Zoe Girl
2-23-15, 5:59pm
Well my program is just struggling and I am not sure what is going to happen. A big thing is that I am just getting a handle on how work politics function at the late age of 48 and I see that I probably look like crap. I do know that in our goal system that determines raises and some career mobility I am currently rated medium low. I think the system is different than what originally thought because my supervisor referred to it as numbers of registrants, average attendance etc. However I was encouraged to write different goals, one around quality that were supposed to translate into lots of registrants but have not.
I have a big issue with the finances. I have a family identified homeless that I am sure I have talked about before. After a 2 year wait they got into a shelter! However they were only approved for a 45% off their tuition (we go as low as $10 a month) because mom has some income and they have no rent (because they have spent years bouncing around with people, the mom doesn't always get the kids with her). You can get a 2nd look at the tuition amount but they only have paperwork saying she is identified homeless by an agency and not any tax returns or pay stubs or anything. I feel I have made major errors in this. The last 2 years I have been able to work these things out for families and not have to suspend them, this year apparently not. The family has a bill over $400, the facilities manager and I chipped in and paid $30. Overall I am supposed to bring in more money, have fewer scholarships or lower ones, and now mid-year we were told to slash expenses because no one budgeted well enough to provide summer programming (which is required in our grant). I have continually changed what I do to adapt, the one thing I have not done is withdraw a student who is homeless.
I just feel like there is a LOT going on behind the scenes and I don't know what it is. I hear I am rated basically low for my numbers and then told I need to suspend/withdraw people, I am a grant supported site but I still can't serve an identified homeless student, the phone calls I in various areas of my job are increasingly tense, and when someone else tells me I do things like overspend I respond and then no one responds back to me. It generally feels like I am not in a favored category. So how the heck to I get out of this with some amount of credibility, a decent goal evaluation, or do I just understand that it may be out of my control.
I have a big issue with the finances. I have a family identified homeless that I am sure I have talked about before. After a 2 year wait they got into a shelter! However they were only approved for a 45% off their tuition (we go as low as $10 a month) because mom has some income and they have no rent (because they have spent years bouncing around with people, the mom doesn't always get the kids with her). You can get a 2nd look at the tuition amount but they only have paperwork saying she is identified homeless by an agency and not any tax returns or pay stubs or anything. I feel I have made major errors in this. The last 2 years I have been able to work these things out for families and not have to suspend them, this year apparently not. The family has a bill over $400, the facilities manager and I chipped in and paid $30. Overall I am supposed to bring in more money, have fewer scholarships or lower ones, and now mid-year we were told to slash expenses because no one budgeted well enough to provide summer programming (which is required in our grant). I have continually changed what I do to adapt, the one thing I have not done is withdraw a student who is homeless.
I just feel like there is a LOT going on behind the scenes and I don't know what it is. I hear I am rated basically low for my numbers and then told I need to suspend/withdraw people, I am a grant supported site but I still can't serve an identified homeless student, the phone calls I in various areas of my job are increasingly tense, and when someone else tells me I do things like overspend I respond and then no one responds back to me. It generally feels like I am not in a favored category. So how the heck to I get out of this with some amount of credibility, a decent goal evaluation, or do I just understand that it may be out of my control.