Pros
The kids! During your time at PVP you will meet amazing kiddos and they will be your reason to stay. Support from most employee's including (csp's, speech, and OT team). Adequate air conditioning Overtime hours
Cons
PVP: Students first, disability second, CSP's LAST. The reason I say this is because of the treatment towards CSP's and lack of care for them. This is the main reason why CSP's chose to leave, but below I will go over other reasons in detail. 1. TURNOVER RATE: I was an employee for about a year and within this time period 40+ employees have quit and continue to do so. When I first started I saw many STRONG staff quit, which should've been a RED FLAG to me. When staff puts in their notice admin will either try to get the staff to stay by offering a raise OR will completely ignore the notice and give you the cold shoulder for the remainder of the 2 weeks. The turnover rate includes CSP's and their own ADMIN & Teachers! 2. ABUSE OF POWER/ BULLYING: PVP's admin team (most not all) consists of bullies that feel the need to make their CSP's feel less than by exhibiting power trips. Teachers have the ability and power to bully CSP's by treating them unfairly, giving unprofessional, childish, and negative attitude. Teachers also have the power to write up CSP's as a form of intimidation, bullying, and paper trail evidence to use when refusing a CSP a raise once annual reviews come around. Teachers have also coerced others into falsifying documents for the sake of writing up employees. 3. REVIEWS: These reviews are jokes and should be taken as so. It is rare for employees to get perfect and outstanding reviews. These reviews do not measure a CSP's work ethic or potential. They measure a teachers opinion about you and are instead used a tool to bring down CSP's and make them feel like their work doesn't matter. I knew plenty of CSP's whose reviews did NOT reflect the work they did even when they worked with some of the MOST challenging students. 4. SAFETY: When CSP's are injured in aggressive behaviors, PVP fails to properly care for their staff after the fact. They fail to send them to urgent care unless they are gushing blood. Instead they have the school nurse put a bandaid on it and send you back to finish your day when your injury may require serious medical attention. Not only do they lack in medical care, but they lack in overall care of their CSP's. CSP's should not be made to feel as if having bruises, scratches, and bites are warrior wounds and badges. PVP needs to check on the well being of the CSP and give them the rest of the day off if necessary. 5. CULTURE/ FAVORITISM: You will be valued as staff as long as you brown nose and play your role to benefit admin as much as you can. My BEST ADVICE is to new hires is to be the teachers pet and be willing to get beat up/ attacked/ injured without complaining. Think of yourself as a barrier between the student and admin actually having to deal with the behavior. Staff are admin's puppets and treat them as such; they are only successful because of the dedicated CSP's who are willing to put their own mental/physical health last just to keep PVP alive. **There are also teachers who haze new employees by making them "clean" (not really clean just spray the blocks with lysol) the foam pit the day before vacation break begins. The teacher calls this their initiation into PVP.** 6. STAFFING: Staffing at PVP since my start date has been completely inconsistent. This excludes staff members on maternity/paternity leave. That being said, the way PVP accommodates to understaffing is by putting the highest functioning kids at 2-1 (kids to staff) ratio. Higher functioning does not mean that the student doesn't deserve the 1-1 aide that they are entitled to since this school is mostly made up of 1-1 cases. Most of the higher functioning kids need the 1-1 interaction/work, which is pushed to the back burner due to staffing. BCBA's and teachers are the last resort to staffing as they are the ones to be on students when staff quits (and let me tell you they HATE being on rotation with students). 7. RELATIONS: There is an admin vs CSP culture going on and it is hard to reach out to admin for concerns. CSP's need to pull teeth and move mountains just for their voices to be heard. HUMAN RESOURCES is not a place for staff to make suggestions, get help, or have their voices heard. HR is a position solely for the purpose of protecting PVP as a company. HR is a one person department that is only available every other day and is NOT IN THE LEAST helpful. In corporate companies HR is a place for employees to feel safe and heard; it definitely is not here so don't expect that safe space to be anywhere at PVP. 8. ATTENDANCE: PVP takes attendance to an extreme. As full time workers staff acknowledges that they are responsible for 40 hours during a 5 day work week. That being said, staff knows this and they make sure to request days off 2 weeks in advance (as is asked by PVP). Even though staff timely requests days off, they deny your requests no matter how much time in advance you ask. They are also not understanding to family matters or emergencies/urgencies. Court matters are also not acceptable and HR will give you unexcused absences even if it is due to a medical issue. These absences WIlLL count against you during any review.
