Hi B,

I haven't had to do this for quite a while, but after coming back on Monday from a week off and finding my desk literally awash in attendance sheets, time sheets, and report requests I've had it. Prepare for a rant. :)

Who should be my number two...that is, the person who can fill in for me while I'm away be it on holiday or sick? Currently, I am the only one who knows how to produce the reports from the Drive SPRs. I've offered many times to train another so that I wouldn't be the only one. There have been no takers. There ought to be someone. K can update time sheet info, and I've recently asked our Operations Coordinator to help out with attendance input into SSS.

As for the Drive system, it was working okay for a bit. What I am finding, and I've let Ian know, is that quite often I will go into Drive and find no folders under Academics Shared. If i want to access any of my SPR files, I need to go under Recent. This glitch, or whatever it is, is becoming more frequent and it's time-consuming, especially when I haven't accessed a file for a long time. I need to wait until the "missing" folders reappear before I can continue. It is also causing issues for the teachers to input marks. When the files go "missing" the teachers can't access them either. 

Also regarding inputting marks, our internet isn't totally kosher. I'm not sure if it's a matter of not enough bandwidth or what, but quite often we (students and staff) can't connect to either wi-fi. I know Sprachcaffe did some updates, but the problem still exists.

I'm finding that if the teachers encounter too many obstacles to using the Drive system they just stop using it. Some will write marks on the old paper sheets as a back up and those aren't always up-to-date. I'm tired of running around hounding them for marks or going through their paper SPRs to get marks (if they exist) when I'm trying to print reports. Unfortunately, with the IQAS issue and the lack of qualified applicants, I'm not in a position to fire anyone for not doing this. Suggestions?

Had one interview today from a promising applicant. Unfortunately, she is on contract until the summer with a Charter school, so she won't be leaving that any earlier because we can't guarantee her enough hours (any more than 1 session) and we pay less than the other school. I have another interview tomorrow and I'm hoping it will be more promising.

This IQAS thing has really hit us hard. The number of qualified applicants is slim. I've served the suspension letters to the teachers who are currently working. The others cited in the report haven't worked for us since the summer and I've had one respond saying she won't get assessed. Do they need termination letters or are they so inactive now they are off the books anyway? 

Regarding staffing, I'm finding none of our current subs will work for fewer than 2 classes a day and thanks to the IQAS issue our sub list has been decimated. The main reason is money. Our non-competitive pay has lost us a few would-be teachers and is affecting our sub-list availability. I've had people during the interview process say thanks, but no thanks to the position when they heard of our $20/h. I know you have no control over this, but I need to voice it. It's getting to the point where new applicants won't work for us at that wage unless we can guarantee them a f/t-3 class position. They can't afford otherwise. At this rate I may have no one to fill the classes in January while we're waiting for IQAS. I don't mean to sound alarmist or defeatist, but it's looking more and more like that. I'm even trying to get a former teacher to come back for the session.

Any word on a new manager? Your email about TMT was a surprise; it was the first time anyone in our office had heard about it. Since Kevin left and K stepped down from the interim position, we feel like we're being left out of the loop because there is no one to attend the weekly managers' meeting where we used to hear about the latest and greatest.

I think that's it. I'm sorry for the length. Thanks for reading. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.