I received confirmation on July 31st by a short call from my principal that after 11 years of working with many able and gifted students, my part-time employment with Alpine School District had come to an end. The Lakeridge Orchestra teaching position was offered, and it was decided to include my job to raise it from a .50 contract to a .67 contract, to make it more desirable. I was told (reading between the lines) that the school administrations had planned to leave things as they were –make no notification to me–, in case they were unable to find someone to fill this position so they would only have one position to worry about. Now that someone had been hired for both positions, my services were no longer required.
I had heard about this change in June before going out of town for two weeks when a relative saw the entry of my position on the district web page as part of the other job. I applied for the “new” position that was offered on the District Web Page, and wrote an Email message to the principal after visiting the school and seeing the extensive construction– and no administrators there. I never received any kind of acknowledgement of my application for that job, nor a reply to the Email message about the job. I think that EVERY applicant should at least receive a reply email message, even if it is automated. Since I had heard about this situation I was not too surprised to recieve this notification, only disappointed and saddened by the timing.
It is further disappointing that no notification or discussion was offered at the time my job was offered with the other job on the web back in April. This courtesy should be a given. The fact was certainly known by my administrator as well as others. To say I am disappointed and unhappy about the way this was handled is an understatement, but life will go on. I have arranged my other employment and many other commitments around my teaching job for so many years because it was a priority for me.
To my former students, please support the program in your school and work hard. You are the greatest!