Our Charter application was rejected...

[sunmountain]

...due to non compliance with ADA regulations. This meant that I would have to homeschool, something I am just not ready for for various reasons.

BUT!

The administartor at the school offered me a teaching assistant job
It's going to pay for the rest of the three boys tuition that isn't covered by their scholarships! I just can't believe my luck!

However, I am a little wary of working with little kids like this. I have zero experience in younger-aged classrooms, my focus has always been with teens and young adults. I am really nervous about this, although I HAVE to accept this job for my kids to continue going there.

Anyone have any experiences like this they can share? Any advice at all?

[lauren]

sorry to hear about the charter not making it, but it sounds like there is a bit of silver lining....

what age are you going to be teaching with ? (you said younger than teens/adults, but didn't mention age/grade).

Depending on the age, I'm sure the folks who come to this board topic will have a lot to offer-- there are always lots of current and past teachers, folks married to teachers, etc. posting here. Tell us more!

[mommy22]

Can your school re-apply for their charter after they have made the changes needed. They are willing to make such changes?

My kids go to a charter Montessori, and when the charter was being written, we did make a few concessions knowing that we would most likely be denied if we didn't.

We were granted our charter and last year was our first charter year. The school had been private for 15 years prior to that.

The concessions we felt we needed to make were minor, and when our charter comes up for renewal (in 5 years) we will have more 'power' to change our charter in a way that may not have been allowed the first time.

I would continue to fight for this charter. It has been wonderful for us and for so many others in the community.

[dlb]

sunmountain--

When do you find out? I am just so excited for you, and wondering....

wouldn't it be cool if you "got your foot in the door" so to speak, and then the school later got its charter approved? So then you would possibly even have a paying job?

Don't mean to choose your dreams for you, just thinking that would be so cool

dlb

[sunmountain]

We really think this issue is dead in the water, unfortunately. One of the school districts in our area has recently instituted some Montessori classrooms in the schools and so now we aren't "new and innovative" anymore, and that could work against us. There is a new movement to get rid of Charter schools in our state, ppl around our city are especially against them, unless of course it makes an innovative public school open to other districts for free, iykwim. Private schools making that attempt are frowned upon.

It's up to the lawyer at this point as to whether he wants to pursue, so I guess we will just see what happens.

I started another thread for advice/funny stories about being a teacher's assistant, as it was kinda OT for this thread, so you can go over there with that advice.

Thank you mommy22 lauren and dlb for your responses!