mathematics teacher

teacher

english teacher

science teacher

mentor

Fusion Academy

This "school" is a complete facade. They construct a progressive looking culture, but that's about it. There is no support for teachers, no time to plan lessons, and pay is beyond low. 

The school pretends not to be a Special Ed school, but takes in at least 50%-60% serious special ed cases. There is no training and no one with special ed expertise to compensate for this type of population and teachers are left to flounder in their attempts to teach student well beyond their ability. Teachers are not required to have any teaching background, only a 4-year degree, so most have no idea what pedagogy is, let alone how to develop one for a student with severe learning needs.

The school is truly shameless, as they accept anyone willing to pay the absurd tuition, whether the student is blind, has violent behavioral issues, or severe cognitive issues like down-syndrome. If the parents pay, they accept them, and leave the teachers to navigate how to teach them.

Students are seen as cash cows, and parents are treated with the "customer is always right" model where any issue they have will be changed, including poor grades. This is a pay for grades school and nothing more.

Some students get the help they need, and grow and learn, but the harm this model causes to all the other students removes any illusion that this school helps children. 

I have seen more teachers burnout in my time teaching at this school that I could ever have imagined. Good, brilliant, teachers burnt out and leave teaching due to the conditions at this school. The 1-to-1 model also makes this even more destructive for the students, as they regularly loose their mentors, causing trauma and hindering future progress. 

Teachers are only paid 10 minutes per hour class to prepare for the lessons, construct HW, complete paperwork on the lesson, and handle any emails to staff or parents. Teachers are forced to either compromise on planning lessons to complete meaningless paperwork, or work for free, in there own time, to assure the classes are properly prepared for.

Some teachers are forced to teach 8-9 classes a day, with no built in time to prepare. Some are given 2 classes a day and forced to sit in there office, unpaid, for the 4 hours between classes. Teachers are paid hourly, and the rate can range from 28-30$ an hour, with limited raises. Full-time means nothing when you start, as you may not see 30 hours of work for months after being hired. 

Burnout is the goal. One regional admin once told me that they expected teachers to quit within 3 years of starting, that was their hiring model. Anywhere from 30-60% turnover per year is usual.

The school is trying to balance two polar opposites. A mastery learning model, where students do not progress until they master material, and a profit driven model where money is the only concern. Any time the mastery model is confronted by issues of profit, learning is sacrificed to maintain profitability. 

This was evident when I was asked to multiple times to manipulate grades so a student would pass and when health and safety protocols were ignored by admin to maintain appearances on zoom calls or to cater to conservative parents.

Some student's tuition is paid for by the state, and they gain none of the mastery sessions that the mastery model is based on. If they do not complete the courses within the standard time frame they simply don't learn it.

This school is a school in name only. A farce that has somehow made millions for a select few by exploiting students and educators.

There was a great deal of autonomy with how, and to some degree what I taught, and this was great not only for me, but for students as well.  However, the majority of the teaching staff wasn't state certified or holding teaching licenses, and Fusion would hire energetic, change-the-world type employees who would work really hard and get paid very little.  No doubt the top managers were well paid, given that they were compensated based on results.  The Heads of Schools (headmasters/principals) were making huge salaries, and driving nice cars, to match the lifestyle of the parents/clients, while the employees were taking public transit busses or riding their bikes to get to work.

The biggest issue I had was the cult-like atmosphere....everyone was expected to buy into the wonders of Fusion, hail the founder, overtly show their reverence to the admin team and their near mythical status.  This was my biggest complaint.

 As other teachers have said, it was unpleasant to work among well established cliques that operated with an air of arrogance and superiority.  Of course, many of the teachers were awesome teachers, awesome people, and awesome colleagues, but ALL were nonetheless controlled by expectations of the deferential cult(ure).  Those who didn't pay tribute to the corporate founder and the school-based admin teams were considered outsiders.

The other issue was the students / parents.  With parents paying about $60,000 a years for middle/high school educations without room & board, the wealthy students were often entitled, and some of the parents were beyond obnoxious.  And since the school was for profit, keeping parents happy was GOAL #1.  Giving a student a grade of B (or God forbid, a C) was cause for a meeting with admin, staff, and parents.  Often teachers weren't even paid for these meetings, basically volunteering their time.  I was paid $28/hour to start (with a masters in eduation, and basically only paid for teaching time and a paltry 10 minutes per class of paid prep time).  Many of the teachers who "bought in" would spend their entire day at campus, even if they were only teaching for a few hours.  Obviously, these teachers were high on admins list of good employees who stayed, mentored students, prepped for classes and extracurricular activites, and communicated with parents on their own time.  

