Pros
Working from home, amazing teacher coworkers, and a diverse student population. GCA has such fantastic teachers who work well together and truly care for their students. There is a wonderfully diverse student population from all over the state.
Cons
Everything else. The pay is significantly lower than a traditional school, but the workload, contracted hours, and contracted days are significantly greater. The Superintendent refuses to pay us at the state pay scale, despite a projected several million dollar budget surplus. We are also not paid for our degrees or experience, and all teachers are paid about the same salary regardless of how long you've been teaching or employed by the school. We are also not on the state health benefit plan, despite the fact that we are state employees. The superintendent Angela Lassetter has ZERO educational background, and it shows in her complete disdain for teachers and total lack of respect for teaching as a profession. Angela Lassetter has openly stated in meetings that she doesn't care if teachers quit because she has a stack of applications on her desk, and we can be easily replaced. Teacher input is not valued, and we are not treated as professionals. If you dare to speak out against any of Angela's ideas/policies, she will retaliate. We are constantly treated as if we are lazy idiots who won't do any work unless someone is constantly breathing down our necks. Our classes are observed multiple times per week. We have a group of over 30 administrators who have to be added to each of our class sessions. That's more than I have students in most of my sections! The level of micromanagement is like nothing I have ever experienced before, and I hope to never experience it again. High paid district-level administration positions continue to increase in number, and the primary criteria for being hired for a high level position seems to be whether or not you are friends with one of the current district admin. In fact, one of our recent district admin hires has been fired from TWO separate jobs for theft, including the one immediately before she was hired at GCA. You are given 10 PTO days for the year (3 personal, 7 sick). However, there are literal weeks that are blacked out so you can't use them, and if you happen to be sick on a Monday or Friday, you will be required to submit documentation, or you will not be paid for the day. PTO days also do not accrue, and you won't be paid for them - it's use it or lose it. Angela Lassetter has also stated in meetings with teachers that she is looking for ways to take away those days from us entirely because she doesn't think that people use them correctly. If you are looking for flexibility in your schedule (something that should be a benefit of teaching virtually), you definitely won't find it here, and neither do our students. We follow a rigid brick and mortar school schedule and teach 5 periods per day (our students attend 6 classes per day), with multiple meetings per week, both during our planning time and after school. There are days where I am literally unable to leave the chair in front of my computer for four hours at at time (there is not even time for a bathroom break). The amount of testing is completely out of control. We lose 11 weeks of instructional time to testing every year - 3 MAP tests, 6 interim assessments, and EOC/EOG testing. We have also now added two additional assessments between each of the 6 interim assessments to collect more data to see if our kids are ready for the interim assessments. It's absolute insanity! I know this review is long, but I don't want anyone to go into this job without a realistic picture of what to expect.
