Segue is not worth it - Elementary Art Teacher Segue Institute for Learning Employee Review

Segue Institute for learning is not the right place to further your career, and it not a place to begin your career either. Don't apply here if you value your sanity. I only taught as Segue Institute for Learning for less than four months before I broke contract and left. It was a very scary and nerve-racking choice to make, but I made the right one. Administration has very unreasonable and unrealistic exceptions of their educators. The work life balance is nonexistent, as I would often spend an extra 2-3 hours after school cleaning and prepping for the next day. And I would still have to take home more work with me every night, and over the weekends. I was required to create a complete curriculum plan for K-8, completely from scratch; no help or previous examples of former teacher’s work. Even seasoned teachers who have been in the field for 5+ years would struggle and shudder at this level of work. My personal life suffered greatly for this, and the low (borderline mimimim wage) salary did not compensate for much. The MAGnT Team was expected to do things outside of reasonable expectations. Kindergarten was a brand new cohort to Segue this year and Admin showed far more favoritism towards K staff and expected MAGnT to pick up the slack, where K staff dropped the ball. Kindergarten staff were all extremely demanding and controlling over MAGnT’s time, energy and resources, which I found highly inappropriate. Segue Admin took very little of MAGnT’s perspective and time into consideration when saddling us with responsibilities that should have been taken by trained early childhood behavioral specialists. Parent Aids were not even considered despite the 1: 20 ratio, and parent volunteer requirements. Segue, your educators cannot educate if behavioral issues are constantly disrupting your teachers. The elementary behavior specialist was severely under-qualified and expected the rest of Segue staff to do the job for her. Other educators should not be micromanaging disruptive and inappropriate behavior when there’s someone who should be qualified enough to do so. The best advice I can give is hire at least 3 early childhood specialists/ aids, and a competent early childhood behavior manager, and this will improve life for both your educators and students. As for the art room I was provided - it was small, dingy, dirty, pencil-thin walls, and had no sink. Having no sink in an art room is disgraceful. The solution was to provide me with a bucket. This does not help when there is heavy foot traffic in the halls, and our only source of water is a bathroom sink. While in that room, it was far too cramped to contain at least 20 small bodies per class, making navigation and assisting students nearly impossible. It was not very helpful to have such a small budget (which cannot always be helped), but what really flustered me was the lack of trust in my knowledge and expertise over materials and putting order requests in. I was swept over at times when it came to my request for orders; this nearly sabotaged several of my projects with the kids. I had to spend hundreds out of my own pocket to make sure these kids got what they needed. Meanwhile I was required to do 20 minute “power hours” that just ate more of my dwindling supply of paper. When I asked to opt out due to this concern, I was denied and treated less than favorably for simply voicing my opinion. Segue Admin, if you want to improve your school and student learning expectations, listen to your staff and their perspective. Admin was extremely two faced and did not practice what they preached. We all make mistakes and should own up to them. When I was honest about mine, admin went out of their way to bully, humiliate and harass me both in-person and over email. After a communication issue due to private mental health concerns Segue’s admin would harp on the event relentlessly and falsely accuse me of taking sick days that were non-existent. These were PTO days that were requested off in advance. I would even have administration barge into my classroom, screaming at kids over small misunderstandings, and threaten to “fire the art teacher” just to maintain control. This behavior is highly inappropriate, disrespectful towards staff, teaches children that intimidation and power abuse are the “proper” ways to redirect and maintain control. Very poor impulse control, and sever lack of professionalism. "This is how we do things here, " is no excuse, and sets a poor example for your pupils and staff. Segue admin, if you wish to retain staff and have positive relations with your employees 1) view them as humans, 2) expect that mistakes happen and do not hold onto anecdotes and receipts (that is a toxic business practice; this applies to students, parents and all staff), 3) Stick to the observable facts and do not initiate conflicts, especially through gaslighting and intimidation; again this applies to students, parents and all staff). These 3 major issues as what cause you to lose highly qualities educators who deserve to be respected and treated with humility and compassion. Otherwise no one will ever want to work with you, or stay long term. This may be harsh critique, but it is necessary for further employees to be aware the unprofessionalism present.