I’m leaving my current teaching position in one month and returning to the school I taught at in San Francisco for seven and half years.
I’ve been at this school in Berkeley since June 2019 excepting during the pandemic when I was at no school. I’m leaving largely because the school is falling apart at the seams. Efforts are being made to keep the school afloat but they may be too little too late. Enrollment has been ridiculously low since the pandemic and the school has suffered from an absentee director who is finally being replaced.
About that….I very much liked the school director. He was a most amiable chap with whom I shared a love for a particular football (soccer to you Yanks) team in London. We could and did discourse often about footie and a variety of other topics ranging from films to TV to literature to travel to other sports to the political scene. We also talked shop as people who work at the same establishment are want to do.
Before the pandemic there was an academic director at the school but she left for greener pastures. We then had a teacher who worked part time on administrative tasks but with enrollment so low the powers that be deemed that position (part time though it was) an unnecessary expense. We were thus left with the school director as the sole administrator on site. That worked for a bit but when the director’s wife returned to her job from maternity leave, he started staying home with their baby. Initially a few times a week, then every frickin’ day. We teachers were left holding the bag and trying to hold the school together. This was not in our pay grade.
The school director was in the school during business hours three times in September. Four times in October although once for only 20 minutes or so and with baby in tow. This was not sustainable. But it wasn’t even the worst of it. Said school director was slow to respond to emails, phone calls and text messages, that is if he responded at all. This was vexing for us teachers and more importantly for students. Six weeks into a new term (they’re 12 weeks long) he still hadn’t ordered books for one class. Repairs went unrepaired. Simple tasks were not getting done including those things that merely required a phone call or email by said director.
Morale plummeted. One teacher (there were only four us) left for another school. Two other teachers (me included) gave notice. A regular sub quit. Resentments festered.
Us teachers would — understandably — bitch constantly about Herr Director. But we all agreed that no one wanted to “rat him out.” This we said repeatedly (the director was such a nice chap, a friend to us all). This was a mistake. We were enabling him. Finally the most veteran of the teachers returned from a vacation to see that things had totally deteriorated in his absence. He made the call. I followed up with an email.
We stopped asking for things from the school director and recommended students do the same. All complaints, issues, requests and questions went to the school’s general manager in Toronto. He responded immediately. He also hired a new school director who will start the week after next.
It’s too late for me. I’m set for my return (commute included) to the SF school. I’m not sure that the place I’m leaving can continue very long especially as their reputation has been crippled by the absentee director.
I no longer consider the now outgoing director a friend. I, like the other teachers, feel that I was taken advantage of. Abused. What he did (or more to the point) didn’t do, was unconscionable. He made endless promises about forthcoming changes. He lied about what he’d done or was going to do. I think he’s in total denial about the mess he made and the manner in which he screwed over teachers, students and the school. Sadly, I can no longer consider him a friend. As recently as last Saturday he sent me a friendly text not related to work. I ignored it. I don’t think he’s an honorable man. I wish him well and hope that he faces what he did and learns from this experience.
My last day at the school will be December 4, the end of the current term. I’ll have a month off before I return to EF in San Francisco. One reason I decided to go back (besides the obvious fact that I wanted to keep teaching a class) was that the school has moved from near Fisherman’s Wharf to a location walking distance from BART, thus my commute will be infinitely more manageable.
There are only two people left at the school who were there when I left on the first of March 2019. One is the academic director (he was assistant AD when I left) so knowing who’s in charge and having a relationship will be nice. People I can trust. The school is thriving.
The last couple of months have not been easy but I’ve gone through much more trying work situations (I was a middle school teacher of 20 years so you can well imagine). It’s been disillusioning and I’ve lost a friend but I found a good alternative and the rest of life is peachy. So it’s all good.
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