Opportunities for Learning Reviews

Wow, where to begin... For starters, Options could care less about its students. They are a charter school and they are paid by the state, so their biggest concern is having students sign all of their forms and come in and take their exams. Students are actively discouraged from coming into the classroom without being ready to test. Therefore, if a student needs help, they are told that "this is not a study hall" and they are often sent home. Additionally, teachers are asked to have students sign attendendance on days they are not even in the classroom, as Options get paid from the state by each student for each day they are in the classroom. This is so shady that I'm going to report it to the state. Finally, this organization took one week to mail out final paychecks (I was a summer teacher). The state of California law states that employees must be paid in full on their final day of employment. For each day they are not paid, the employer must pay a full day's wage. I am going to report this to the state and let them deal with it. That covers their legal shadiness. Now, let's talk about management. The Options management team is downright comical in terms of the support they give employees. They play favorites, they yell at employees in front of students, and they sit around and joke with each other like they're in the king's court. God forbid you should have to interrupt them with a procedural question. They seriously all look at you like you're an idiot. Several of us received this treatment despite having only been on the job for two weeks and receiving a total of four hours of training. I know that it's difficult to find teaching jobs out there right now, but if these guys call you for an interview, RUN the other way.

Management is very rude and so is leadership. Be ready to immerse yourself in a world of tenure and office politics. Clearly, they play favorites and treat every employee differently. For example, one teacher never tucked his shirt in and another wore hiking boots to his class. I then witnessed one of the managers giving a verbal warning to a teacher for not tucking his shirt in or not wearing dress shoes. Management is very cold and unfriendly as well. This is the type of manager that will storm into the center and walk into their office without saying a word to anyone including their staff or the students. I have also noticed that this school places an huge emphasis on students that pass. It's more of "the ends justify the means" type scenario. For example, I have seen many students fail their tests (getting a 69% or less on the scantron tests at the end of each unit) and I either see the teachers cheating or giving the students a retest on three of the questions they missed and helping them answer the questions to get to a passing score. I have also graded papers for a teacher and witnessed a student fake doing the entire packet as his answers were all incorrect and random. Instead of making him redo the packet, he passed him! In order to fulfill the district requirement of "four correct pages per packet," that teacher ripped out the ones he did correctly and submitted them on his files. If you have ever been in a hostile tenure environment, this is what OFY is. As a tutor, I was knit picked over every little thing. I was told that I wasn't allowed to open the test drawer, but later got a verbal warming for refusing to do so for a student.