teacher

elementary school teacher

high school teacher

Jubilee Academies

Typical Day at Work
Frequently, you are able to work independently or as closely to your immediate team as you like. Less frequently, though this varies throughout the year, you will have to endure weekly or monthly or bi-monthly (totally inconsistent expectations and follow-through on leadership expectations) supervision, observations, and meetings. Typically, you will be required to show up earlier than a traditional ISD for morning duty. Sometimes, you will be asked to stay on duty during class lunch. (There have been horribly managed periods of this, where teachers received NO lunch though that is not the typical experience.) Everyday, you are expected to stay for dismissal. Anywhere between 2-5 times a month, you are expected to stay after school for various meetings. This is especially difficult for single parents, single-car families, people who live in outlying areas, and people with second jobs (yes, employees do have other jobs there despite the pay raises). Most horrifically, the district and sometimes campus will switch their expectations around of your time. For example, there have been occasions where the work day is extended with NO advance warning. Staff have been uncertain about their start dates and return dates. These dates have been communicated and then changed. Having routine outside activities is challenging because of the constant switch of after school duties/meetings. 

Management
Management is completely OBLIVIOUS, rude, and condescending. Frequently, you will intend to follow through with their requests and then they no-show or last-minute cancel...so this leads to some staff dismissing "leader's" on-again, off-again demands which eventually leads you to be "off" when suddenly management is "on". It's like they want staff to be "on" 100% but the culture is such that administration only shows up about 30% of the time. With this lack of inconsistency, it is easy to see how this can create ambivalence and disconnect for employees. Then, management will show up like a gang of raiders for their 30% follow-through and ream disconnected employees for not showing up...it's very much a double standard. Meetings with admin get switched around on a constant basis. There is no consistency. The current principal wants employees to be accountable, yet there is no accountability for administrator actions/inactions, lack of follow-through, miscommunication, forgetfulness, etc. It would be one thing if it was a two-way street, but it is not. Not fun. Definitely disheartening. No less than 25% of the school year, you can expect the campus principal to and assert their "dominance". It's horrific. There are no bounds to this display/demonstration of power.

Workplace Culture
The culture of the district as a whole reminds me of being in high school or middle school and sometimes elementary school as a child. Some people are asserting themselves and overcompensate for their lack of depth in character. Sometimes it feels like management struts around, ESPECIALLY when the campus has visitors from district, patting people on the back and stabbing others in theirs. It's pretty disgusting for anyone who could give two poo poos about "fitting in". It is a big production. Often, no one cares (or has the ability to care for the load of constant demands) about substance, just about appearance of substance. Underlings are frequently pitted against their immediate supervisor by the current principal. It seems to be a regular method of leadership to verbally devalue others, though it may be the current principal (it would require more time to determine if this is multiplied by district or is simply a campus problem). 

Hardest Part of Job
The hardest part of the job is asking for help and getting none. Paraprofessionals are treated with disturbing disdain, especially paraprofessionals who are competent and expect to be treated with dignity, respect, and consideration for their contributions. Paraprofessionals are affirmed ONLY when they show up and stand in line, doing exactly what is asked of them. >>>more on work culture>>>Doing anything above and beyond is ONLY approved of after conferring (frequently needlessly or inaccessibly when you are in the ongoing everyday of classroom management) and submitting requests and approval from administration. 

Most Enjoyable Part of Job
There are two enjoyable parts of the job. One of the most enjoyable parts is working with students. For people who want to work with students, there are many opportunities to make an impact even if only to one student each year. The second is co-workers. Under-staff stick together because they are the only ones who will step in and help co-workers out. We have no one to rely on except one another. So the team is enjoyable only because we recognize our need for each other to survive. 

The teachers I worked with were amazing teachers, who were obviously dedicated and caring, but also overworked and underappreciated, and of course, underpaid.

Leadership's main focus was pleasing parents and keeping up enrollment, instead of helping their staff and actually making sure students were learning what they needed to, in an environment that was best for them to learn. 
When difficult children caused problems for everyone in the classroom and affected their ability to learn, leadership wouldn't really assist and wouldn't do anything about the problems, because they didn't want to upset the parents and kick that student out of the school. 
False promises were made about classroom support. If you needed something, or someone, you probably wouldn't get it, and if you did it wasn't in a timely manner. Bathroom breaks are impossible to get and it's even more impossible to get enough planning time, lunch time, and breathing time. And, of course, a student could be horribly misbehaving and leadership wouldn't be available to help because they needed to make phone calls. Yes, that's important, but the safety and needs of students should be more important. When the help a teacher is told they will get when hired doesn't happen, they leave. The students are too much and the support is too little, along with the salary issues, that the turnover rate is much higher than it should be. Raises are also promised, then become, "I'll see what I can do," which then turns into, "It's not in the budget quite yet, but there's always the yearly increase next school year." And this was happening pre-pandemic. Post-pandemic, it only got worse.

