teacher

elementary school teacher

special education teacher

teaching assistant

nutrition services

Saint Paul Public Schools

I was hired to teach in a subject matter area in which I wasn't actually licensed. This would have resulted in students not receiving credit for courses I taught in this area. After I communicated with district personnel about this, I was targeted by the principal and rated very poorly on a subjective rubric. Some of the things that were rated relatively highly were actually weaker areas, and areas rated poorly were not actually areas of concern, but rather reflected current political incorrectness to be evaluated poorly in these areas. A poor rating in area such as, "All students were engaged in the lesson", is grounds for concern and a reason to place on an improvement plan. i had only worked in a high school setting for 2 months when I was placed on this plan. i had up to 40 students at various levels of proficiency in the subject area and my Educ Assistant was pulled daily to translate for one parent or family. When I brought this to the Principal's attention, he was unable to grasp the fact that one teacher could not teach 40 students who had not enlish language and who were at levels varying from kindergarten skills to college level skills. He refused to support me in any way. He and his AP barely spoke to me for the entire time I was there. His reviews were dishonest, capricious and arbitrary. His suggestions showed a complete lack of understanding of ESL learning theory and his advice and reviews of ESL teachers have no value since he is so out of touch with the reality of second language acquisition. Neither he nor his AP are well traveled and neither speak another language. Both, despite being native English speakers, have multiplce grammar and syntactical errors in both oral and written communication but criticize teachers if a beginning language learner has a grammar error. For me this was an unmanageable job. I worked 65+ hours per week and got no support from admin here. I felt it was an unsafe harrassing environment. When you don't support and when you provide a harassing climate for a teacher, it can't help but hurt students. Maybe that's why this school's scores are among the lowest in the state and probably the lowest in the district. This was a very upsetting and disappointing experience and I am very happy to be in an organization where supervisors create a culture of respect and support. To sum up, the principal at this site is dishonest, lacks knowledge about certain groups (40% of his school site), and is very political and vindictive. For this reason some support this administrator. The truth is, he doesn't have the ethics or knowledge to affect achievement in a large way, even though the teachers at this site are excellent.

I have been teaching for St. Paul Schools for 5 years.  At the end of this year, I will leave to teach overseas.  I have taught for 7 different districts/organizations in different countries and cities in the U.S.  Of all of the districts, St. Paul Public Schools is the most dysfunctional in the sense that admin is really a "good ol'boys/girls" club made up of St. Paul locals and lifers, most of whom grew up in St.Paul (most have never lived anywhere else), are very provincial and watch each others' backs at the expense of children.  If a teacher (especially a non-entrenched teacher) has an issue with admin., the Workforce Manager (not a teacher) will come with the assumption that the teacher is wrong and do anything in her power to try to "stick it to the teacher" (even though the teacher may have been doing an excellent job as demonstrated by test scores and reviews), in the case that there is an issue with the principal, even if the principal is not acting in the best interest of students.  This is a district that bends over backwards to support even the most despicable principals, but that has not respect for teachers who have made a difference for children.  It is no coincidence that the positive reviews were not written by teachers, and in one case written by a temporary clerk who was with the district for a short time.  The teachers in this district are too provinical, too poorly traveled and too clubby to close the achievement gap in any significant way.  I do not recommend this organization for teachers, students or families.  

I have worked at 3 different schools in SPPS, in four different positions, including classroom teacher, over a five year period. One school was awful in terms of admin and support. One school was okay. The other school was fantastic. So it really depends on where you are. Ask questions, trust your gut, talk to other teachers. Because if you are stuck at one of the negative schools they will drain you and then blame you (in my experience).

Schools with poor admin and support have a less personable culture, making it feel weirdly competitive, instead of feeling like we are all on the same team for the students. Often these are the schools where the students are the most challenging, and teachers are just left to fend for themselves. Turnover is super high. 

Schools with positive admin and culture generally have a better reputation and there is more retention. It's unfortunately harder to get a job in these schools. 

In my opinion, kids are kids. It's the adults and leadership, how they handle the kids, what kind of culture they foster, that make the difference. The kids were always my favorite part. 

