Pros
Working from home A paycheck Benefits Internet reimbursed ($45/mo)
Cons
Sadly, about 40% of students do not remain enrolled with Georgia Cyber Academy and about 40% of the staff do not remain employed at Georgia Cyber Academy year over year. That number is even more staggering if you look at those numbers for staff and students after the 1st year and 2nd year. Fact is, more than 55% of staff and students leave GCA before their 3rd year. More than 75% leave before their 5th year. Why is that? Need more facts? The High School has had more than 6 Principals over the years. Middle School? More than 5. Elementary School? Also, more than 5. For the 22/23 school year, there are 3 new Principals (ES, MS, HS) and they are completely inexperienced in virtual school education and what it takes to lead a virtual school. From all the other reviewers you will read all the reasons why staff and students do not remain with Georgia Cyber Academy. Due to the drama, low salary, and terrible organization, the high turnover rate leads to a catch-22 of sorts. An organization needs people with experience in order to improve. To keep the staff you have, better salaries and organization is needed. If all that is true, why are there so many positive reviews in summer 2022? GCA has a big professional development every year before school starts. Notice the reviews are mostly during that time frame(July/Aug)? While everyone is all hyped up and feeling good at professional development, they are "highly encouraged" to fill out a review. Then, during the beginning of the school year, an email campaign went out for staff to write a review on Google. Go ahead, check out the staggering number of reviews on Google from staff. Managers followed up with their teams to make sure everyone had submitted a review. How did they know if staff submitted a review? Is the review accurate? Since Google reviews use your actual name, employees did not feel safe sharing how they really feel. Before this campaign, GCA’s Google reviews were dismal and now they look much better on the staff side. Sift through to look at the parent/student reviews or look for the reviews before July 2022 and you will see a different story. I served as a teacher and in leadership roles for over 6 years trying to make a difference for students and staff. I naively believed that Georgia Cyber Academy would grow as an organization and get better. Every year when the contracts came out and we had to sign our intent to return, I had to dig deep to find the strength to sign on for one more year believing I truly could help make a difference. I stayed too long and left with a surprising amount of trauma that I didn’t realize had gotten so bad. I mean, I knew it was a STRESSFUL job but as I read an article, I realized this was so true! “Although some joke about being 'scarred' by past bad jobs, workplace-induced emotional trauma is real – with long-lasting effects. (bbc article)” When you read the negative reviews that tell you Georgia Cyber Academy is a toxic environment, I promise you it is not fake. When you read reviews from folks that say they have a wonderful team, that is not fake either. Sometimes you find a way to continue a relationship with an organization because of the relationship you have with a group or your team. But when the organization is as toxic as this one, it eats away at you. Your immediate supervisor may truly care about you and your team may truly be wonderful but the HR department, the Board of Directors, and District Leadership, are not looking out for you. They are NOT making decisions that are in the best interest of Staff or Students. They absolutely will mismanage your time, abuse your desire to make a difference, and will treat you like a disposable commodity. For example, check out the board meeting notes from this past summer 2022 where the board approved a 10% bonus for staff. Now check out the board notes from October meeting 2022 where the bonus was retracted and staff received a 3% bonus. The 10% bonus was promised and was already approved in the school budget, so why the change? Unfortunately things have been so mismanaged, there is no longer the budget for a 10% bonus. Although the numbers showed there would be, once again disorganization and mismanagement proved otherwise. It does not matter if you have a great relationship with your team or immediate supervisor - well, that is not true, it does help, a lot! But what I am saying is that the Board of Directors and District Leadership run the school and they are not experienced enough, not organized enough, and do not care enough to do better so that YOU have a great place to work. No $$ for the bonus promised but leadership staff and administration staff were still sent to multiple conferences, workshops, retreats, etc. and there were no cutbacks on the number of people sent which is way more than needed. Most attendees treat conferences as their personal vacation and don’t even attend the conference but you can bet all the worker bees are still at it back home. If you have the ability to log in and do your job without caring about making things better or trying to make a difference, you will be okay. If you can handle the constant change in directions for ALL tasks causing you to have to redo a task because directions have changed, you will be okay. I am not kidding, the directions will change at least twice because the “powers that be” do not work together to make sure