Bureaucracy Blues

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I am so very, very sad to report that while teachers go back to school tomorrow, I am not allowed to join them.  And when the students go back a week from today, I will not be allowed to join them, either.  In fact, I will be lucky if I get to go to school the day after Labor Day.  Why, you ask?

Bureaucracy.

This high school wants to hire me, and has no other candidates at this point, and they have recommended me to the School Board.  I have already gone to the county office and completed all of my new hire paperwork and gotten an ID card made.  BUT.  The School Board hasn't officially approved hiring me.  What they are waiting for, I have no idea.  They aren't going to interview me or anything, so whatever information they need they must already have.  Yet here I sit, waiting for a formality.

Then even when the School Board does approve me, I still don't technically have a North Carolina teaching certificate.  Yes, I have completed all of the requirements, and yes, the school district accepts a letter of certification of completion of an approved teacher education program (what a mouthful) from my University, but no, I cannot start teaching in this state under those conditions.  I never thought I'd wish for the South Carolina education system, but down there, this would never have been a problem.  Also, apparently in North Carolina, to be a sub, you must not only have an active teaching certificate, but you must also interview with a principal at an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school before you can get hired on. So this means that to hire me as a sub and have me start out the school year as my own sub would actually take longer than hiring me as a full-time teacher!

So for now, I wait.  Who knows how long it will take for these mountains of paperwork to be processed?

Ah, bureaucracy.  Gotta love it.

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