teacher

special education teacher

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Legacy Traditional Schools

At first everything about Legacy sounds wonderful. Motivated students, required parent involvement, back to basics- A teacher's dream school- then reality strikes. Typical day at the Gilbert Campus begins before scheduled time to work, if you don't arrive early and stay late you are ridiculed by admin. You are expected to spent at least half your lunch with the students. You must change your bulletins boards by the first of every month, have them approved, with zero classroom money! You are only allowed to display certain items on the front wall of your classroom. Back to basics is great, but some of their expectations are almost archaic.  You must enter a predetermined amount of grades for each subject every three weeks-no more/no less. Lower grade teachers teaching 5 or more subject must do the same for each subject- per student. Large class sizes -average 30 students per class. 28 for Kindergarden. You HAVE to give homework every night, except Fridays.(more grading) All writing on the white board must be in Spaulding - even in Jr.high. You are only allowed to use 6 predetermined verbs to write your objectives on the board. If any adult walks in your classroom, you must stop whatever you are doing during your lesson-even while taking a test- and have a student read the objective (even though they are clearly written on the board). Half days are only for students- teachers must stay all day. Extended work hours are required, many meetings run past 4:00, several 12 hour days for conferences, staff meetings, etc. There is no bus service so teachers have car drop off and pick up duty every day. Some teachers also had to do playground and/cafeteria duty. Low salary, max base pay for experienced teachers is 6 years, no matter how many years you have. Strict dress code- jeans only allowed 6 times a year- determined by the principal. No sandals, no denim, no sheer fabric -even if appropriately worn - violators will be sent home. This was often over looked for some teachers, not others. No field trips. No student group work or student led teaching allowed. 
Due to high turnover rate people are moved into positions they are not qualified for- which means there is room for advancement, but they are known for firing people without warning if they are not "a fit for Legacy". Gilbert campus had a lot of double standards. Veteran teachers were played against new teachers, probably due to the fear of job loss the admin liked to instill in the teachers. Beautiful buildings, but again zero classroom money. Several teaching positions were cut three months into the year due to budget issues. Now teachers from other campuses have to teach at two campuses every day to cover the classes. What school doesn't have their budget set for at least one school year? They hired out of state teachers who relocated and then let them go after 90 days- based on budget- not performance. Now they are recruiting teachers to have on reserve??? The philosophy for Legacy is great- the students are great, and the parents are great. It's the administration that needs help. Teacher beware!

Legacy has strayed far from their stated missions statement. They continue to grow their company before they have even provided what their current campuses are in need of. They are more concerned with micromanaging everyone and everything, than in promoting fair and equal opportunities. They are not interested in improving their educational practices, in contrast only listening to those who have very little background or experience in actual education.  They would rather pass over qualified individuals  with vast experience in favor of promoting employees that will support them as a “yes” person and who are willing to sell out their personal morals and integrity. They do not provide equal access for students, much less employees, often times opting to violate your rights in favor of what is best for them, as a business. The amount of work piled onto employees is a joke, even when thought of in conjunction to the higher compensation provided. The amount of stress, coupled with lack of administrative support, is not worth the higher than average salary. In addition, there is excessive, endless and unnecessary documentation practices for EVERYTHING, and you have to endure never ending observations and meetings. This goes beyond the documentation practices of normal educational facilities. And to top off the never ending demands on your time, they “encourage” you to donate your time further in order to qualify for your end of year incentive pay. Prepare to not have any personal or family time if you decide to work here. Many campuses have a toxic culture masked under the guise of positivity. Make no mistake, if you differ in opinion in any way, you will be labeled as the outcast. Only people who are the good graces of Administration get any sort of recognition for their contributions to the school. They say working in education is often times like being in an abusive relationship. Legacy embodies this sentiment.  Lastly the way in which Legacy has also handled the pandemic is laughable.  As teachers have begun to speak out about their shady health protocols, the District has resorted to telling parents we are lying, and teacher intimidation in order to keep teachers quiet. They do not care about keeping their students, much less their employees safe. There are so many red flags within this organization, all I could advise you to do is RUN as fast as you can in the opposite direction.  After all, toxicity IS the LEGACY way. 

