Run, don't walk, far far far away from AF, or contact your doctor because your blood pressure is about to reach new limits.
There is no professionalism at all. Staff is more concerned with digging into your personal life, forgetting they’re at work.
Leadership is incestuous. They promote their inner circle and pay them well, but oh the tragedies of life if you're not a favorite.
Racism, so much racism. There is a ridiculous amount of inappropriate racial commentary daily by leadership (which HR ignores).
I regularly heard Academic Deans refer to teachers as "stupid" or "not smart" and purposely ignore their feedback. They guilt you into not taking time off, and if you don’t give into the guilt, they will flat out berate you (and that’s putting it nicely).
They hire young because it's easier to mold college grads into what want without having to pay them well. A not so surprising outcome of hiring young leadership is overall incompetence and a toxic work environment.
The day to day is exhausting. You spend the days literally trying to survive minute by minute because there's a minimum of 10 things that need to be done simultaneously. Of those 10 things only 3 are actually part of your job description. The roles and responsibilities at AF are ever-changing to meet the needs of leadership not the kids. At the end of the day, your job is to make leadership look good.
AF doesn’t hire substitutes. So, if a teacher calls out you'll get to cover for them. That means there will be times where you are “on” all day with no breaks, but maybe you’ll get a shout out at Friday PD.
At least every Friday there is a 12:30 dismissal, for the kids. Staff will be expected to sit through Friday PD. On a positive note, leadership repeats sessions so much, you can memorize the expected answers to look like you're engaged.
Your success as a teacher was graded on a rubric that assesses your ability to teach to a script and discipline students. Most of it revolves around behavior. It’s hard to achieve stage advancement, since the network changes the requirements every year. Extraordinary teachers have come so close and had the rug pulled out from under them. But as of next year there will be a new system. That’s for the best since most of the time scores are made up by coaches.
