Tex
Active Member
I hope this is an appropriate place for this post and I apologize in advance for the length.
It seems as if the lagging economy is starting to have an impact on public schools. Without going into the boring details of how the state funds education, our district is expecting a budget deficit and has announced that it may file for financial exigency which allows for teacher layoffs. Our student numbers are down and we barely have enough students enrolled next year for two teachers. The year after is very uncertain. I'm the last in, so I'll be the first out.
I currently teach in a great district. My fine arts director is a former theatre teacher who is highly regarded and an all around great guy. The teacher I work with is incredible and has taught this old dog many new tricks over the past four years. My space is a very nice, above average proscenium with a few toys. A new black box and shop is being built this summer with lots of new toys. We have wonderful students and I'm happy here just being the TD.
A close friend called me the other day to tell me that he's been made an assistant principal at his school, his job as theatre director is available and he'd like me to consider it. The space is incredible. There's a beautiful proscenium arch theatre with tons of toys (including 10 Studio Spots and 10 Studio Colors), a gigantic black box, huge shop and a smaller lab type black box space. He has a great budget and lots of autonomy. I would be the lead teacher, so if it ever came down to only one teacher, it would be me. I don't really know about the kind of students he has, but he has been successful in competition in the past, so that's a pretty good indication. The school is about the same distance from my house as my current school so that's not really a factor.
It seems like a no brainer. For the sake of security, I feel like I should apply for the job. I'm 8 years from retirement and I don't want to spend them worrying about getting laid off. Am I missing something? I'm not going to base my decision on the comments from an Internet forum, but there are many educators here and I thought someone might have a different perspective for me to consider.
It seems as if the lagging economy is starting to have an impact on public schools. Without going into the boring details of how the state funds education, our district is expecting a budget deficit and has announced that it may file for financial exigency which allows for teacher layoffs. Our student numbers are down and we barely have enough students enrolled next year for two teachers. The year after is very uncertain. I'm the last in, so I'll be the first out.
I currently teach in a great district. My fine arts director is a former theatre teacher who is highly regarded and an all around great guy. The teacher I work with is incredible and has taught this old dog many new tricks over the past four years. My space is a very nice, above average proscenium with a few toys. A new black box and shop is being built this summer with lots of new toys. We have wonderful students and I'm happy here just being the TD.
A close friend called me the other day to tell me that he's been made an assistant principal at his school, his job as theatre director is available and he'd like me to consider it. The space is incredible. There's a beautiful proscenium arch theatre with tons of toys (including 10 Studio Spots and 10 Studio Colors), a gigantic black box, huge shop and a smaller lab type black box space. He has a great budget and lots of autonomy. I would be the lead teacher, so if it ever came down to only one teacher, it would be me. I don't really know about the kind of students he has, but he has been successful in competition in the past, so that's a pretty good indication. The school is about the same distance from my house as my current school so that's not really a factor.
It seems like a no brainer. For the sake of security, I feel like I should apply for the job. I'm 8 years from retirement and I don't want to spend them worrying about getting laid off. Am I missing something? I'm not going to base my decision on the comments from an Internet forum, but there are many educators here and I thought someone might have a different perspective for me to consider.