Never have I ever worked in an environment in which I felt that I could not be the educator that God placed me on this planet to be. My time with this organization began with rose colored glasses. Everything appeared to be perfect! After sometime, my spirit began to tell me that I was not in the presence of proper company. But, I chose not to accept many of the things I had heard and seen. It wasn't until I realized that I was being targeted for standing my ground and speaking up against things that went against my morals and ethics.  I struggled with this because I come from a long line of individuals who have taught me to never let anyone force you to take on a cookie cutter mentality. To ask me to do so was outright disrespectful. To accept lies that defames a person’s character is unprofessional and should not sit well with a person’s soul.

To make a long story short my time with Legacy is one that I look back on and I honestly have mixed emotions. I accept the experience I had while I was there because it taught me a lot about trusting those you work with, it taught me a lot about how others will treat you in the midst of a storm, it taught me that I am resilient and regardless of the chaos that others create around me to keep the spotlight off of themselves, as long as I keep my ethics intact, my morals intact, my heart on the main thing (students), and remain in the truth of what I do and say within the educational system, all is well with my soul.

For a long time I harbored some deep animosity and pain behind my departure from Legacy for many reason. But, it was recently revealed to me that I had to go through what I went through then to arrive at the person I am today personally and professionally.

So, for those who log on to this site to "bash" this organization, I encourage you to use your energy elsewhere.  There is a strong chance that your words and ratings will make very little impact on organization change.  Take your experience and grow from it!   You never know when you will cross paths with some the very individuals you are posting about.  Trust me I already have and guess what I was at peace.  Allow others to grow from their own experiences.

I taught at Legacy for 3 years and always wished something would change given all the complains, but they never have. Admin is unsupportive and teammates can be catty. The workload is overbearing and unrealistic and if you try to voice an opinion or concern on anything, then you are silenced. They will say you are being insubordinate and say to just do your job. Teacher rewards are given for compliance, not actual teaching skills. Your evaluation can also be harmed if your students desks are a mess or if you have paperwork or anything on your desk. You will work long hours and not be compensated for it. I usually graded every Friday from 4pm to 12am. I also stayed late every day getting things ready for the next day, since you never when they'll stop by to "get you". It is a toxic and unfriendly environment and does not feel like a school aside from the classroom settings and the students. 

Never work here. There are plenty of other schools that would treat you and pay you better. 

I speak for myself and past coworkers who have left who have their passion for teaching drained because of working here. The expectations for students and teachers will leave you lacking energy EVERY day. It is not worth it. 

On top of the pandemic now, they are making teachers teach online and in person after sending online applications to current teachers. They will constantly pull the carpet from under your feet. You can never trust district or admin. They are also not following CDC guidelines. Playgrounds are open. Students are allowed to play with playground equipment and 96 students are allowed in the cafeteria at a time. Class sizes are not 10-15. They are 23-27 in each class. They think sitting them in rows is enough, even though they are not 6ft away from each other. There are no dividers on desks. No one has even spoken about shared ventilation at these school buildings. 

Applicants beware.

Although Legacy has structure and a strict guideline on teaching the management of the "corporation" is lacking.  

Instead of paying out 301 Performance Pay associated with how well you performed your job, they make employees compete against each other for "301 Hours" in order to get any performance pay.  This is in the form of additional time you spend away from your family at the school doing "volunteer-unpaid" work.  Plus there is no guarantee you will even receive any 301 money for the time you put in unless you were in the top 25% of hours.

Teacher contracts are issued the end of January with a 5 day or less time frame for the individual to review, sign and return.  This does not allow an individual time to consult with a contract lawyer to make sure you as the individual are represented properly in the contract.  In addition, there are extremely ridiculous fines ($2000-$6000) associated with the contract and no exceptions are given for individuals who need to leave Legacy due to family issues or advancement opportunities.  Most districts/charter's have a clause with a fine of $1500 however they do consider the reasoning behind the need to break the contract before enforcing the fine.  Legacy does not.  Nor does Legacy have opportunities to advance unless you have some connection with administrative personnel.  

