31 August 2007
Teresa C. Rogers
Executive Director, Human Resources
Saint Paul Public schools
360 Colborne Street
Saint Paul, MN 55102-3299
RE: Your 29 August 2007 letter addressed to “Saint Paul Public School Substitute Teacher.”
Dear Ms. Rogers:
I am glad to hear that you will be instituting a new automated job assignment system. I hope that it will be a benefit to the classroom teachers who request guest teachers, the guest teachers, and the administration. There is certainly room for improving the process.
While the old system was, in my opinion, adequate, it did experience some down time and its functions were never fully implemented. For instance, the links giving directions, addresses or maps to the schools were rarely operational. This kept me from picking up any assignments that were unfamiliar to me. But this was not a “system” problem.
What concerns me is your introduction to the new “Aesop” system. The fact that Aesop was a Greek slave gives me pause. And, while you are “asking” all of us to attend a one-hour training where we will given one hour’s pay, the forty sessions offered are all quite inconvenient, boarding on insulting. You are asking us to drive to one of two locations, take the class, and be paid for only that one hour. (Even on-call interpreters are paid $17 with a two-hour minimum.) But, because of the hours you have available, it is not possible to take the class AND teach for that day.
In case you weren’t aware, high school assignments go from 7 am to 2:15 pm. The latest sessions you have start at 1:30 pm. Elementary school assignments vary, but latest start (except for IA-LEAP) is 9 am. This precludes any early morning sessions, because the earliest session you offer ends at 9 am – and you only have one of these timeslots.
I assume your intention was not to further impoverish guest teachers. We are all college graduates, many with advanced degrees, and I have to say, made to feel like second-class workers by the administration. At $110 per day, no health care, no paid vacation, no sick days, required to work a minimum number of days each month to keep our jobs, we are a great, inexpensive resource to the District. I would hope the District would give us bit more respect and gratitude.
Sincerely yours,
Guest Teacher