Pros
Staff is very supportive of each other. Principal means well. Some students really benefit from the virtual classroom experience. Work at home opportunities are helpful and benefits are good.
Cons
Pay is very low compared to the workload and public school salaries. Everyone works over 40 + hours. Caseload #s are outrageous. Some teachers have over 130 students; special educations especially is overwhelmed. Support is all done virtually by mentors across the country. New employee training is self guided with strict due dates that are hard to meet with all the other duties expected including data entry and keeping enrollment numbers up. Not a significant amount of teacher planning or prep time or cooperative planning time. Bottom line is everyone answers to Pearson ( Parent company) and to the Corporate staff based in Baltimore. Walpole, MA has a enrollment goal of 1800 students with only 4 elementary teachers and about 6 middle and high school each. About 10 % of enrolled students are special education with only 4 special educators. Too much is expected with high enrollment numbers and lack of space and support.