the directions work for ALL departments before sending. If you can just do as you're told and treat this job as earning a paycheck, you will be happy-ish. The benefits are okay, the pay could be considerably better (and if you have connections it absolutely will be better). Working from home is great (no commute, pajama bottoms, etc), all holidays off, and for instructional staff an additional 4 weeks off in the summer. You can work from anywhere as long as you have your laptop, reliable internet, and distraction free workspace. Keep in mind, you will be working from 8:00 to 5:00 even though staff were told they could work from 8:00 to 4:00. Many meetings are scheduled that will require you to work past 4pm. It is a full-time job. For instructors, there is barely time for lunch during the day, not to mention bathroom breaks. It is very easy to get swept up in work and not realize how much time has passed. If you are not familiar with working from home, be sure to set firm boundaries and even set alarms on your phone to remind you to take lunch! The technology and programs can be quite the learning curve for most people. GCA is a virtual school and as such, relies on technology for everything. There are so many programs, logins, and platforms making the average user wonder why all this is necessary? GCA relies on feedback from teachers, students, parents, and leaders to determine which programs to demo before deciding on the right tool for students. While it may seem redundant, there is a reason for each tool being used to meet ALL the Georgia State Standards. This is one area where GCA gets it mostly right, in my opinion. If you have an issue at work that you feel the need to report. Don’t do it if you want to keep your job. Seriously. Anything you write to the Board of Directors is just forwarded to the district lead or department lead you wrote about. They will not address it, they will not respond to you. Your correspondence is used to laugh at you, not help or support you. The HR department is no different. Send them an email and #1 prepare to wait days and even weeks before receiving a response if you asked about payroll, benefits, FMLA - HR type questions. IF you are attempting to file a complaint - just know that it is absolutely NOT kept confidential. Your immediate supervisor will know what you wrote and that is just the beginning. If you can't turn off your humanity so to speak, you will not be happy working at GCA. You are too valuable to put yourself through what I put myself through. I hope that by leaving this review I can help you make a more informed decision so that if you choose to apply and work for GCA you know what you're getting into. Now, take a look at everyone's lower review of GCA and notice the similar canned responses “We would like to know more about your review of GCA. We are continually striving to be the best school and organization that we can be and your review is very different than what our faculty and staff are experiencing.” . You can see even here that honest feedback is not wanted. "Email us at xxxx"? Why would a current employee do that? There is a 100% chance there will be repercussions if staff speak out. Just look at the “disappearance” of former Superintendent and former Board of Directors member. They were vocal in trying to right this ship and then they were no longer welcome at GCA by the Board of Directors. There are NO staff members who feel safe truly speaking up and for good reason! Since removing from her position as Superintendent of GCA schools, Guess who supported getting rid of them both? The current "interim" superintendent. Under our former superintendent's care, GCA thrived! She led the separation from K12 Inc. which allowed GCA to move in the direction needed for students and saved millions of dollars that was spent enhancing the student experience first and then staff. She worked with staff to create policies and procedures that were always looking for the best interest of students first! She was even working with now former staff member from the tech team (not allowed to say her name) to create an in-house developer team that would allow GCA to create and even better experience for students and staff while saving GCA additional funding! Under her leadership, benefits for staff were improved tremendously with affordable health and dental, increased salaries, increased bonuses, and an incredible retirement plan + match. Since the "interim" superintendent took over, benefits have decreased along with the retirement plan match, lower salaries, lower bonuses, etc. but he is the #1 choice to become the new superintendent of GCA schools! One of his selling points to get him the position? The developer team he was initially against when our former superintendent was seeking approval from the Board. He was against it but now is claiming it was his idea to create this team when it was not. Now he is claiming it is his idea for saving the school money. It is certainly not. It was former tech team member's idea and former superintendent who was the only one who saw the value in it and pushed it forward anyway. Yet, he is going to be the new superintendent and his selling point is a plan that was not his but he is taking full credit for. So, take your chances if you must. People have to work and working from home is a great perk. Just be aware and be ready to advocate for yourself and be ready to walk away if you cannot compartmentalize!
