April is a rough month for non-tenured teachers in NJ

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If you are a teacher in New Jersey and do not have tenure then the district is legally required to give you a notice that you are not guaranteed a job for the next year. The former principal that I had in 2 schools during those first 3 years would smile, hand me the notice, and say "You're fired! Have a nice day." The first time he did that I freaked out despite the fact that I hadn't done anything wrong and I had a very solid connection to someone very high up in administration. He laughed and said it was just a formality and that I had nothing to worry about. It happened the following 2 years. Yeah anyone without job security is going to be worried when they get documentation that they don't have a guaranteed job the following year. After the 3 years in the district I received tenure and now they can't fire me unless I do something like punching a student in the face or sleeping with them. (ew) At this point I am the bio teacher in the department with the most seniority so even if they had to RIF (reduction in force) aka lay off teachers I would be the last person on the list. I always hated getting those April letters though. I was young, didn't know much about the union, and was afraid of not having a job. I don't miss them. In fact I am looking forward to getting my new notice of intent to work for the coming school year. After all of this time I will finally hit a 9 in my salary.