Just got back from my brother's graduation in San Diego and Ihave a lot of news regarding my
former job. So I think it is safe to give the whole story. First, back on April 5th, our Executive Director informed us that our six weeks of vacation time (that we understood as unpaid time) was being taken away and our salaries were not going to change, and did so in a very degrating, condescending way. Lets just say we weren't going to stand for that. News spread like wildfire and less than a week later the county office of education people were contacting our Executive Director wanting to know if she was going to have a staffed infant program. (Thier reaction was the same as ours: with this change the program is no longer competitive with the other infant programs in the area and staff would be looking for new jobs.) Well, she managed to push out her answer for many weeks, leaving us and the county hanging. Our director, who started this infant program 30 years ago, resigned her position at the beginning of May. So on May 10th, our financial person came and tried to convince us to stay because they were going to "try" to give us raises for this upcomming year. I think by the end of this meeting she understood that we refused to work for this current Executive Director because of who she is and how she does things, and no amount of money would change that. When the current contract was over on June 30, we would all be leaving. So finally on Wednesday, May 17th, the county informed our Executive Director that the county would not be renewing the contract, meaning the county would have to have some type of infant program up and running by the new contract date of July 1. Friday afternoon we received a fax from the county that they were going to start their own infant program to begin July 1 of earlier and we were to contact the county if we were interested. Monday morning comes around and I am out sick for the day. But I get a call saying that I need to go to the administration office Tuesday morning. Later on, a coworker calls to let me know that when they arrived at the office that Morning, the financial lady was there with everyone's lay off notices and final checks. Our families should be receiving thier letters in the mail Monday that the infant program is closed and to contact the county office with any questions. So I now have this whole week off work, and have a meeting at the county office to fill out applications for the county's infant program Thursday morning. I am still trying to figure out if our Executive Director had master planned all this and tried to close the infant program without simply closing it, or if she is really stupid and didn't realize what would be the result of her actions. So that's been the drama for the past 2 months. Hopefully good news will follow.
