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Short version: I found out during a meeting on this past Friday that the school will not be renewing my contract at the end of the school year. There will be another position with additional responsibilities posted within the next 2 weeks that I intend to apply for. It's been a shock; all indications throughout the year pointed to me filling that position at the end of this year.
Long version: over 5 years ago, I was hired in at my current school via a 2-year contract between the district I was working for, and a main school district. That main district would oversee operations of the district I was working for and another via a tech director, where I was covering day to day operations.
Over the years, we made improvements. The non-existent wireless system was replaced to cover the entire district. The server cluster that seemed to go down at any hint of trouble was broken up. Data that never had a proper backup now was being backed up nightly. The phone system was base on a free Linux distribution which occasionally had to be rebooted, sometimes a month, sometimes 2 weeks. The phones were used, bought off of eBay. We replaced those 2 years ago with Cisco equipment through an ISD. When the district consolidated from 3 buildings to 2, I alone took equipment from the closing building to construct a new computer lab.
At the start, the district had old, refurbished computers, some in really bad shape, in the offices and labs, without any portable technology; now, we have Chromebooks in almost every room, and brand new desktops replaced the refurbs in the labs and offices. We now have actual (low-end) CAD/CAM computers and industry-standard software in the CAD/CAM lab instead of 10-year old consumer desktops!
This year, there was a new superintendent hired at both the main district and here. Both superintendents were not happy with the contract, so I was told that at the end of this year it wouldn't be renewed. I was also told that there would be a renegotiation of my contract for the current year!
That was December of last year. When I didn't hear anything further, I went to the superintendent and asked. He told me that he'd be discussing it with the school board at the next meeting. I attended that meeting; it didn't come up.
Still, I waited. I was even encouraged when I received an email from the tech director early last week pointing our vendor to me saying that I was going to 'take over technology' for the district. Encouragement increased when the superintendent asked if I could meet with him late Friday.
Instead, at the meeting he informed me first of what I already knew, then that they would be hiring in a tech director for the district that would also cover 2 others. In that case, he explained, my position would no longer be viable and that I would be let go after the current contract expired at the end of the school year.
I was
, didn't know what to say. I did tell him I did appreciate working for the district, and that I intended to apply for the new position. Took this past weekend to think about my next moves; I was a mix of 
and 
. I know I can't wait for them, I have responsibilities to take care of. Right now, I'm rewriting my resume, which I haven't had to use since I got hired in. I also emailed my references to let them know what was happening and to ask if it was still ok to use them. I gained a new reference with my tech director, who said that he'd be writing a letter of recommendation. I did apply for a position near where I work; I hope they contact me soon, it sounds like it would be a great opportunity for me. There's a couple of others I'm going to apply for after I get my resume in order. Thinking of attending the board meeting tonight just to ask the question that I asked all weekend; why? Did I do something wrong, or not do something? I think about everything this year, and it's actually been the best year. We haven't had any major outages or incidents, so I can't figure out why they're taking this direction with me.
Just to be built up, and let down like that, it's just so...
Long version: over 5 years ago, I was hired in at my current school via a 2-year contract between the district I was working for, and a main school district. That main district would oversee operations of the district I was working for and another via a tech director, where I was covering day to day operations.
Over the years, we made improvements. The non-existent wireless system was replaced to cover the entire district. The server cluster that seemed to go down at any hint of trouble was broken up. Data that never had a proper backup now was being backed up nightly. The phone system was base on a free Linux distribution which occasionally had to be rebooted, sometimes a month, sometimes 2 weeks. The phones were used, bought off of eBay. We replaced those 2 years ago with Cisco equipment through an ISD. When the district consolidated from 3 buildings to 2, I alone took equipment from the closing building to construct a new computer lab.
At the start, the district had old, refurbished computers, some in really bad shape, in the offices and labs, without any portable technology; now, we have Chromebooks in almost every room, and brand new desktops replaced the refurbs in the labs and offices. We now have actual (low-end) CAD/CAM computers and industry-standard software in the CAD/CAM lab instead of 10-year old consumer desktops!
This year, there was a new superintendent hired at both the main district and here. Both superintendents were not happy with the contract, so I was told that at the end of this year it wouldn't be renewed. I was also told that there would be a renegotiation of my contract for the current year!
That was December of last year. When I didn't hear anything further, I went to the superintendent and asked. He told me that he'd be discussing it with the school board at the next meeting. I attended that meeting; it didn't come up.
Still, I waited. I was even encouraged when I received an email from the tech director early last week pointing our vendor to me saying that I was going to 'take over technology' for the district. Encouragement increased when the superintendent asked if I could meet with him late Friday.Instead, at the meeting he informed me first of what I already knew, then that they would be hiring in a tech director for the district that would also cover 2 others. In that case, he explained, my position would no longer be viable and that I would be let go after the current contract expired at the end of the school year.
I was
, didn't know what to say. I did tell him I did appreciate working for the district, and that I intended to apply for the new position. Took this past weekend to think about my next moves; I was a mix of and . I know I can't wait for them, I have responsibilities to take care of. Right now, I'm rewriting my resume, which I haven't had to use since I got hired in. I also emailed my references to let them know what was happening and to ask if it was still ok to use them. I gained a new reference with my tech director, who said that he'd be writing a letter of recommendation. I did apply for a position near where I work; I hope they contact me soon, it sounds like it would be a great opportunity for me. There's a couple of others I'm going to apply for after I get my resume in order. Thinking of attending the board meeting tonight just to ask the question that I asked all weekend; why? Did I do something wrong, or not do something? I think about everything this year, and it's actually been the best year. We haven't had any major outages or incidents, so I can't figure out why they're taking this direction with me.Just to be built up, and let down like that, it's just so...
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