Also, do not trust HR. Make sure to keep records on all your communications with them, should you have the misfortune to need to work something out, because they are sneaky. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Poor leadership, extremely little support from co-workers, support staff sleeping in front of students during reading groups, licensed social workers resentful towards staff having effective behavioral approaches with students. Administrator rarely in the building and never on the floor to observe academics. The overall approach of the educational system is to have some to blame (mainly staff of color) for the school's failure to educate. Working for the school system is a very isolating, cultural bias experience, especially for staff of color. Just plain facts.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The isolation and cultural bias towards staff of color. Failure to educate students as a result.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There is a very poor balance with the work load, the work is interesting, however, the smallest progress is diminished enduring the crabs in a barrel syndrome mind set of many licensed staff. Unfortunately.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Isolating, and bewildering. Very few experienced staff, and virtually no leadership throughout the entire day.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Saint Paul Public Schools is horrible. It seems to be the education field, but I work nearly every weekend and many evenings just to complete the bare minimum.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Saint Paul Public Schools are pretty reasonable. The pay is the best you'll find throughout Minnesota, though that's not saying much for this field. The benefits are pretty expensive, especially for families, but the district chips in quite a bit.

Management
In general, managers at Saint Paul Public Schools care about the success of their students and staff. They are often far removed from the classroom and caught between the district and union demands, but most administrators genuinely care about their employees and community.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Saint Paul Public Schools is amazing, yet not well facilitated. Most of the SPPS community has each other's backs, regardless of the situation. However, the higher-ups have made it nearly impossible to meet with everyone you need to during working hours. I have not yet shared a common prep with any of my co-teachers.

Again, because I'm a Special Education teacher, the day is always stressful especially at the school I taught at.  This was a Level 5 school meaning that these students had severe behavior problems.  This was the last school setting before they go to juvenile detention, so some of the students were pretty hard core.

I've learned, working with these types of students, that if I respect them, they will respect me too.  So, as hard core and rude as they were, I would never disrespect or talk down to them.  I exercised a lot of patience and I know that helped them a lot.

The hardest part of the job was managing these students and having to deal with their behaviors when they totally lose control of their behaviors.

The most enjoyable part of the job, is seeing some of these hard core students make some progress in becoming a little more controlled, and serious student, or just make some kind of minor improvement from when school started.

On a typical day I prep and prepare breakfast and lunch for students. At days end I also do necessary paper work for production throughout the day. I have also gained the responsibility to count and put in our milk order which has to be done two to three times a week. I have learned a lot about the food service side of things and if offered would be willing for advancement. I believe management is great and is always looking for ways to teach employees how to succeed! I don't really believe there is a hardest part of the job, you just have to be on your p's and q's because things can get hectic with lunch times and change at any moment with very little notice! I believe the most enjoyable part of the job is getting to see your customers which are the kids and some teachers enjoy your product and want to come back for more!

What is the best part of working at the company?
The students and staff!
They are coming your way everyday and we are there to meet them wherever they are at.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Unknowns
Surprises that someone has known but are unable to package the information and release to staff, the implementers.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It is school. 
Everything is now.  Needs, demands and how could there ever be enough time.  But it is exciting,  filled with spur of the moment pivots, change of plans and recovery!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Starts with sunshine, promise and the first change of plans.

Ramps up . Adjustments and then things start to click.

Time runs out, more needs to be done and then DING DING DING the bell rings.  Take a breath.

Time to get ready for tomorrow.

I worked for 33 years in St. Paul schools.  It was an exceptional career for me.  I enjoyed the children, the curriculum, the staff, the administration, the opportunies to "be myself", use my creativity, and give of myself.
  My greatest joy was being blessed with the classes I had each year.  We had our own struggles.  We also survived those struggles.  We had our successes and felt enriched by our experiences.  I am a better person for being around children and caring adults.

  My "other job" was mentoring beginning teachers.  I loved that role.  I also supervised arond 20 student teachers and enjoyed working with them.  
  Another job was training teachers in classroom organization.  I did building, district, national  training and thoroughly enjoyed my exposure to those activities.  I thrive in creative environments.

Don't trust management. Don't trust HR - when you tell HR about dangerous conditions they don't follow up. They don't follow up with EEO complaints.
Management makes promises and agreements then goes back on them, blaming employees on misunderstanding even if there are emails and voice recordings documenting them. 
Some departments are held to unreasonable standards while others get away with doing nothing.
SPPS likes to have meetings upon meetings. Meeting recaps about the meetings they just had. In several years of working there I was having the same conversations with the same people because nothing actually got done.
Benefits skyrocketed 60% last year. Couldn't afford to keep my same plan. HR claimed they were "outstanding" despite the increase in premiums, out of pocket max, and decrease in coverage.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$50,000 per year
Elementary school teacher 19 salaries reported	$62,046 per year
Special education teacher 3 salaries reported	$69,339 per year
Teaching assistant 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour
Nutrition services 11 salaries reported	$21.06 per hour

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