Pros
Great colleagues. Good administrators. Not a lot of disciplinary problems with students in the upper grades. I taught 11th-12th. Students come from supportive and sometimes generous parents. The Parent Service organization provides nice extras (food, gift cards, etc) pretty regularly. Full time is 4 classes and 2 prep periods a day.
Cons
Low pay. I taught 3 years with a masters degree, but no teaching credential, one year experience when I started, was offered $37k my first year my final year was offered $43k. Stipends are minimal for a lot of work. I brought in about 3-5k a year in club stipends and Prop301 bonus money, but taxes are high on all bonuses. There are serious concerns with the upper level of admin and financial transparency. Management keeps rearranging themselves, which seems to lead to them getting bigger salaries while new teachers are being hired at $32K a year. I have concerns that they are optically active in breaking down public education funding and setting themselves up for more power and money. There is a strong conservative Catholic influence in the company. This influences curricular choices including a complete lack of reproductive health/sex ed teaching and a focus on “classical western Education” which in the classroom means studying all dead white guys. And the company is currently under lawsuit from parents of transgender students. There is often a lack of clear curricular training or expectations for teachers outside of math and science.
