Jobs....beware I whine in this one

Preface - two teachers have one child and one more on the way, pay a mortgage each month on a modest house and two car payments, student loans for both, car insurance etc. Finally seem to be getting money under control and loans down to a manageable level, our year of paying out the nose for the student loans is over and finances look optimistic. Maybe we can even go on a vacation in the summer of 2011 since we've never even had a honeymoon....hey you never know....should have known something would go wrong.

So back in March, maybe the end of February my superintendent approached me with the "possibility" that my job may be cut because of budget problems (less state aid). A few days later a faculty meeting was called reprimanding us for starting rumors....they then changed their tune from cutting my job to cutting my job in half (oh you must have misunderstood us, yeah right). Not just mine, the art job and one of the english jobs where going to be half time and one of the special ed jobs was still totally cut. This I have to say really made me angry - to think I could do all I do with half the time! They kept saying that enrollment was going down in the school.....the enrollment in my program will only go up next year because I have NO seniors this year...the numbers published in the newsletter recently about the budget show a 5 person decrease for next year (since that was printed we actually had 5 people enroll at school). There is no enrollment issue, they tell the public that there will be no sacrifice in program but they are wrong because not everyone will get lessons and there will be no trips, no solo fest, no all county, no nothing. I can't fathom what their reasoning is - but that is just one issue.

So in April they approached me with an offer, JT would like to share me for a year to replace a sabbatical - was I interested....not my ideal but at least I have a full time option....lets do it. We rearrange the schedule and off we go. A few weeks later they ask me if I would be OK if they did it through BOCES, it would cost everyone less. I ask lots of questions about tenure and step (they are still saying they want to hire me back full time the year after, I'll believe that when it happens) and they go off to ask BOCES, get me good answers and we set up a meeting at JT so I can see the place and find out what I'm teaching. It's all in the bag, we are all set, this is what's happening for next year.

So now it's May, we go to JT and they don't seem to think it's at all in the bag, but since they are all principals and the superintendents are missing we leave angry and frustrated with no information - my principal is angry too, this was a lot of work for her and the schedule is all switched up just for me. 3 more days go by - today I actually get an answer....well JT found out that they can hire a 1st year teacher at .75 for less than they'd pay for me half time since their starting salary is lower (who knew someone payed less than Bradford).

On another subject I've been being bounced all around with whether Genni can go to PreK or not, I had hope this week until today, got a no answer on that one as well. (We had always planned on sending Genni to PreK at Bradford since I'd be there already and it was full day and teachers kids where always allowed to attend as long as they weren't taking resident's spots. One kid in daycare at a time was the goal...two kids in daycare would break the bank)

So speaking of breaking the bank - If we had been able to put Genni in PreK we might have had a glimmer of hope of living with me on halftime - now we don't have any options. Well, my principal said I could stay every other day instead of half days and sub on the off days - but at $90 a day, once you take taxes and day care out what do I get? $20-30? I don't know.

So staying home, that's what everyone says...stay home and I still have at least a $2200 gap between what we need to pay and what we make on one salary, even with me still doing choir at the church. How do I make that work? Online positions are rarely legitimate, so making extra money that way is probably not feasible.

Hhuh, well I know not everyone who reads my blog is really interested in hearing my griping about job loss - I know I'm not the only one going through this so I don't expect special attention or pity or anything, I just want to make sure I get everything out now so that I can look back in a few months and remember how hopeless everything felt. Someday (soon?) when I find an answer to this conundrum I want to be able to read where I started.

The only thing I've ever wanted to do was teach high school band, and I'm very good at it. I'm so good at this thing that I love but I never get to prove it, I never get to show it because I've been stuck here unable to break in to the political game here - now I can't even remotely do what I love because I'm going to have to just take whatever will make me the right amount of money to pay the bills. I will look back on this period of my life someday...and hopefully I will come to the conclusion that I handled it the right way and provided for my family.

So here I go - teaching job, non-teaching job - who knows what's in store. Guess my goal now is to have the baby and then spend June, July and August seeing if anyone will hire me for a relatively high paying job that will make me at least as much as I was making full time at Bradford...stay tuned for the resolution to this part of the Griffin story.