I am reading more and more about campuses being taken over or are about to be. I have a few friends that have taught music ed. in some of these situations. Here is a compilation of what I have found. Please fact check me.
1. You teach a 6th Grade Band, a 7th Grade Band, and an 8th Grade Band.
2. An Office Manager dictates which students get scheduled into the band classes. You can have new students assigned to your band class at any time during the school year, regardless of student experience. You will not be allowed to permanently remove problem students from the band class.
3. 8-10:30 you will assist in the classrooms. 2:30-3:45 you will assist in the classrooms.
4. Oftentimes the band director will be the only staff member the has a Texas Teaching Certificate.
5. Dismissal duty Monday-Friday. 6:30 am duty once a week.
6. Be prepared to pivot, you will oftentimes have your planning period taken to act as a sub for academic classes, Team Center, or ISS. Also, you will be pulled to serve on ARD Committees.
7. Substitue teachers are not hired. All campus teachers act as subs for each other.
8. The band director salary will be a bit less than a Texas first year teacher. There are no stipends, no extra days, or extra pay for a Master's degree.
9. You will have 30-something year old AP's micro managing your band rehearsals. The AP's will have very limited classroom teaching experience and zero music ed. knowledge.
Approach with caution. Do your homework!
Re: Take Over Outfits
Posted by drumguy on 10/31/2025, 10:45 am, in reply to "Take Over Outfits"
When you say taken over, are you talking about being taken over by the state or someone else?
As far as the list you posted, I can't confirm, but a few of those seem illegal? Don't you have to have a dedicated number of minutes to plan? And the salary being that of a first year teacher seems not correct, if you're not a first year teacher.
I agree. Some of this info comes from working for a third party vendor that comes on to a low performing campus to raise scores before it is taken over by TEA.
Re: Take Over Outfits
Posted by Beagle on 10/31/2025, 9:46 am, in reply to "Take Over Outfits"
Even if the state takes over, they're still required to follow state laws. What you're talking about violates several of them here.
1. Happens frequently in inner city and small schools.
2. At the middle school level, this already happens in many schools. Just saying.
3. That depends entirely upon campus leadership. They may see no benefit in putting an untrained person in a math class.
4. More than half the teachers hired in Texas annually aren't certified.
5. Duty schedules are determined by campus leadership. Can't make a blanket statement.
6. This is common regardless of state takeover. I regularly have to give up a planning period to attend an ARD.
7. Most of the time when a classroom teacher is covering another class, there is extra pay involved.
8. They cannot reduce your salary if your contract has already been signed. That's a violation of federal law. And no one - NO ONE - is taking a job at an F-grade campus for less than Texas minimum teacher salary. Paras in large districts make better pay than state base.
9. I already have 30-something APs micromanaging my classroom. So does everyone else.
