Would anyone like to share how the Covid 19 is impacting your private school? I'll go first - my school may possibly losing more than a third of our enrollment/tuition. Yikes... Pay freeze too.
I work a private residential school so not too much has impacted us other than the few students we had bussed in have to stay home (and get packets sent home). Our residential students are still here so we are still at school. We are actually getting raises and bonuses so no pay freezes in our future.
I work at a private school. We are getting hit hard by how so many parents are losing their jobs since the spread of COVID-19. Yes, as parents lose their jobs and can't afford tuition, we have had staff members that have lost their jobs. It has been very sad.
My school’s enrollment has been largely unaffected as we retained 96% of all previously enrolled students. CEO said that there will be no layoffs (phew!). We have not had an issue with attendance as we always check out Chromebooks and iPads with data plans to students who need them. Thus, all students have internet access and made the transition to distance learning almost seamlessly. We have significant reserves ($70+ million) and can operate for 3.5 years at current levels with zero tuition, so I’m not worried. Teachers are still expected to teach a full day like they would normally, but we are allowed to assign less homework and less work, all of which must be graded. We are thankfully going to be getting our end-of-year bonuses (just $1,000 this year as state tests were cancelled as I understand it), but I don’t know if we will get our annual COLA. It depends on what enrollment looks like next year, but our CEO said if we retain at least 92% of the student body in the next academic year, then the COLA’s will proceed as planned. It’s a toss up at this point.
Thanks for your concern. I don't think they are going to layoff classroom teachers. I feel sorry for teacher's aides and special area teachers such as Art and PE that we are losing. Like every year, we have some teachers announce that next year, they won't return. I am guessing that if necessary some of those teachers might not be replaced. We might have to go with 1 less teacher at some grade levels. I or other teachers might be asked to change grade levels to fill in where teachers are leaving. I can live with that.
Thanks all for sharing. I am looking at a pay freeze. I'm having a really hard time with it, honestly. I work very, very hard and don't get paid a lot to begin with. Reading Rules, as a "specials" teacher I'm sad to hear you are losing those positions. I feel very sad about our aides and subs as well.
I guess you could look at it as a glass half full person...a pay freeze is better than no job at all.
I agree with you there. But unemployment is temporary and then there would be no income, no job. So, would be taking a pay cut and able to keep your job a better scenario than unemployment in that case? What I'm assuming is that this is a job cut, not a furlough.
Private schools in my area are already being hit hard. They’re laying off teachers due to parents letting the school know they will not be able to afford tuition for 2020-2021; thus, unenrolling their child(ren). My next door neighbor is a principal at a private school and she has been told that she is going to be principal and 3rd grade teacher next year. Not really sure how that’s going to work and I don’t want to think about it because it’ll make my head spin.
Teaching 3rd grade full-time while also maintaining her principal duties. I feel like a lot of tasks will be delegated to the school secretary.
I told her to come teach for the public school district. She’d have better health benefits and salary.
I think that this first paragraph above is what my school is preparing for, but hasn't actually happened yet. They are doing their best to extend aide to the families who can no longer afford the tuition. I am most grateful to still have a job, of course. But I think I can have a moment of sadness overall, especially when other expenses are going up. As a private school teacher I have also been working harder in most cases to provide instruction online. Our parents have been great, but also very demanding from the get-go, and rightfully so of course. But I've been in front of my computer almost all day, every day. There have been no 2 hour naps and 4 hour walks in my recent remote learning days, as with some other teachers I've talked to. Also, our health benefits were reduced earlier this year, so in some ways it is a pay cut. I'll get to being more grateful, but I need a moment of sadness as well.
Wow, that’s absolutely horrible! I do my job during business hours and then I’m done for the day, except if students need tutoring then I just open up another Zoom meeting for 1.5 hours and go. Otherwise, everything else is pretty much done for me and I just teach and record the online assignments, which are automatically and electronically graded. I’m one of the lucky ones in that my healthcare benefits are still 100% provided for my employer...
They will if we retain at least 92% of current enrollment (CEO’s words). Currently, we retained 96% and so I think I will still get a raise next year. Otherwise, we will have to institute a pay freeze. I’m happy that I will, at the very least, get a $1,000 bonus at the end of the year.
Futuremathsprof, sound like you are at an amazing private school that truly values their employees. That's awesome! Esp with the health benefits. We pay 30% of ours...it ends u being a lot. I honestly need to have better boundaries. There's a huge blur now between professional and personal hours. I think that's been a huge part of the issue for me, having never taught from home before. In addition to teaching online I'm also managing 3-4 programs that students are completing work on, and monitoring those regularly. I also now get emails from students, parents and our admin all the time. I got an email from a parent at 10:30 PM on Friday. I just need to turn it off when the day is over, and THEY.CAN.WAIT.
I hope that you can find a better school because yours doesn’t value you as a professional or as an employee. The fact that they make you pay for 30% of your healthcare costs is outrageous. 3-4 programs?! You need to find a better job and fast. My word.
