HR losing everything that is turned in

It should not be so hard to apply for a job and if it is, most people who are good (who aren’t married to the idea of working in Oakland) will not put up with it.

Katy, to answer your question, I’d first want a total re-think of educational funding. Teachers, unions, administration, parents, the district and the state all have opposing financial incentives that create such adversarial relationships. Green as I was, I had no idea that I needed to distrust the district as was subsequently taken for the proverbial ride.

But more immediately and within my pay-grade, I’d like to see a mandatory mentoring program established where teachers are paired with someone that currently teaches the same content. Their collaborative lessons should be added to an easy, online database that stores lessons organized by standard, (thus we can start preserving some of this rapidly lost institutional wisdom). Also, teachers’ prep periods should be uninterrupted at all costs and shouldn’t ever be scheduled after school. Similarly, lunch breaks that last more than 30 minutes would do miracles for stress recovery. I think those changes would be the low-hanging fruit of reform.

Thanks again!

I, too, find the bureaucracy of OUSD infuriating, and it incenses me that the people who want to work here are treated so disrespectfully, so often, by the folks downtown. A few years ago the families of two of my hardworking colleagues were sent letters by the district informing the families that these teachers were not ‘highly qualified.’ Of course ‘highly qualified’ does not even mean that, it just means that a teacher has certain bits of paper, but the most outrageous things about this were that a)the two teachers did have those bits of paper and b) the district didn’t even have the courtesy to tell the teachers that these letters were being sent–they found out from the families! Meanwhile, in a great ironic twist, one of those teachers is now a finalist for Oakland Teacher of the Year!

OUSD definitely loses more teachers than it would were the HR department more competent, no matter the stresses and challenges at school sites.

On another note–I have stopped reading this blog so frequently as I’d like, because it makes me so irritated to read some of the repetitive, unhelpful, and negative comments of some of the frequent posters. I love to learn from the reflections of posters such as Cranky Teacher and Nextset, and I don’t mind if someone says something that I don’t agree with, but I struggle not to feel angry when I see some people take every SINGLE piece of news as an opportunity to bash teachers. Seriously, could you think before you post?

I have always said that teaching is the one profession where people are expected to stay: both the school year and beyond. In other jobs, people wish you well when you move on.

But you are right about OUSD weeding out people. We do it with our lousy HR dept; we do it with our temporary contracts. We also do it with our tough working conditions and our lousy pay that is lower than other districts. OUSD is the “culling” place; we end up with only the most dedicated/crazy or worst teachers staying. I put myself in the dedicated/crazy pile. Those that get weeded out usually go on to better places/higher pay/easier work.

I was so excited when Dan began posting before he even came to Oakland. I was so hopeful that he would stay and become one of those most amazing History teachers that we have in many OUSD schools. It takes nerves of steel to be an Oakland parent or teacher, and many people do not have that constitution, nor should we expect them to. I remember when I finished my credential program, one of my classmates wanted to work in Oakland, the city in which he lives. He was highly qualified in a shortage area, and even bilingual. He could not get a phone call back from HR, so he went to Hayward, who hired him instantly on the spot at higher pay.

I am so sad for the loss that our students have year after year, the loss of great teachers and teachers to be: both those who stay only briefly and those that never get a call back from HR.

Good-bye Dan. Thank you for at least lasting the year.

That said, dealing with ridiculous bureaucracy and the fact that, as Nextset points out, the larger society doesn’t care much, is PART AND PARCEL of the gig.

In other words, the system weeds folks out who can’t take a whole bunch of crap — being treated like a widget, yanked around when programs die abruptly and others pop up randomly like mushrooms after the rain.

J.R. says it’s the union’s fault, others would blame the district. I blame the whole state for lacking the will to face the reality of what poverty and dysfunction cost us in the long run and the big picture.

Regardless, if you want to continue teaching in an urban or rural public school, you can do so. Even in Oakland. Go on unemployment now, crash with friends, and catch on in late August, when everybody is desperate to fill classes. Or fight the prop status, as others have noted.

I don’t judge you for taking the easier path at a private school. I don’t think anybody should do this out of guilt, although I suppose we all want to “make a difference” which can be a muddy soup sometimes.

However, it is like a weeder course in college to see who REALLY wants to put up with the crap it takes to be a chemistry or physics student.

You just got weeded. Unfortunately, our current weeding program eliminates some of the most nutritious plants!

Perhaps when he gets to a real school he will learn the difference.

I’m being the skunk at the garden party I know. But people really have to get real.

I wish things were different, but they are what they are.

Good bye and Good Luck in your new location and position. While you were here you made a difference and an impression on the students I’m sure. You are the kind of teacher OUSD can’t afford to have.

Thanks for pointing out that OUSD’s late hiring shrinks the applicant pool. My job at an OUSD school wasn’t advertised until late summer, and I was hired a few weeks before school began (several years ago). I had turned down offers from other districts because I wanted to teach in Oakland, but it was awfully stressful to have to wait so long to learn whether I’d have a job at all! Many friends from my credentialing program, though, accepted jobs elsewhere because they needed certainty of upcoming employment, which Oakland wasn’t offering until August.