That being said, for many teachers who were in transition or in a career exploration phase of their lives, the experience at Fusion was extremely beneficial.  A moderate amount of autonomy, and the ability to interact, coach, and influence students in a positive way was an extremely meaningful and valuable experience for many.  But the job itself wasn't a career, it was a lowly paid intership.

I don't know if parents realize their $60,000 is buying one-on-one tutoring (teaching is inherently not one-on-one) from untrained and unlicensed teachers.  I appreciate that parents are struggling, dare say suffering, to find an environment that helps their child be successful, and as such, they overlook that the staff are grossly underpaid and that staff expected to preach that all students will be loved,  included, and successful.  There are some minor similarities to a quack preaching a miracle cure...a desperate patient will be very open to accepting any solution; same for a desperate parent.    For many students, this environment does work, so there is something to be said for helping students succeed.

I recently left my teaching job at the Plano location for a better teaching position at a different school in the area. Let me tell you, the difference is night and day. My income has increased by more than $30,000/year, my benefits are far superior, I have more time off (I actually work fewer hours for more pay now), and my school helps teachers pay for graduate school. 

Seeing the other side puts in perspective just how exploited I was at Fusion. Working hourly for awful pay, poor healthcare and benefits, and on top of it all, I had to work for free to lesson plan because the school only gives 10 minutes of planning time per class. That is not nearly enough time to plan a decent lesson, so I had to work off the clock to get my planning done. 

This school is highly exploitative of its teachers. The turnover here was unbelievable, but it makes so much sense given the conditions. No one can continue to work in that environment long-term. The teachers were miserable, and the hourly wages were way too low. Not only that, but the school does not give inflation or cost of living raises, so you end up making less than when you started after a few months. The public school I teach at now, on the other hand, is required by law to raise teacher salaries along with the rate of inflation. This only makes sense, but Fusion does not care about the well-being of its teachers, so of course they do not do this. 

Despite the extremely high cost of tuition, teachers make such low wages that most of my colleagues had to have a second job to survive. When I realized I would have to get a second job to live, I decided to just find a better teaching job.

To put it in perspective, parents pay over $100 per class at this school. Teachers do not even see a fourth of that money, which is a slap in the face because the teachers are the reason the kids go to this school. The teachers are the ones providing the main service this school provides. The teachers are the reason the parents pay so much to send their kids to this school. And yet the administration takes all the money and barely pays the teachers at all. It’s greed and exploitation on display. 

Even the parents notice how exploited the teachers are. A parent once asked me how much I am paid per class, and when I told her, she gawked. “Who is taking the rest of the money? I pay way more than that in tuition. Why aren’t they paying you fairly?” All questions I could not answer because the truth makes the school look bad. It’s pure greed. 

If you want to be a teacher, teach at a public school or a different private school that actually respects its teachers. At Fusion, you will be a wage slave exploited until you burn out in a year or less. Please, save yourself. 

The longer I work here, the fewer hours I get, and the less appreciated I feel.  Turnover is high so I have seen most of my colleagues come and go due to how difficult it is to make ends meet on an hourly wage with limited and unpredictable hours.

 When I was hired and asked about the summer, they told me some teachers took breaks so things evened out for those who worked through the summer.  They should have told me to expect to work multiple jobs throughout the year to make sure I could survive.  Many teachers work multiple jobs because the pay is so low and hours can change week by week.

The positive side is that students truly benefit from the 1-on-1 model, and you are able to be creative in how you teach.  But I have experienced significant bouts of depression due to the low pay and high demands here.  Summers are especially bad.  If you manage to survive they give a bonus, but it hardly makes up for several months of lackluster pay.  Working here I feel I will never have enough money for basic expenses, much less saving for the future or any luxuries.

I work so hard to provide comprehensive personalized classes to students with a multitude of special needs, but have had many months where I could not pay rent or afford groceries due to limited hours.  I have to fill in with multiple side jobs, but it’s tough to find ones that will fit because I am expected to keep open availability for students.

Many teachers and students are great people, but the culture of toxic positivity glosses over the fact teachers are exploited and trying to survive while parents are paying tens of thousands of dollars for tuition.  Even students notice the issue and think it’s unfair how little teachers are paid.  Teachers are expected to cover an entire semester’s worth of content in only 25 50-minute sessions and will receive around $625 for all of those sessions.

I want to like my job here so much because I believe in the learning model and see how students benefit, but instead I’m constantly in survival mode trying to figure out how I will pay my bills and cover my rent.  My friend who works in a charter school gets a salary and paid summers off, while I am paid hourly and must work incredibly reduced hours in the summer to try to afford basic necessities.