During my time as a teacher at Jubilee San Antonio, the school initially felt like home. In my first year, under the guidance of the previous assistant principal for middle school, the experience was genuinely rewarding. However, the second year was a complete contrast.

The curriculum I taught was abruptly changed which was a significant adjustment. My 6th-grade class ballooned to 34-36 students, and although I was promised a paraeducator to assist, that promise was never fulfilled. When I sought help from the administration to address disruptive students, my concerns were ignored.

During the second year, the main principal and the new assistant principal were rarely around. I felt helpless dealing with problematic students, as the responsibility was entirely placed on the teacher. The school's priority seemed to be maximizing student attendance for financial gain, rather than supporting teachers in need.

Teachers have less than 30 minutes for lunch, and finding time to use the restroom feels nearly impossible for most. Administrators don't listen to the needs of the teachers.
In less than two years, what started as a positive experience turned into a challenging and frustrating environment.

Worked for Jubilee during the most stressful and dangerous time for public education - The Pandemic - and had to learn on the fly how to teach in-person and remote students with little to no assistance from leadership (we were told to make it work, not *how* to make it work). Those challenges aside, the staff for every grade level worked hard to figure out what worked and what didn't and constantly shared tips and tricks to make the school year a success.
Campus leadership was filled with "Yes!"-men that knew any kind of dissenting opinion or differing opinion would lead to being made miserable by the person they had in charge - which made for a lot of "staff vs. administration"-vibes, as staff safety was never important to the people who weren't having to be IN the classrooms. 
Staff was let go due to student recruitment/populations (that's a big aspect of charter schools in Texas), but told with over a month remaining and expected to still show up for work and perform, despite being effectively a corpse filling a role for someone who made it clear that you weren't wanted.

There is always pros and cons to any job. I liked my first year working at Jubilee. I had a great school principal and an awesome school staff. The 2nd year I worked there was when Covid hit and it was a disaster. It’s extremely hard teaching from home and the kids suffered academically. And of course once the school year ended, staff changes and rules were put in place and the 2020-2021 school year was an absolute nightmare. It didn’t help that I also had personal matters of my own happening around this time. Really the people that work here are very caring individuals, of course not all. It can just get a little chaotic, especially with the pandemic and lack of substitutes and teachers. Be aware as a paraprofessional you will be taken out of your position and put in as a sub, that is a given. Even the ESL and counselors are getting pulled for subbing. Overall though I did love my job and working with the preschoolers. Just be prepared for a lot of gossip, try to stay out of it. Don’t let your guard down. 

If you were here under the principal direct hire, they'll do everything to sweep any improprieties under the rug. "Protected" teachers can fail students they don't like and say highly inappropriate things to students and parents and get a slap on the wrist. The rest of the teachers are left to fend for themselves. To include the direct hire teachers get overworked with class sizes that don't even fit in the classroom. Oh and try to work with your principal for any issues in the classrooms and see it come back on your end of year evaluation as a negative without any support. Most of the students were kind hearted and wanted to genuinely learn. But have an administration that would rather terminate teachers willing to grow than try to help them. 

Don’t recommend being a paraprofessional or even a teacher. They will over work you!  As a paraprofessional You will do the job of a lot of people every single day. You will go from substitute, iss monitor, testing monitor, security, coach, art teacher, etc. Everyday you will be less in the classroom of the grade you prefer and more about covering all grade level teachers. HR person is revengeful, principal doesn’t care about anybody except money and you will be working more than what you are getting paid, which is nothing In this economy.  It’s okay if you are late  and you go hide and talk to your friends, they don’t care about that , they just want you to show up. 

Rather than devoting their resources to serving their students and staff, upper management is entirely committed to recruiting more “students” to a network of schools which lack systems, adequate training, and sufficient structures in place to ensure an equitable experience for students and teachers. 



The school is a great place to work at.  I loved working with all the teachers and students and all my co workers.  Admin was always very helpful. The building was old I think the students needed a new building. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Nothing, poor leadership and culture is toxic.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Leadership is weak and culture is toxic.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It is very toxic and they don't practice what they preach.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Wearing many hats for little money.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 4 salaries reported	$48,250 per year
Elementary school teacher 4 salaries reported	$49,500 per year
High school teacher 1 salary reported	$59,361 per year

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