A typical work day is roughly 10 hours.  This does not include the additional time you spend trying to get those 301 hours either.  The one nice items is grade levels do split up the work on lesson planning.  Each teacher is given one or two subjects to plan and prepare for the group.  There is at least one 45 minutes prep time which one or two days of the week the grade level meets for their PLC.  In addition, there are at least three 30 minutes preps during the week when students are at specials.

The one major positive are the teachers you work with.  Most are very supportive of one another and are enjoyable to work with.  The school promotes parent involvement.

This school district is one that will deflate you as a teacher, where they treat you like robots and not professionals.  The first thing they demand is that everyone is exactly the same.  You must be on the same page at the same time as every teacher you work with.  There's no room for creativity at all...and if you do anything out of their norm, you get reprimanded for it.  They observe you to pick at every single thing you do, from your bulletin boards to the shoes you wear.  They will have you sign a contract where you will pay them up to $5K if you choose to leave the district.  This is due to the heavy turnover rate, where they cannot keep teachers.  The good ones leave and have at a drop of a hat, so now they lock you in with an insane contract to benefit them.  The administration that they form and hire are typically young and inexperienced.  How would you like to work for a person who had only been in the classroom for two years, or someone who didn't have a degree at all in administration?  You will be their robot.  You will put countless hours into lesson plans and writing an entire board of objectives each day.  You will grade what they say to grade.  This district is known to make up lies and changes the rules left and right.  They say one thing and then the next day, the story changes.  They are not in compliance with their resource students at all, where they give the right minutes that IEP's state.  They will ask you to stretch yourself thin, when it comes to needing extra work from you.  You have to tutor your students each week, no matter what. Do you like to be observed 20+ times a year?  Try their 20/20s...20 observations, 20 minutes per time. This is a district where two Mormon men wanted to make a school that fit their needs for their children...now they are making a ton of money off their schools, with their wives getting full time salaries...when they do not work there. They will one day going to sell it for profit.  I could go on and on and on.  I left this district and found much better.

Beware! Red Flags All Over the Place!
Beware! Beware! Beware! This many negative reviews don’t lie! I was the 13th staff member to leave in 12 weeks. The Breech of Contract clause should have been a red flag. They certainly put this $5,000 breech of contract in there because so many people wonder what they got themselves into and try to flee. The Admin does nothing to create evenly distributed classes. The workload is not humanly possible. Some teachers leaving at 10:30 at night. The amount of paperwork and data entry is insurmountable. The testing in elementary is about 7-9 tests given to students EVERY FRIDAY. The pacing plan provided allows for no time of mastery, meaning work is simply thrown at students and then moving on. Some of the tests have 7-10 questions and EVERYTHING is graded out of 100 just setting students up to fail. There is no room for creativity in any form. They try to “weed out” any students needing extra help and only focus on the high functioning. After opening 17 schools, one would think Vertex Education would have down basic logistics of lining up, bell schedules, playground rules, etc. Halfway thru the year and the place remains a disaster with no logical rhyme or reason as to daily routine. Instructional coach has no clue what she’s doing and consistently gave out the wrong information causing twice as much work. Training (outside of the UNPAID two weeks in summer) is limited thus teachers are given curriculum with no direction. Payroll was shady with money getting wired into bank accounts when checks didn’t come out on payday. Extra hours paid with Visa gift cards and benefits are horrible. Pre-tax dollars pulled out of paycheck and never put into retirement account until threatened legal follow up. PTO has no bank account.  Stay away! Shady operation and almost cult-like. I think legal action has never been pursued as people are just grateful to be “out” and put Legacy behind them once they leave.

