Georgia Cyber Academy Employee Reviews about "head of school"

Cons

There is a much Longer list of negative attributes to this company than positives. 1. There is no work/life balance. Contract hours are from 8am-4pm. HOWEVER, There is a running task list of administrative tasks (that have absolutely NOTHING to do with what you are doing in your classroom, you are the teacher, and receptionist.) You are not permitted to sign out at the end of the day until this list is complete. This task list will keep you logged in until 7-8pm at night. I worked 12-16 hour days more than a simple 8-9 hour work day. 2. Long work hours. 3.Retention Bonus promised in your contract? Not really, if you look closely there is a sentence that states 'failure to pay out retention bonuses is not deemed breach of contract. 2022-2023 School year, returning teachers were promised a 10% retention bonus, when it was time to pay out bonuses; the Head of the school stated they did not have the funds to pay. Which is strange since the leadership team from Elementary-Highschool takes week long retreats at Lake Lanier. (See advice for management.) 4. Family Friendly? NOPE. After having a baby and needing to pump certain hours of the day as noted by three medical professionals, you will be given your lunch and planning periods to lactate. This is what they deem reasonable, even if your lunch and planning end up as : 8:25- 9:20 am, 11:55- 12:55, 12:55 - 1:40; despite the advice of three different medical professionals you will be told that what is reasonable time frame to lactate is 15-20 minutes as noted by the CDC website. (Because the Center of Disease Control has been medically noted for their expertise in lactation……rather than an OB/GYN, Pediatrician, and lactation consultant.) Need to pick up your sick kid from school? Are you throwing up with a fever? Too bad, you're still expected to get on camera. Your child will have to remain at school until your contract hours are done. 5. Knowingly exposed teachers to COVID during the pandemic for an in-person professional development. In July 2022, the administration was made aware that a teacher Was exposed to COVID and her husband was in the hospital due to the virus. They said NOTHING to staff, required this teacher to come to the PD regardless. While staff was contracting COVID, we were still required to come and/or participate in PD. 6. Same PD every year. Be prepared to sit through the same platform trainings year after year. (Note #5) 7. Constantly changing curriculum, even mid year. The past two years in ELA one of the required curriculum components was FLVS (Florida virtual schools) and recently (Jan 2023) were told we were to exclusively use the I-Ready curriculum. Don't get me wrong, I love the I-Ready platform. However, it is best implemented consistently throughout the year, because each lesson builds on each other. Not to mention this was a dramatic change in how lessons were implemented prior to winter break. 8. Curriculum and Instruction coaches sent out an e-mail Jan 2023 stating that GCA did not care about student achievement for the remainder of the year as long as we were following the I-ready script with fidelity. This is not just an issue for students and parents; as you are graded on student achievement on your TEKS. 9. Unrealistic time crunch for required subjects. All classes and subjects are bound by a 45 minute class session. If you are used to teaching in brick and mortar schools where you have a 60 minute block for math and a 90 minute block for ELA, Buckle up. You are still expected to follow the I do, you do, we do format AND meet with small groups within this 45 minute block, which will undoubtedly stress you and your students out! 10. Excessive testing. 2021-2022 and prior this school had SIX interim assessments. The curriculum and instruction department choose the questions and DOK levels for the assessment. You will be lucky to preview the assessments before the 6 week cycle begins. You will know which standards are being tested prior to- however the questions are modeled after the Georgia Milestones. Meaning the language and the complexity of the questions are often at a DOK 3 and above, while you are still working at a DOK1 or 2 in the classroom. This continues to be a HOT issue with parents. (Hope you like getting yelled at and cursed at in front of your students while administration does nothing to mitigate the issues.) For the 2022-2023 school year GCA lowered the amount of Interim Assessments to 4. However, they have added additional mandatory testing almost every other week. Additionally, you will be administering Write Score, MAP diagnostic, IXL diagnostic , I-Ready diagnostic, and if you are teaching ELA there are additional assessments you will have to administer. 11. Large class sizes: you can expect anywhere from 75-140 students that you will be in charge of if you are teaching upper elementary and up. 12. Communication Canyon between administrators, and thus teachers, paras, etc. 13. High turnover for both Administrators and teachers. The school has gone through 3 Elementary principals, 2 Elementary vice principals, and the 'leadership' has turned over twice in two years. 14. While you will be lured into a false hope of getting two planning periods a day, keep in mind that you will have 5+ meetings a week during one or both of your planning periods. All of this should demonstrate that if you are hired here, you are simply a number, not the “family” they portray when you are being processed in. Good Luck, you will need it!

Cons

The superintendent/head of school taking over and the low morale and terrible workplace culture coincide. People are made to feel as though they are stealing time when they need to take their RTO. They’re also made to feel they are stealing time if they dash out for a quick errand during non class times. There is no way to win. There seems to be a constant message that “some people” are not working hard. Direct managers do what they can to buffer the disorganized nonsense from the district level but it still seeps through. There’s a distinct difference in the school level vs district level. District admin make it very clear they want a culture of compliance (their words). They make It clear they do not want feedback. No pulse checks or any other measure of employee satisfaction have been given in any recent memory. On top of these workplace toxicity problems, the pay is much less than a traditional school. There is no pay scale. Everyone starts at the same (low) salary. The payoff used to be flexibility but most relative flexibility is gone. Teachers teach all day then have meetings and other tasks and there is truly no way to ever finish each day. The live class platform is new and glitchy and causes many problems and affects live class quality on a daily basis but never seems to improve or be replaced. It’s very defeating. No diversity education initiatives ever seem to stick, despite being one of the most diverse public schools in the state. Teachers are not allowed to speak out or discuss any current events (ie: June 2020 events, Election Day, capital Riots), black history month is not a school wide celebration, etc