I completely understand.
It's been going on for years and years.
When I got fed up enough after 33 years, I took the plastic parachute. This was in 2015. My wife kept teaching through last year when she just couldn't take the abuse any more (not from kids---rather parents and immediate administrator) My friends who are still in are ALL seriously leaving at the end of the year. This is different that the usual "thinking about leaving at the end of the year" talk that goes on every October.
Couple of things that stood out from what you wrote:
1. You have X (10-12, etc) number of sick days available to you every year that you bank if not used. These can accumulate, although when my locality saw some teachers banking over 250 days, they decided to place a cap of 150 for us. One thing I learned over the years, however, is that they can't legally demand that you can't use an earned sick day. Also, getting a sub is their problem, not yours. Teachers must use their days when needed. However, as you know, teachers aren't wired that way. Even if I was in a coma, I'd have a way to get fresh lesson plans in to school.
In an interesting development in the sub front. Several local school divisions (Botetourt and Roanoke County maybe more) are now hiring permanent subs for each school. These subs would report to a specific home school each day to sub. If there are no subs needed, they will fall back into a traditional IA role. The pay is $180 a school day (bell to bell). Not sure about benefits. They've also bumped regular sub pay up to $120 a day.
2. The staffing problem that you mentioned is the product of two things. These unusual times AND the whittling away of local school personnel over the past 20 years. I first noticed this around 2002in the wake of the dot com bubble burst. IA's began being stripped away from schools as demands for more inclusionary services were instituted. Central office and building staffs were absolutely gutted during the 2006-07 mortgage crisis, and they were NEVER completely healed.
3. Feral Kids: I noticed this more and more as I subbed after retirement. Fifth graders were the worst for me, although 2nd graders gave them a run for their money. The problem is that there are so many kids in the small, modern classrooms that you really can't manage the students' micro learning environment. All it takes is one verbal grenade launching kid to set off the other emotional time-bombs around them. Some sub days, I found that my best lessons were simply turning on Simon the Cat videos.
God Bless you. Hang in there. Get out as soon as you can.
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In response to this post by HokieGator)
Posted: 10/16/2021 at 10:32AM