I’ve been teaching at a non profit after school program for 9 years now. I’ve literally watched my former youth grow up and one of the students I’ve had my first summer is now my TA.

The problem is in my 9 years, this is the worst I’ve seen of our program. Staff morale is at an all time low... staff is either quitting or getting fired. For the past 2 years, the turn over rate has been high. We just finally hired a 3-5 grade lead teacher this summer and she put in her two weeks yesterday. One of the TA’s was fired last week. I myself got an employee warning during my performance review (my first one in 9 years) and got put on a “performance improvement plan.” I was told I’m not meeting lead teacher expectations. Talking to other staff, it seems as if all the veteran staff got mediocre or bad reviews and one veteran toddler teacher says she thinks it’s because HR doesn’t want to give us raises (the newly hired staff seemed to have good reviews but amongst them is the 1-2 lead teacher who plans to quit too).

I feel like I’m walking on egg shells and can be let go any minute for no reason (my company is an “at will” employer). I’m also not happy here anymore and feel like the place has gone to shit. While I agree that some of my actions (mostly due to burn out) lead to this warning, I am not ok with management putting all the responsibility on me. Multiple staff including former ones feel like management is trying to cover up their own ass so they’re pinning it on me.

I’ve already thought about quitting since late last year but haven’t done so because my health insurance is amazing. I’m 100% covered and only pay $634 a month my husband and child.

Also, the neighborhood isn’t the greatest. The drug use has increased and needles are everywhere now!

My husband makes a shit ton more than me and we are financially stable with or without my job. He is encouraging me to do so and told me that I could even take some time off before finding something else.

What do you guys think?