Stephen, hello! It's great to hear from you and it sounds like things
are going well at the WAITT House in Massachusetts.  To others on the
list: As conferences often provide opportunities to meet colleagues in
person, I had the pleasure of meeting Stephen Hanley at the VALUE
Conference held in Washington, D.C. in 2004. 

 

Stephen, I wanted to say on the List how much I appreciate your
continuous efforts to improve working conditions for adult educators.
Your message has been a real eye opener for me.  In thinking about
program quality, could you tell us more about where the career pathway
into the field of adult literacy begins for some of your staff? In other
words, please speak to the role of student involvement in your program
and staffing considerations.

 

For others on the list: Is the WAITT House the only example of a program
that makes working conditions "work" for adult learners, staff, and
programs? Please, if you are a program administrator, tell us how you
make teacher working conditions _work_ with limited resources. It is
important that we gather examples now so that we can begin to tease
apart these complex issues.

 

Thanks to all for sharing. Happy Holidays everyone! Sincerely, Jackie

 

________________________________

From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of
sphanley at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 5:05 PM
To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov
Cc: sphanley at aol.com
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 673] Re: Career pathways - what
doesourfieldhave to offer?

 

Hello,

 

As a small non-profit, WAITT House has always made the efforts to
maintain  financial and programmatic stability.  We have been able to
accomplish some stability by keeping the needs of students and staff in
the forefront of our administrative decisions.  

 

If there are increased costs for rent, postage, and other items each
year, then we as an agency have aimed to increase salaries each year.
When this was not financially feasible we gave staff members additional
vacation days.  

 

When health insurance costs were rising rapidly, we connected to an
insurance brokerage firm to access the same health insurance larger
companies offer their employees at better rates.  By employing this
firm, we saved costs and simultaneously expanded our fringe package to
inclued dental and disability.  All of our employees who work 25 hours
or more a week can receive health, dental, and disability.  Those who
are employed 35 hours a week or 25 hours a week receive the same
coverage and pay the same for their dental and health insurance.

 

We also ensured that professional staff members receive a significant
amount of vacation time from a stressful work environment.  We follow
the Boston Public School Calendar except during the summer.  Staff
members who have been employed more than two years at WAITT House
receive four weeks of vacation during the summer.  We budget for
substitutes to cover the classes when some teachers are on vacation
during the summer.   

 

We are a small and lean non-profit organization which endures much of
the financial heat from funding limitations and when funding cuts
happen, small non-profits are usually the most vulnerable, yet we are
still here!

 

We have aimed to keep staff members full-time; and when it has been
financially impossible to keep professionals full-time, we have always
offered the same benefit and vacation package to part-time employees.
These agency positions have allowed us to remain programmatically
stable.  Thus, we have avoided many management and service delivery
problems, such as  high staff turnover, too many vacancies to be filled,
continuously reorienting new staff members to the philosophy of "We're
All In This Together", inconsistencies in instruction, higher attrition
rates, and students not feeling comfortable because of a high turnover
rate among teahcers.

 

Something that you need to know is the DOE' ABE Rate System supports the
same fringe rate for part-time as well as full-time employees. If you
are DOE funded, I do not know why a part-time employee cannot receive
some fringe benefits.

 

Stephen 

WAITT House

 
-----Original Message-----
From: mjean at communityactioninc.org
To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov
Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 8:17 AM
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 666] Re: Career pathways - what
doesourfieldhave to offer?

I'm with Ya Wendy...Grrrrrr!!!     Martha Jean 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
<mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces%40nifl.gov> 

[mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov
<mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces%40nifl.gov> ] On Behalf Of Wendy

Quinones

Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:31 PM

To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 664] Re: Career pathways - what

doesourfieldhave to offer?

 

Hi colleagues,

I get so angry over working conditions in our field that I can hardly

see straight!  Part-timers are abused, in my mind, in everything from

space to work in to benefits to salaries to respect.

 

I am right now one of the fortunate ones to be full-time, although I

worked part-time for quite a few years both at my present center and

others.  I came in teaching mostly life-skills type things in a family

homeless shelter, and moved on to teaching GED.  Then I came part-time

to my current center, which posts all openings for full-time slots, so

part-timers are always aware of them and usually have the upper hand in

getting them, if they're qualified.  However, at least on the ESOL side,

part time, or at least subbing and huge amounts of it, WITH US doesn't

count, if you can believe that.  They have to have experience elsewhere

to bring to us. 

Sounds crazy to me, but there you have it.

 

As far as benefits are concerned, we are part of a city bureaucracy. 

Part-timers can't get health insurance, even at pro-rated costs,

although a few valuable perks are available -- highly subsidized rapid

transit fares, extremely cheap garage parking, some tuition

reimbursement.  But what really irks me is that health insurance.  It

seems to me that state or even regional advocacy organizations -- in

Massachusetts it's MCAE -- ought to be able to put some kind of plan in

place for the hundreds if not thousands of people who work their tails

off for not very much.  But people who have tried to get this going just

get stonewalled.  Grrrrrr.

 

 

Wendy Quinones 

 

 

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National Institute for Literacy

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----------------------------------------------------

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To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to 

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