Albuquerque Public Schools Reviews

Pros

Teamwork
Salary
Summers off
Holidays off
Our students are awesome

Cons

Salary
Isolation
Benefit deductions too high
Not enough annual raises

Advice to Senior Management

You need to be more visible and more teacher recognition

Pros

The site I worked at was flexible regarding my whereabouts and allowed me to structure my own day within guidelines. I got to be pretty close to the students and enjoyed working within the Behavior Intervention Programs. Also having the summers off was a bonus.

Cons

The pay was not as good as other competing employers, but the benefits were excellent which made the job work for me. The mandatory staff meetings were a legal obligation, but sometimes the district trainings were a waste of time that I could have spent working on a portfolio or helping out a student.

Advice to Senior Management

The experience could have been better if the pay had matched what I put into it. Also, there should be a better process for mileage reimbursements.

Pros

The students are the best part about teaching.

Cons

Very bureaucratic and inconsistent for this profession.

Advice to Senior Management

Communication with one another and being consistent.

Pros

It feels good to know that you're helping students learn.
The people within the actual schools are often really nice, and many of the schools have many very good people working at the school.
You get a significant amount of time off. It's nice to have time to spend with family.

Cons

Your salary will be posted publicly.
The district frequently furloughs non-union employees, so your "salary" isn't what you actually end up getting paid, and because union employees are not furloughed, APS doesn't save as much money on furlough days, giving them more incentive to furlough you.
If you're a non-union employee, you don't get paid during the summer, so in many cases you won't even make enough to live off of.
The district-level people often don't know what they're doing, or actually may but just do a terrible job.
The people at the highest levels don't seem to have any understanding of what happens in the actual schools. They make edicts about policies that the school staff have to follow, but don't have any idea about the results of those changes. There is a significant lack of communication aside from those edicts.
The district wastes money buying computer equipment when it's not needed and wastes money on $5000 smartboards that don't even get used.
Their web sites are down very very frequently and without warning. SchoolMax is down almost as much as it's up.
Many companies won't do business with APS because APS doesn't pay its bills, so it's hard to get certain supplies that you need without buying them yourself.
I hope you remember your username. They've changed it something like five times within the past two years.

Advice to Senior Management

Talk to the staff in the individual schools. Find out what happens in the individual schools. And stop treating your employees so poorly.

Pros

Albuquerque public schools provides good colleagues.

Cons

Not much upward mobility possible. That comes with the job.

Advice to Senior Management

Give teachers opportunities to earn significant bonuses.

Pros

The best reason to work in the school system is to have the summers and holidays off and paid.

Cons

The pay at this job, on the top of the scale, is scraping poverty level. No single person could survive on what the pay is.

Advice to Senior Management

You get what you pay for. If you value the lives of children, you should invest in them. In doing so, you will pay a salary to gain the best teachers in the business. If a teacher should fail to succeed they should be released, no matter how long they have worked in the school system. Keeping employees simply because the union mandates they cannot be fired because of longevity is ridiculous. It hurts the moral of other employees and creates an unhappy work environment.

Pros

flexibilility, good people, in transition

Cons

a very large school district

Advice to Senior Management

come in to the trenches more

Pros

The opportunity to "make a difference" in children's lives. There is reasonable autonomy and flexibility in the classroom. Change is slow, but the change to a standards-based criteria will be beneficial in the long run. The professional development is good and the APS staff, overall, seeks to make things better for kids and staff. Lastly, the benefits are exceptional!

Cons

Teaching involves a lot of outside preparation. The class sizes are too large and the current attendance policy is cumbersome & fosters non-attendance by students.

Advice to Senior Management

Prepare children for the real world, particularly in high school. A block schedule should be implemented and attendance & academic policies should be strict and follow the expectations of post secondary institutions and employers.