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Home : 2004 : January : 25

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By Janice

I was in the middle of making dinner, so I wasn't quite finished with my post. Now I'm finished, so I will add more.

Some districts, like the one in which I live, are required to let a teacher know by mid-year that they
are on probation and that it is possible that they may not be renewed for the next year. This happened to my husband, who is a middle school teacher. He got a formal notice to this effect. By the end of the year, however, they decided to keep him. He is now in his sixth year with this school. It was fortunate that they realized what a gem of a teacher they had and didn't let him go.

He has been a coach, a mentor teacher, and assumed many responsibilities. They compliment him all of the time and basically think he walks on water now.

Other districts might not inform you until contract time. For us, that is around tax deadline time. A friend of mine was called into the principal's office once at that time, and the principal told her that he had no contract for her. He was letting her go. Everybody else was getting the contract. How sad for her. She was let go supposedly for discipline problems. That school had a reputation for letting some teachers go. The music teacher at that school was also let go that year.

If you really want to work at this school next year, ask what you can do to improve. Teachers who "play the game" are rarely fired, it seems. Even those who have had bad reviews, in my experience.