Horror Inside Pt. 2: Charter Teacher Turns Whistleblower #SCW
Today Cloaking Inequity concludes an exclusive story written by Jennifer Ventimiglia, a veteran charter school teacher. This post is the continuation of the story that began in the post Horror Inside: A No Excuses Charter School #SCW
After school on Friday, the day before winter break, I was called into the Site Director’s office…He said, “I just want to inform you that today is your last day as an Amethod employee.” Then he got up and walked out of the office.The Amethod Public Schools (AMPS) corporate charter school chain is not required to even give me a reason for my firing— they did not— because all employees are required sign a contract as a condition of employment that says we can be fired at anytime and no reasonhas to be provided.I was left with a Human Resources employee who had me initial a paper that I was receiving unemployment and Cobra information. With that I was escorted to my classroom to retrieve my belongings and be seen out of the building. It was not considered that I had a classroom full of my things including 3 bookshelves, 5 bean bag chairs, about 2000 books, and totes full of materials and supplies I had purchased with my own money for my students. I only had a couple of hours to rent an UHaul, pack up my belongings, and move everything out.School has been in session for 2 weeks now since winter break and a new teacher still has not been hired to teach my students in 2016.
Jennifer has turned whistleblower and is describing from her experience the detriments of the “no excuses” discipline, special education practices, leadership and teacher quality issues plaguing Oakland Charter Academy (OCA) the first charter school established in Oakland (and one of the first in California). The following information is excerpted and adapted from a letter written by Jennifer Ventimiglia and Karen Horror Inside Pt. 2: Charter Teacher Turns Whistleblower #SCW – Cloaking Inequity: