Thursday night, we celebrated.
The celebration was ostensibly in honor of Shulamith and her new job, but I'm claiming it also as a celebration of me. Being right. Cuz I really like being right.
A few months ago, Shulamith began to consider a career path adjustment, returning to the K-12 public school system. Eleven years ago, after teaching kindergarten for four years, she "retired" in order to do more important work: Swen! After Kennedy was born, she picked up a night class at Salt Lake Community College, teaching developmental reading and writing. College adjuncting is a decent gig for a mom; I can attest to that, having done it for the past 25 years at five colleges in three states. But it has its drawbacks.
Unlike in the K-12 system, in order to get paid in the summer, adjuncts have to work in the summer. There is also a 6-week period in May and June when we don't get paid at all. Eeeeek! And most annoying, our schedules change every semester, so three times a year. Enrollment always governs course offerings, and enrollment is this giant mystery that administrators can only guess at solving.
So basically, there is no job security whatsoever in adjunct teaching.
That said, I have somehow always had classes when I wanted them; the system has worked for me, but it is stressful. "Will I get the classes I want, at the times I want, at the campus I want?" "Once they're offered, will they make?" Generally, classes don't run with fewer than 10 students. Stressful, yes.
By early spring, Shulamith decided to pursue returning to K-12, with several firm requirements. (1) She would accept only a half-time position. (2) It would be in the Jordan School District, so on the same schedule as her kids. (3) It would be very near her home. She applied for all the jobs she found that met those criteria, but as you can imagine, there weren't many. Most teaching jobs are full time. There are only three schools close enough to where we live, and one of those is where Eli teaches, and district policy prohibits relatives from working under the same supervisor. It didn't look promising.
Then, about a month ago, she saw a posting for a half-time kindergarten position at Mountain Point Elementary, our neighborhood school where her three kids attend. What??? Is this even possible? She applied that very day.
And the waiting began.
One week went by, then two. After three weeks, Shulamith was 100% convinced that she didn't even get an interview.
"Obviously, they don't want me. They didn't even interview me," she declared.
"I disagree," I replied. "These things take time. There are any number of reasons they haven't reached out to you yet."
"Nope. They don't want me."
That very day, we happened to be standing in an aisle at Smith's when her phone alerted her to a call from Mountain Point. This is not unusual. Because of Swen's T1 Diabetes, she gets calls from the school all the time. He's going low. He's going high. He bolused for lunch but now says he doesn't want to eat most of it. And on and on. But this time, the call was different:
"Hello, Shulamith? Hi! Your kids are all fine. Swen is good. We're calling to invite you to interview for the half-day kindergarten position."
Uh huh. Who was right? Just sayin'.
Her interview was a week ago Wednesday, and she thought it went great. She also thought they should offer her the job that very day, even though they told her quite clearly that they were doing more interviews Friday and would make a decision by "early next week."
"If they really want me, they'll call today."
"Uh, no they won't. They told you they have more interviews Friday. They for sure won't call until after Friday," I argued.
"Nope. If they really like me, they won't wait till Friday. They'll want to wrap this up today."
They didn't call that day. Or the next. Five days passed, and suddenly, it was "early next week" already. Still no call. By Wednesday, Shulamith's hope was fully extinguished. It had been a full week since her interview.
"They obviously don't want to hire me, but I wish they would at least tell me that. Send me one of those form letters about how they had 'so many qualified applicants' but decided to go a different direction."
"I don't think that's necessarily the case," I dared suggest. "It's possible, sure. But it's also possible there was some internal glitch in the process that slowed them down. I really still think you'll get it."
"No I won't!" She was adamant.
Positively convinced she didn't get the job, she decided to widen her search. She found a half-time kinder opening at charter school near our neighborhood and applied. They called her that very day, interviewed her the following day, and offered her the position on the spot.
Now what? This job met most of her criteria; it was half time and near her house. But it was not in the Jordan School District so not on her kids' schedule, and also, charter schools pay considerably less than public schools. I told her she needed to email the principal at Mountain Point right way, explain that she had another offer, and ask where they were in their hiring process.
Literally ten seconds after she hit "send" on that email, the principal called her. Guess what? There was a minor glitch that slowed them down. (Really? I never would have thought of that.) Since Shulamith's interview, they secured funding for an additional kindergarten position, so the principal was working to restructure and shuffle positions internally before moving forward. But she definitely wanted to hire Shulamith, so much so that she offered her the job right then on the phone.
Two job offers in the same day. Not bad.
I am so happy and excited for her! How cool that she gets to be at her kids' school! It's only one more year that all three of them will be there in grades 6, 4, and 1. The following year Swen will go to middle school. For sure this will be a year to remember.
Thursday night, we celebrated.
The celebration was ostensibly in honor of Shulamith and her new job, but I'm claiming it also as a celebration of me. Being right. Cuz I really like being right.