This school is extremely poorly ran. Administration team is not supportive and generally goes by the "just get it done" policy but if it is not done their way, it is incorrect and you will hear about it. The school opened in the 2017/2018 school year, the hiring principal then is now a 5th grade teacher, his assistant principal is now a 6th grade teacher and the other assistant principal quit. The school has been opened one year and is not returning a single original member of their administration team. Communication between teachers and administration was extremely poor and last minute. Your contract is 7:30am-4:00pm but you have to report for morning duty at 7:25am and after school duty goes until 3:30pm with no rotations throughout the year, so you are stuck doing the same duty year round. You are required to tutor or run a before/after school club. It is all direct instruction (no groups) which doesn't allow the students to work on their personal social skills that they will actually need to be successful in society. This job allows for limited creativity, strict measures and goals for staff and students to meet and you are treated like a "Legacy Robot". The aides are awesome and extremely helpful. Staff are usually complaining about administration or each other. The kids are fantastic but with such loose policy from administration, they pretty much get away with anything they want because they know they will not get in trouble if they get sent to the office, which makes classroom management a nightmare. If students are having trouble in class or doing work they do not want to do, they will ask to be sent to the office and come back with a smile on their face and no consequences to show for it.  You get free lunch if you eat with the students in the cafeteria. The most enjoyable part of the job was your prep time and when you got to leave for the day.

What I know. Teachers work very hard at Legacy, most working more than 60 hours a week.There is little time for family or free-time pursuits on the weekends. Teachers have tutoring before school begins. So many feel stressed out and tired.

The management forgets that teachers are professionals.  Teachers are unhappy with the management, and some transferred to other campuses, or left. About nine teachers left school for various reasons during the last school year.Teachers feel very isolated in their rooms. Therefore, it is lonely for teachers. New Teachers are reviewed often by admin. Formal observations provide feedback from admin who don't visit the class often enough to understand how things are going pre-review date. 

As for the school Culture, Legacy is very cheap when it comes to providing teacher lunches during PD, or any food for teachers for that matter. A Sandwich with potato chips, soda and a cookie is a typical lunch. Christmas dinner was donated by a Pizza restaurant. The Principal barely acknowledges each and every hard working teacher. He appears unreachable.The Principal has a tendency to discount, or dismiss teacher's opinions.

Student culture. Student behavior at Glendale is particularly difficult. The halls are very noisy, and students scuff their shoes on purpose, making as much noise as possible when passing in the halls. Students have no effective consequences for misbehavior, and parents often are not supportive of teachers. There are instances of bullying and vandalism. Parents do not realize what is expected of Legacy students, the requirements of academic courses, and many students lag far behind, or stop caring. This causes a stressful classroom environment. 

The Health Benefits have a high deductible. No vision or dental unless you opt to pay for it.

Let me first start with they are soooo shady they CHARGE YOU $5,000 if you resign...…. I found this school environment very hostile.  I was stressed out constantly b/c there were SO many policies and procedures but very little explanation and clarity as to how to properly achieve everything expected of you.  They claim to pay more b/c of the high expectations, however after the ridiculously high medical insurance deductions my paychecks were actually less then my job that paid $7,000 yearly LESS....  The medical "benefits" are nothing to benefit.  The plans they offer are outrageously priced and have extremely high deductibles and NONE of my regular docs took Cigna, I had to get all new doctors. The principal resigned a few weeks into the school year and things were already quite disorganized within the Admin. After the head principal left the Admin was a mess and I couldn't even get a reply email for any of the numerous questions I had...… I was then frequently pulled into meetings, NOT to discuss my numerous questions as to how to effectively do my job but to reprimand me for what they thought was a poor job lol. I was targeted b/c I did not hold the same values and opinions as the majority of staff.  I received great evaluations but then was pulled into a meeting every other day about how horrible of a teacher I am HAHA! I was never put on any sort of performance plan but was constantly being treated as though I was not a good teacher. I begged them to terminate me so I wouldn't have to pay the resignation fee. I begged for them to provide me with my official evaluations b/c they were nice feedback and I need them for future jobs.... however they refuse to provide me with my evaluations. They're a hot mess.....

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 5 salaries reported	$51,389 per year
Special education teacher 2 salaries reported	$62,634 per year
Elementary school teacher 4 salaries reported	$47,495 per year
School psychologist 17 salaries reported	$3,971 per month
Substitute teacher 3 salaries reported	$19.62 per hour

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