not getting paid on time, etc., I actually think I have it better than many yeshiva teachers. Like any other job, you're expected to behave professionally and you work very hard, especially when you first start because it's new. But I have health benefits, annual raises based on a salary scale, and union protection. I don't get off early on erev Shabbat or chag, so on those early shabbasim I have to really rush out of there. I get 2 personal days a year, which I burn on the first couple days of chag and any other holidays I take unpaid. I have to give advanced notice and fill out paperwork for this, but it's never a problem. That being said, I'm careful not to take "extra" days--I work chol a hamoed when we have school and purim and I don't take off anything non-essential. My maternity leave is more generous than day school because I get FMLA and can use saved sick days to add on.

Wow I cant believe you have to take religious holidays unpaid. Sad

My husband teaches in a public school in MA and he gets all of the holidays paid (including Purim). BH! But he also has to work to the wire on early erev Shabbos and YT- which can be very stressful!
Also, my kids school schedule does not match my husband's and he has no ability to help out during those days off so it falls on me to figure out plans for ALL of the days my kids have off that we both still need to work- chol hamoed, beg/end of year where Jewish schools start later than public and finish early, erev YT, before pesach, winter break etc. (my kids school, and I am assuming other Jewish day schools, does not have standard 180 days which drives me banana as a family of 2 working parents that are trying to pay for it!)

lfab

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 11:40 am

amother wrote:

Like you I also don't take off for brissim, and have missed serval of my nephews brissim as a result. B"h I have understanding siblings/siblings in law that get it's not by choice. I do, however, have several school aged children and use my sick/personal days to take off when they have school events. Usually 2-3 per year. I also need to use those days when kids are sick and I can't make arrangements for them (dh and I take turns taking off). As s result I often end up taking yomim tovim unpaid so I can save the days for when I need them. I'm not a teacher but an OT so I don't get paid for religious holidays unless I use s sick/personal day. Teachers in nyc have something called religious observance days which means they get paid their salary minus the cost of the sub for days they take off for religious observance.

SixOfWands

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 11:40 am

nicole81 wrote:

In the NYC schools, you get your FMLA leave. You can use your sick days for pay. And you can take up to 4 YEARS without losing seniority or pension rights.

Try that in any other industry in the US.

Outside of DOE positions, if you're FMLA eligible, you would get 12 weeks. Period. If you want 12 weeks and 1 day, your employer has the right to terminate you, and its perfectly legal. And if you're not FMLA eligible, you can take your vacation and sick days. Beyond that, you can be let go, legally.

amother

Sienna

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 12:39 pm

I have been teaching in a public school in NJ for the past 14 years or so.

Drawbacks:

-They can transfer you to any school in the district at any time.
-You can have and often do have awful administrators who are hired because they are related to someone.
-Have to use up most or all of your days on YT (and coworkers think you get paid for YT)
-Have to work on Chol hamoed
-have to work late winter Fridays
-zero understanding if you are even a minute late (15 min before students arrival time still)
-In NJ we contribute a tremendous amount toward insurance, long gone are free health benefits.
-Can't run out for an hour to a siddur play or chumash play. Have to take off the whole day
-Coworkers can't relate to our lifestyle
-Get a lot of comments about "pregnant again??" and having a large family k"ah.
-don't have off when kids are off and when everyone else is off

There are some benefits too!

-better pay than jewish schools
-pension
-(health benefits used to be free but now we pay enormous amounts for it)
-Amazing opportunity to make a huge kiddush Hashem and expose so many people to how Jewish orthodox people act
-get to clarify many myths about jewish people
-receive a lot of professional development, on the cutting edge of latest educational info

amother

Pearl

Thu, Mar 29 2018, 12:56 pm

amother wrote:

Enormous amounts??? I doubt that

amother

cornflower

Mon, Apr 09 2018, 2:17 pm

I'm a second-year teacher in public school (high school) in NYC. I can't say I'm loving the experience, but a lot of it has to do with my particular school and situation.

Benefits:
- higher salary for a starting teacher than you'll get anywhere else, with nice raises
- July and August:)
- long breaks throughout the year
- free health insurance (GHI)
- pension if you stick it out long enough
- In NYC at least, we get religious observance days for Sukkos, Shavuos, Purim, and Hoshana Rabba. Not everyone takes those last two--not every principal will allow it--but in my school, it's pretty much a given and no one gives us a hard time.

Disadvantages:
- maternity leave stinks if you haven't accumulated a lot of days. I took a maternity leave last year, in my first year, when I only had 6 days accumulated and was not covered under FMLA. I got those 6 paid days, then had to take an unpaid grace period of 30 calendar days. I theoretically could have borrowed up to 20 days, but I didn't want to put myself in such a deep hole when I was just starting out. Therefore, I ran back to work after 5 weeks, 2 days to avoid going off payroll and losing my health insurance.

Yes, you can take up to 3 months, but they milk you dry. Paid maternity leave is said to be in the works, but I'm scared to think what they're going to ask for in return.

- Rotten principal/AP = difficult experience. I had the most awesome AP, until she retired in February. My principal is awful, and she took over my observations for the rest of the year. She gives untenured teachers a really hard time... and she thinks she knows how a high school math class should be run because she taught middle school social studies.

- As I said, my child is only a year old, so I haven't seen the detriment of missing all the events yet... but I'm sure I'll feel the pinch soon enough. I haven't missed any brissim yet, either, but that'll happen at some point.

- working late on Friday--not such an issue for me right now because I work relatively close to home, but still not easy to get home an hour before Shabbos.

Shendellah

Mon, Apr 09 2018, 2:38 pm

amother wrote:

Paid as in, he is using his days for it, right?

Nope- in MA they give you days off for religious observance (even for 2 days YT)...he actually tried to fight for Erev Pesach but obviously lost (clearly had no idea how lucky he is!) now he takes his personal day for Erev Pesach. Also, he found out that he is allowed to take a sick day for a day that his kids have off so he took 1 sick day for chol hamoed this year so we could have a family trip (not exactly what it was intended for but hey it worked BH)