administrative assistant

educator

special education teacher

teacher

custodian

Intermediate District 287

I have worked for 287 for many years and during these years I have witnessed an entire transformation of focus and direction that was all positive. First, our entire organizational structure was revamped to reflect a total student focus make-up. The new structure made it very clear that students are our primary reason for existing as an educational institution. This was no accident, it was an intentional and deliberate strategy based on the vision of our leaders. This organization serves some of the most challenging students in the state and does an awesome job at ensuring they are treated with dignity and respect regardless of how they come to us. 

Secondly, our new strategic plan is focused on ensuring that we have the best system to effectively communicate with our member districts, our students and staff are not subjected to unfair and inequitable treatment, and that there's an accountability component that measures how effective these efforts are. No system is a good system without some level of accountability built into it. 

These are some of the progressive and innovative ways that set this district apart from other districts. I am proud to belong to such an organization.

Your experience in this district will depend on your site but overall expect chaos, weird staff boundaries and uncertainty.  Funding for these schools goes to many staff who roam around the building all day long with uncertain titles and duties that allow students to roam around all day long, leave class when they want to with no accountability.  Some school sites are more structured, but still expect a lot of passing of the buck and uncertainty about who’s doing what at what time and where.  Administration is largely white and out of the know about what actually happens on the ground level, but they pretend to be while they plan pointless exercises behind the scenes that won’t really make much of a difference to students with high needs or their teachers/ESP’s. If you can deal with the constant chaos there are many students that need consistent and supportive staff and plenty of work to be done. Some staff are around for the right reasons, find them and keep connected if you’re on for the right reasons. 

The location I was in had three departments. A high school department, and two special education departments. One special education department is on the mild side of Sp.Ed while the other is on the intense side of Sp.Ed. I was in the intense department for Sp.Ed. 

Be prepared to dive head first into special education if you don't have any experience in it. Students take awhile to get used to you. A stressful part of the job was were students' behavior. They may physically hit you/others/or themselves when anxious, upset, or have an off day. It is important to be alert at all times and patient. When you get into their inner circle of people they care about, it's amazing. You really get to bond with them and get to know them. Yes, it's hard at times when students have higher behavioral actions but I've had many laughter with my students.

Pros: Working with the students & making a difference in the students life & their families lives. Coworkers are very supportive & fun to work with. The hours are great. The staff are committed & care greatly & that's why most of us stay.
Cons: Every 2 years we renegotiate a contract & we have never gotten even a 3% cost of living raise. I don't believe we've ever gotten even a 2% raise ever. This makes all of us feel unappreciated & not valued. Educational Assistants get minimal pay where most of us need an extra part time job to pay bills. This can cause burn out for most of us, because we need to work extra jobs, putting in 50-68 hours a week between both jobs & the stress of our job with very low hourly pay. We are not paid for holidays either. The extremely low pay working with tier 3 & tier 4 students is my only gripe.

When I put my 2 weeks notice in they failed to mention that I would not be paid for my sick/personal time that was accrued. I guess I was magically just supposed to know that. I could have not mentioned that I was quitting and gotten paid for the full two weeks but I was dumb and decided to go about it the professional way. I tried calling them to ask why I was not paid for my accrued time and they acted surprised that I wasn't aware. They also don't pay for holidays or any other time that you are not physically there. This is why they can't keep education assistants. Go ahead and take a look at how many schools are hiring for these positions. I am not happy with this school district or any other one. And don't get me started on the stupid union whom I guess made up all of these dumb stipulations.

Workplace culture is extremely unpredictable. Some teachers/staff openly support you, some do not. “Protect your own skin” environment. DO NOT JOIN THE UNION. They don’t protect your rights or provide quality support when in need. New staff are often scared off due to how unpredictable the day to day tasks are vs your new hire orientation. Admin staff are not present in daily routine, even though during your interview process they may seem like they are. They are the furthest from that. If you’re looking for a supportive, team working environment, this is not the place for you. DO NOT TAKE ALL OF YOUR PAID LEAVE AT ONCE! If you leave before end of contract year or are fired, they will BILL YOU for any paid personal/sick time that was used.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Not much - you'll be given unrealistic expectations to meet and if you manage to meet them, you'll be shoo'd away by your director or supervisor

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Toxic leadership let go of good employees before they hit their protected statuses by the union. You don't know if you're next on the chopping block

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic leadership take away from hard working individuals. Nobody wants to be the one to speak up and say something for fear of being the example

We always have a busy day at work and it always to wake up in the morning and get ready for this job. For the past five years, because of the opportunities that I have at my current job responsibilities as a teacher`s assistant. I have learnt to be more flexible and more opend minded. Our leaders are very repectable and always try their best to treat everyone as best as possible.Whatever we do we do it as a Unit and i probably will not survide without the input of my co-workers. I enjoy doing what I do and it becomes a part of who I am.

This is the best job I’ve ever had. I have a customer service background so when I applied it was on a whim. I absolutely love working here. I have the BEST most SUPPORTIVE boss in the world. Everyone is so happy here. People leave the office with a smile. I’ve never seen that before. Highly recommend working here. I keep hearing I lucked out working here as my first district. 

Always a warm welcome with more of a family like enviornment. Daily working together as a team to assist youth in education while teaching the importance of behavior mangement. District 287 is a district like no other, co-workers throughout the district are more like family who occassionally meet and spend time together whether its work or entertainment. I would say the most difficult part is the most exciting part in seeing kids graduate and move on. 287 a great work place!!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Administrative assistant 15 salaries reported	$26.27 per hour
Educator 21 salaries reported	$25.58 per hour
Special education teacher 17 salaries reported	$74,825 per year
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$74,084 per year
Custodian 16 salaries reported	$19.89 per hour

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