I went to my morning adult class to say "goodbye". There was a paper we were given to explain the situation today, finally. Their "solution" on the paper was to open up the location I used to work at before I moved to this school full time. The problem is that it’s in an entirely different neighborhood, and they would provide no bus service to get students there. The vast majority of my students come to the school because it was within walking distance, and it was substantially cheaper than all the surrounding schools. The reason it was cheap was there was no bus service to add to the fees. Several of my students were asking me how they were supposed to get to class if it was going to be so far away.
It surprised me to hear they were reopening my last location to elementary school students, because I know their lease of the building had a non-competition clause in it. They rent out the building at my last location, and the floor below also contains an English school. I had an interview there yesterday. They still seem to be in business and were interested in hiring me. They aren’t going anywhere.
When I signed my contract at my current school, for the old location in question, I was told I would never be allowed to teach elementary school children at that location because they agreed not to have classes in competition with the school below. Now, it seems, this no longer applies. Seems my school has a habit of ignoring contractual obligations that goes beyond my location.
Now here comes the most outrageous part.
After we handed out all those fliers and told all the students we were leaving the school, after one teacher bought a plane ticket back to South Africa, after I interviewed or was approached by half a dozen schools, after I told all my students we were closing the school and we were having a party for the next two days…after all of this, literally while my school was still operating, one of the teachers got a call.
The man who interviewed me at the main campus of our school called and said, "It was decided an hour ago, your school is NO LONGER CLOSING."
I talked someone this afternoon about staying in my apartment after I leave the school. When I spoke to him at lunch, he made no mention of this happening. This is literally a decision that was made no more than a few HOURS ago. A complete reversal on everything we’ve been told for the past two weeks happened on the whim of some elite upper management person that can’t be reached by anyone else. No explanations. No information. Whenever we ask, we get, "I’m not sure. Maybe. Let me check."
What the hell is going on?!
It seems that there is some sort of reason why the school won’t move classes to the other location which our manager isn’t allowed to tell us about. He claimed that because so many people complained about the classes for the new location, they decided to not close the school I work at. The school was got caught for tax evasion and illegal immigration practices. Unless they had a change of heart and decided to follow the law, pay whatever fines they were given, and rearrange the legal status of the school, I don’t know how they were given the choice.
It’s infuriating that they decide we weren’t important enough to be told the school was closing until the week where we needed to decide if we were staying or not while everyone at the main branch knew our fate. It’s even worse that they decided to keep the school open now, but not even tell us the reason. I’ve spent the last two weeks looking for work, apartments, and getting really, really stressed out. Who knows what would happen the next time someone decides to change their mind.
I can’t tell what will happen next with the school, but I’ve already told them I want out.
I demanded a release letter on my desk by the end of the week. The school has broken their contract and I am owed a release letter stating as such. Even though it will cause me financial hardship, be a huge pain in the ass, and really give me a hard time trying to get everything accomplished, I’ve decided I’m leaving the school. All trust I once had for the school is gone. I’ve been treated like something not worth any consideration whatsoever. Less than Korean, less than even human. They had the audacity to ask me if I wanted to resign a contract with them?
Are you fucking kidding me?
