Pros
Interesting coworkers, small classes, meaningful connections with students.
Cons
The work environment here is split into divisions and cliques in a way I haven't seen since working in a middle school, fostered by the lack of guidance or consistency coming from management. Staff are written up even though no policies have been violated, with no recourse, and turnover is high. Despite the messaging from management, this is not a temporary thing, either. Make no mistake, the youth are the best part of the job, followed shortly by supportive coworkers. The students enrolled here are creative, eager to connect, and willing to engage: every teacher's dream. The direct service staff truly and deeply care about the students, and management takes advantage of that in order to get them to work in an unsafe and stressful environment for incomprehensibly low pay. Oh, and don't count on your job description to help you maintain sanity, either. That is also flexible, and you're likely never to get the changes in writing. Worse, large parts of management are vindictive, and seem unaware that people can hear the things they say about their employees. While banging a "trauma informed" gong is a wonderful thing, as are outside trainings, remaining short-staffed so that students who should have 1-1 paraeducators do not, allowing violent students to re-traumatize students and terrorize staff for months before removing them, and refusing to take claims of problematic behavior seriously is beyond unacceptable. If it was just low pay / a bad schedule / long days, the students would make it worth it. It isn't.