My anxiety was also brought to unhealthy levels due to micromanagement and continuously increasing demands.  We are paid for 10 minutes of planning time per class yet expected to craft personalized lessons for a variety of topics, grade, and manage emails in those 10 minutes.  Every year they add on demands without increasing planning time.  It’s no wonder the turnover is so high.

At a all-staff regional meeting we were told by the corporate management team to share our great experiences on indeed.com but not to post if we had negative things. When your company has as high of a turn over rate at Halstrom/Futures you would hope that would help. 
         Another teacher and I quit, walked out quit (we both have never done that before), because a kid had a knife at school and the management who is sooooo worried about appearances did nothing but take the knife away. This kid said he planned on hurting another student with it, and all he got was "talked to." A few teachers and I had to persuade the three management team members to follow policy, as this is a huge safety concern for students and teachers. They did not, so some of us quit that day. Our safety and our self-value were not met with concern, so we left. Management were trying to down play this occurrence: expelling a kid means losing money and maybe even other students whose parents found out and how the adults in charge handled it. This was an extreme example with actual physical harm as a possibility, not something that happened everyday; the attitude and leadership style was exactly the same for minor everyday issues that happen in work environment and school setting. 
         Oh yeah-- no opportunity for growth, low wages, and unpredictable schedule. Don't waste your time if to try and help solve problems, that takes having to state problems to management who will deem you as "negative." Super political work space, too. Teachers will get a-talking-to if they give students anything less than a B (because after you cut the B.S. that is what the parents are paying for). I've had some pretty awful students who were there because they had been kicked out of whole districts in their area because of their behavior (but luckily their parents can afford this school)! Lots of high-risk students with no one actually qualified to help them is kinda mind blowing, but money, money, money! Some kids were great and the only reason I stuck around for the time I did. 
          Please read about for-profit education and learn more about this company (both are terrible). I am so glad to be typing this as an ex-employee. Good luck on your job search, no where is perfect but it will be better than Halstrom/Futures/New name soon!

What is the best part of working at the company?
- Training opportunities are available on-demand and sometimes in-person.
- Campus updates are communicated regularly and promptly.
- There are frequent luncheons and fun campus events.
- One-on-one teaching environment is easy to manage.
- Some curriculum and course content is provided.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
- Support from other staff can be hit or miss.
- Minimal training on handling "learning needs" students may have, including various disorders or disabilities.
- Planning time extends beyond work hours, especially for students with unique learning needs not addressed by curriculum designed for "typical" students.
- Teachers can expect to teach many different classes - possibly a different subject or course level for each class of the day with a unique learning need.
- Administration doesn't address catty staff and unprofessional behavior, which can transfer over to students.  Passive-aggressive behavior runs rampant.
- Students are fully aware they can drop classes for any reason at any time.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
"Work hard, play hard."  Live it and breath it.  Time management is the name of the game - it's an "edu-prenurial environment" -  don't expect to have free time.  Expect to be isolated with individual students for almost an entire day. A unique company that brings diversity and pseudo-intellectuals under one roof!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Classes are 50 minutes with 10 minutes in-between classes.  Those 10 minutes will be used for preparing for the next class, finishing up / charting the prior class, checking messages, and using the bathroom.  You will do this until lunch, then you'll check emails, attend a meeting, or do a club, leaving you 30 minutes or less to eat before your next class.  At the end of a *hopefully* 9-hour day, you will need to prepare for future classes.  Some classes are easy to prepare for if the students have no significant learning needs.  Classes with significant learning needs or specialized content require more planning.  A typical day is 9 hours minimum, and then there is outside planning.

The good: lots of latitude to teach your own way and to adapt and grow as an educator, as there are lots of different types of students with different strengths and weaknesses. some of your colleagues are interesting and helpful, and there is a generally positive sense of collaboration and mission on the job

The bad: pay and benefits are laughable; this is particularly egregious in areas with higher costs of living. the bureaucratic rules concerning room decor (your room WILL look like a junior executive's office, or else), language use, and deference to management are so stiflingly inflexible they forced me to reconsider that year I spent in a Soviet gulag

The ugly: management will exploit your expertise and dedication to your students (many of whom are wonderful young people who genuinely need your help). underneath the smiles and the sunny jargon about acceptance and celebration there is genuine malice here: management is rewarded for meeting enrollment goals while minimizing campus costs, including teacher compensation; in other words, management's interests are adverse to teacher's interests, as they are rewarded for overworking and underpaying their teachers. others have mentioned how cliquish and arbitrary management can be, and if anything the issue is understated. this is a perverse scheme as the individuals who provide the organizational value that the product that Fusion sells is predicated upon (the teachers) are regarded and compensated far less than the managers, whose responsibilities (as far as I can tell) seem to consist solely of making sure there is fresh paint on the walls and that all of the teachers' shirts are tucked in as they escort prospective parents around campus and try to sell them on the idea of spending $200K+ to give their child a chance to get into CSU long beach (no disrespect meant to long beach, it's a fine institution)

