The Philadelphia School District is jacked up. It's absolutely amazing that a district that services so many children appears to put them last on their list of priorities. The bureaucracy and "their way" of doing things is completely archaic and ... well ... dare I say lazy?
As someone who has been approved to teach in the district, I have no choice but to sit and wait until they fill "high need" positions. In my mind, a classroom without a teacher is high-need whether there are 30 positions open or 85. But no. Foreign language is more of a high-need area. Only because they have so much more trouble finding teachers to fill those positions. Grade level teachers are a dime a dozen, I'll give them that, but I'm actually high up on their list of over 450 candidates. Give me a job already! The first day of school is tomorrow.
I was reading an article about why large urban school districts have such trouble attracting highly qualified experienced teachers and one of the largest problems is a late hiring timeline.
The district would rather pay a substitute teacher to start the year with my future students rather than just stick me in somewhere. Anywhere. I actually want to teach in the city, if you can believe it.