Have You Ever Been Screwed?

Many people have been asking me why I took a year off from teaching. And if you've been reading this blog, it would seem as though the obvious reason was that I needed to recuperate. Right? Well that's not entirely true. My conversation at the grocery store sparked memories of the unpleasantness surrounding my decision to take time off and focus on my health. My recounting, again, being the catalyst for my thoughts today. After having almost a year to think about it, my reason for not teaching last year was because I was, to put it bluntly, screwed. 

While it is true that I forgive all parties involved, and I don't hold a grudge, because I have had a wonderful year off, two teachers froze me out of the system. The first one, who had been working in a job share position that I helped to formalize, contacted me and asked me to be her partner. I was delighted, because we had been talking about being partners for years. It began when she started raising her family and we were working on the tech team together. When she contacted me, I can remember thinking it seemed too good to be true, and I could hardly believe my good fortune. When I expressed this to her in a a text message, she reassured me that it would likely work out. I moved forward and informed my job share partner about the potential change. She said she understood, and she gave me her blessing. 

All of this job share stuff falls under teacher contract deadlines. We all, if we want to job share, must adhere to the deadlines by completing paperwork and getting approval from our principals. But three months later, when my new partner went to finalize our partnership with the principal, she decided on choosing... someone else. And to make matters worse, she didn't tell me until after that meeting, when deadlines were less than a month away. With a heavy heart, I went back to my original partner, but it was too late, she had already found someone else. 

The only thing left to do was find another partner, or reject my doctor's recommendation to work part time. I wasn't capable back then to take on the full time position, so I was basically forced to take the year off - with NO pay! Thank you very much. I won't see another paycheck until the end of September. I have learned things I never dreamed about this past year, but the most important one was to forgive, but don't forget. I wish both of those ladies well, but they will probably not get any favors from me ever again, and if anybody asks, I'm telling what happened.