Questions about the American School of Quito

[radishflower]

The first part of this is a reposting of a previous question that I am afraid will get lost, so I am asking again...
@heyteach or anyone else who works at this school:
I am looking at the Search information for your school, and of the schools I am interested in it is the only one that says "no" for sick and personal days--most of the other schools say something in the neighborhood of 12 sick and 2 personal--some more.
Does this really mean that if a teacher is sick they do not get paid for a day off?! Please let me know. That seems very odd to me, as we all get the occasional cold or flu...

2. Also, I already got a response from heyteach on this, but does the $3,000 a year that Search says one can save at this school sound accurate to you? This is much lower than what other schools in S. Amer. are estimating. I wonder if some of these other schools are estimating very high, and the AS of Quito is being more rational? Please let me know what you think. I do wonder about the accuracy of these savings estimates...

3. Oh, and lastly, I read on the site that the teachers ride in a bus to school with the students... is this alright or is it awful?! I cannot, for example, imagine riding the bus with my students in an American high school--it would be a nightmare!

Please post a response when you have a chance, as Cambridge is around the corner! Thanks very much.

[cricket]

I don't know about the sick/personal days but I have a feeling the savings potential is pretty accurate. I used to work at Cotopaxi and we got paid significantly more than Americano and it was hard to save a substantial amount of money (and I was not extravagant). While I was in Quito the cost of living increased quite a bit (as did the crime rate). Especially imported items like wine - they almost doubled in price because the govt. increased the tax on them to encourage people to buy local.

[heyteach]

Radish,

It's true we don't have personal leave. The school day ends at 2:30 so you have plenty of time to do personal business. I've never missed a day of school so frankly don't know much about the sick leave policy, but I don't think they dock you if you have a doctor's note. But I'm really not sure.

As I said before, I live very comfortably on the salary but am not saving anything as I'm paying a mortgage in the U.S. I use savings from previous jobs to travel on. The duties on imports went up 30% last year so prices did go up. However, if you shop at local markets for produce, meat, and seafood, you'll be able to eat well. Organic produce is so much cheaper here.

As for the buses, haha, I was worried about that too! Depending on where you live, you might be able to ride the teacher bus. The student buses aren't bad like the U.S. There aren't that many students on them, often less than ten. The nice thing is that you can take any bus after school if you need to get to another part of the city.

[radishflower]

Thanks for the info, Cricket. I may need to look elsewhere, as I would like to save a bit more money than that (I don't have tons of bills, but I need to save for retirement...). Hmmm... I've been reading up about Quito, but nothing much came up about an increased crime rate--well, that doesn't sound very appealing either. But then, I currently work in Philadelphia and I bet Quito is safer! From what I have read about this school, it sounds like it would be an excellent place and a great opportunity to learn, so there is much to consider... No perfect situation exists! And the culture in Ecuador is also very appealing to me, and I would love to learn Spanish... I guess we'll see what happens: I may end up nowhere near S. America, as I am pretty open-minded about locations. Thanks again.

[radishflower]

Hi heyteach,

Yes, 2:30 is certainly a nice time to wrap up teaching. I guess as far as personal days I was thinking more about how one might need to attend a job fair in the future, but from what you've said that wouldn't be a problem.

Wow, that's great that you haven't missed a single day! I am not sick much myself (knock on wood), but it's nice to know the days are there should one need them. Cheap organic produce sounds great to me, as I spend quite a lot for it here.

Regarding the buses, okay, so you understand why I thought that sounded unappealing! Riding a bus with the students at the public school where I worked here in the States would be enough to drive a teacher over the edge: probably 40 kids, screaming, throwing stuff... ugh. What you are describing sounds totally doable, and actually rather convenient.

As I was saying in my post to Cricket, I do need to save money for my retirement (I don't have much of a fund built up), so the low potential for savings is the only thing about your school that sounds less than ideal--otherwise, it sounds like a great school where teachers are happy and have a opportunities for PD, and Quito sounds like a wonderful city--and all of that is honestly more important to me than money, but I do have to be realistic... so I hope to get an interview to learn more. Like I said already, there is no place that is perfect!

Thanks again for the info, and I hope to meet you at the fair.

[Pike]

[quote="radishflower"]Hi heyteach,

Yes, 2:30 is certainly a nice time to wrap up teaching. I guess as far as personal days I was thinking more about how one might need to attend a job fair in the future, but from what you've said that wouldn't be a problem.
[/quote]


I worked at two different international schools and in both cases, there was a specific number days you are allowed to leave to attend a job fair in the contract. I would imagine all international schools have this provision in the contract.