Fusion is a great idea in theory, 'One to one" education almost ensures student success, but there's a lot of ugly secrets behind the curtains. First, the tuition is astronomical (more than most colleges per year) and the real academic expectations of students are the bare minimum; It's basically a degree mill for the "1% ers" out there whose kids have been kicked out of 2-3 schools before they show up at Fusion. The parents have no where to turn, and Fusion is definitely a better option than boarding school. If you can afford the $27,000 a year , give or take, then your child will get a good experience, as attention is paid to students emotional as well as academic well being. Just realize that when push comes to shove, you will have essentially bought them a high school degree (its borderline impossible to fail). In a perfect world, all schools should provide a one to one model, but in reality its the uber-rich that are the only people who can benefit (due to the fact that they offer 0 scholarships or financial aid,,,which also leads to the least diverse staff and student I've ever seen). It's a business, owned by a investment firm, that's in turn owned by an even bigger elite investment firm. So, profit is the bottom line. One result is that the quality of the education can be called into question: many of Fusion's staff are basically unqualified (under-credentialed and relatively inexperienced), as well as grossly underpaid compared to their public school counter-parts, but Fusion instills a cult-like allegiance from day 1 that they have the best job in the world, and should not bring up anything negative about the school if they want to keep their job. This cult-like nature of the organization iss exactly why most don't hear about this darker side of Fusion. Parents and teachers are scared to say what everyone on the inside knows: "The Emperor where's no clothes."

Fusion Academy is a for-profit school that puts profits first, and everything else second. Working at Fusion can feel very personally rewarding, and you can make wonderful connections with co-workers, students, and their families. Fusion is one of the most genuinely welcoming environments I've ever worked in. You will probably feel "right at home" almost immediately.

However, you will often be stretched to/beyond your abilities, asked to pick up slack when other teachers quit, and given mediocre compensation and benefits as a result. You will hear many songs of appreciation and gratitude from corporate and campus-level management, but they do not often 'put their money where their mouth is.' Management at all levels is opaque and operates separately from teachers and lower-level employees (like a separate business entirely). The rapid expansion of Fusion campuses across the United States seems unsustainable, and the company does not address problems that are present at current campuses. 

Corporate management gives benefits that are bare-minimum, and they seem oblivious to struggles and complaints of individual campuses and employees. Corporate management also distributes benefits inequitably across states, presumably to meet minimum state guidelines for pay and paid time-off. Fusion's for-profit education model means pay is based entirely on enrollment (i.e. low enrollment = low pay), so campus-level management seems to always be stressed and under pressure to perform better.

I recommend working at Fusion for two (2) kinds of people: someone who has been teaching for some time and wants a new environment to work in, or someone who wants to get experience teaching before moving on somewhere else. Teachers seeking stable, long-term employment best look at a public school or other well-established institution. 

Fusion claims to offer a fulfilling teaching experience, but my time there was filled with unfulfilled promises and systemic issues that favor profit over education.

While they present the possibility of full-time hours during the interview, the reality is unpredictable. After six months, I had only two students, resulting in just four hours of teaching per week. Most of my time and income came from mandatory training sessions rather than actual classroom teaching.

Teachers are expected to reserve 24 hours weekly for potential classes, yet the scheduling is unreliable, and no guarantee of hours is provided. Despite being paid for only 50-minute sessions, teachers must manage attendance, grading, and preparation in just 10 minutes, which is far from feasible.

Payments for prep time are delayed for up to two weeks after a class, and before holidays, you may receive an email informing you that you haven’t worked enough hours to qualify for pay. Benefits are restricted to full-time employees, a status that seems almost impossible to attain.

The one-on-one education model sounds ideal, but it’s largely a way to inflate tuition fees. Teachers are pushed to suggest tutoring packages to supplement core classes, further increasing costs for families.

Turnover is exceptionally high. In my department alone, three out of six teachers left within six months. Openings are constant because teachers who prioritize ethics and student care don't stay long.

Ultimately, Fusion is a for-profit institution that undervalues both teachers and students. If you're looking for a stable and student-centered teaching environment, I’d advise considering other options. I regret not paying closer attention to reviews before joining—I managed to stay for six months, but it was a challenging experience.



Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mathematics teacher 2 salaries reported	$28.50 per hour
Teacher 7 salaries reported	$28.50 per hour
English teacher 1 salary reported	$27.00 per hour
Science teacher 2 salaries reported	$28.00 per hour
Mentor 11 salaries reported	$30.73 per hour

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