Blue Jay Academy of West Volusia

"Please don’t work here I’m just giving someone a heads up the teachers try their best but the higher ups really don’t care. I was let go because when no one was around all the students had left I was getting ready to go home and took 1 puff of my vape and it was seen on camera. I understand that it’s a school policy to not smoke on campus but no one was around to see it, it was a very stressful day I was not given a break and was overwhelmed. And that not just me it’s all the teachers that I’ve worked with since I’ve been there. It’s a very quick turn around there because of the low pay and lack of appreciation for all you do. Let me explain more about the location. If you’re a teacher expect everything to be low budget. From text books to renovations. Most of the teachers try to find as much free stuff they can to give the kids from online sources like TPT or really any website that gives free worksheets because there is no budget for education there. I had to buy my class all their own textbooks because when I asked for the principle to purchase them I was given no response. If you ask for something new you will be told to go look in the “dungeon” which is any free thing that could be found over the years all stored in a side room of the first building. The pay isn’t there you will not feel appreciated for all the hard work you put into your students. They rolled out a new program where they would give a bonus based on performance to staff but it’s small 200$ per quarter if that because the principle will find some reason to not give you the full bonus or just not bring it up at all in hopes you won’t request it. She says she wants everyone to receive more money but blames it all on the owner Mitchell for being so tight on providing compensation to their staff, and I agree with her. If anyone is reading this please calculate the tuition per child and then take a look at the buildings and all the renovations that haven’t been done since the school opened and ask yourself where is all that money going. If you are a parent I can only speak to the high schoolers go inside the second building and look around before you enroll your child. If your child has sensory issues you will notice that there is no walls for any of the classrooms going to the ceiling. That is because the owner does not want to pay for renovations to the building it would require a sprinkler system to be put in so that you could put walls to the ceiling to reduce noise but that would cost too much money I had a student that had sensory issues and instead of making the proper renovations I was asked to come one days where the students weren’t in the building to fill the short walls with basically broken down cardboard. No… it did not fix the noise issue, walls would though but that requires money. And safety permits, but that’s all more than what the owner is willing to do. So we were basically told to just deal with the noise. Anyone ever tried teaching a lesson when there are 30 kids screaming and running around… yeah it sucks. The building used to be a bar the kids told me that because they were the first to notice theirs a broken down rotting cooler outside the front door of the second building. As long as they have been open it has never been removed. The kids also noticed the layout of the building and how it resembled a restaurant very true if you see it. These kids may have disabilities but they aren’t ignorant. The primary building if you look at the play ground where is all the mulch? I will explain the teachers do all the renovations during summer vacation. Landscapers make more but the teachers cost less so they do it. 2 teachers where asked to fill the playground with mulch 1 small pile of mulch was purchased and then placed in the parking lot of the second building to be hauled into the primary playground it was never finished because the teacher that was asked to do it was not being paid so she stopped all together. I tried my best all the students know that I love them all I made a mistake and I’ll own that but this place."