Long hours, intense and rigid culture, upper management is very condescending and inexperienced, unncessary amount of observations for teachers and other staff, many students are held back, parents and students are overwhelmed with the amount of homework, professional development courses are often not applicable
Overall, it is a very uncomfortable environment to work in. While the classroom teachers and support staff are incredible, upper management such as the instructional coaches, some of the deans, and the director of special services are condescending, inexperienced, and lack appropriate social skills. Instructional coaches observe teachers multiple times a week and provide feedback based on the culture of the school rather than on actual teaching skills. During my time here, I observed many members of upper management speaking to staff members in an extremely unprofessional manner.
If you have any kind of anxiety, then this is not a good environment for you. Many (including myself) had a rough experience here due to the rude things that were said to us and the manner in which we were spoken to.
I do know that some have a good experience working here depending on your position. I personally found it difficult to sustain long term because there is very little work/life balance and hours are always longer than expected due to meetings and conferences both before and after school. My hours were usually 7:00am-5:00pm and sometimes longer depending on the day. This is not something I was told when I signed my contract. There is also a high turnover here and I noticed that when staff members left mid-year, they simply stretched other staff members very thin (without additional pay) in order to compensate.
