teaching assistant

mental health technician

teacher

monitor

certified occupational therapy assistant

Colonial Intermediate Unit 20

Pros:Excellent benefits (for now?) Very rewarding working with kids and seeing how your contributions benefit the students. Excellent place to earn experience to start your career in education as there are always open spots available.

Cons: The pay of the support/teaching staff is totally unacceptable. Administration gets paid four, to five times as much as the low end of the scale support staff. In their defense as an IU it is not financially feasible to pay the staff as well as districts, however, pay at the IU for teaching/support staff is 15-30% lower than a majority of the surrounding school districts. This is one of the main reasons for massive turnover rates for staff. As of writing this, there are over 150 positions open. This has caused large shortages of staff in classrooms, and office staff on a consistent basis. (This is also dangerous as the types of kids in these rooms require as many staff members as possible for the safety of the staff and students. ) While recent positive changes have been made in upper-level management that will be good for the organization, they still continue to show a total lack appreciation for staff. A genuine thank you goes a long way, instead of hiding in your office until its time to deal with a fire. Administration is so desperate for new hires, and are deceptive of what the day-to-day work environment is like. New staff are often untrained and unaware of the types of challenges they will face. The fact of the matter is, the challenges of these students mean you will work in extremely stressful and potentially harmful environments. All of the above concerns are some of the reasons why teachers, and support staff see the IU as a stepping stone. People work here for a year or two and then will leave. They will move to a district for better pay, benefits, and less stress. Until the above is remedied, be aware of what you are potentially getting yourself into.

Administration, please address the culture of fear in the organization and start showing respect towards the support and teaching staff. The main reason you have a massive problem with employee retention is due to the pay, and appreciation that is showed towards employees.

Working with special needs children was rewarding. The teachers I worked with were also great. But everyone- associate teachers, teachers, speech therapists, COTA/OT- are all overwhelmed. They switch your placement at random to fill understaffed classrooms. Supervisors are not available because they are filling in for vacant teacher or associate positions. It's not necessarily a toxic work environment, but it's not positive with so many vacancies. There was a lot of resentment towards administration due to inequity in pay while they make as much as surrounding districts, while nonadmistrative staff are paid much lower. Bringing up concerns to HR went no where as they were unsupportive and dismissive. This place could be a great place to work and help the kids do their best, but there is no structure. 

CIU#20 can offer a variety of experiences in the field of education.  There are many opportunities for training, and the benefits package is great.  The work is extremely interesting and never boring.  You will learn new skills every year.  There are many areas for a person to specialize, and many well trained people to offer trainings and supervision.
The downside of IU#20 is that there is little autonomy, and the overall organization is very supervisor oriented.  Staff's needs are sometimes unheard.  The client base of the IU is very challenging and you must love working with them, or you will not be happy. 
The salary is not commensurate with the skills required to work with the neediest population of students.

The most enjoyable part of my position is helping people, whether it is visitors, staff, or students. Some of my duties include would be giving directions, making Id badges, and working with our calendars on Google. My supervisors always listen to what my ideas are. If I think something could use improvement they are always there to help. 
Time frames are the hardest part of my position, mostly because I always want to do my best for everyone at CIU20. I think you will have this at every job in every position. 
Overall I am extremely grateful & happy that I work at CIU20.


If you desire to help individuals  with special needs and need no benefit from the company this job is for you. I absolutely  love working with the kids, however district relationships could be better established, support to itinerant services could be better. Caseload sizes are unmanageable, leading to alot more work stress and due process cases. The pay is absolutely  terrible and you cannot live off the wage of a COTA, or PTA independently. The company has a good message but there is no bonus to work with ciu20. 

Arrive at location of classroom/ school building assinged to, and get kids off the bus. Monitor the children, and assist with IEP work throughout the day. Supervisors and program coordinators are there most of the time when needed for assistance as long as they arent being used as Subs in classrooms. The hardest part of this job can be the behaviors of some students once in a while. Also if the team dynamic is not strong and work well together, can make the job hard. The most enjoyable part in seeing the kids learn something at the end of the day. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
They don’t allow for mistakes. Mistakes are not forgiven no matter how excellent you are at your job.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Little to no staff support. Admin supports students and their families more than their employees.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I never felt appreciated. In fact , admin will ignore the associate and MHW completely upon entering v the room. We were just Peons 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Stressful , underpaid , undervalued

Highly stressful with little support and pay is not at commensurate with what is expected of you. No training to speak of. On the other hand, working a school schedule is good, and some of the kids will melt your heart.

Terrible place to work. RUN AWAY FROM HERE. The teachers are great some of them they care about the kids they serve but others can not care less and the fact the human resources people are the nastiest , rude and they think this place is wall street they are having weird dreams. DO NOT WORK FOR THIS PLACE HUMAN RESOURCES PEOPLE ARE SO NASTY  AND THE  SALARY IS EVEN WORST, RUN AWAY. 

In the position I held, the only positive aspects were autonomy and the health benefits.  Work/life  balance is non-existent unless you just don’t do the work that needs to be done. Caseload is very overwhelming- no caps on caseload.  Minimal support from supervisors when dealing with unreasonable workload expectations, district scheduling requirements and parent demands.  Must be extremely organized to excel at this job. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teaching assistant 201 salaries reported	$27,174 per year
Mental health technician 40 salaries reported	$35,745 per year
Teacher 34 salaries reported	$58,925 per year
Monitor 13 salaries reported	$18.31 per hour
Certified occupational therapy assistant 21 salaries reported	$39,226 per year

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