Vantaggi
Lots of really dedicated, hard-working people come together here in an environment that is collaborative and supportive. As a teacher, you have a lot of supports from school leadership and peers. There is weekly coaching and professional development in addition to summer training that is all in an effort to make you a better teacher. Additionally, everyone is focused on students and puts them first. Finally, there is a culture of constant improvement. Leadership is always looking for ways to improve the network and individual schools.
Svantaggi
It has a start-up atmosphere in that there are growing pains to put up with. Each year there seem to be new systems, curricula, school culture systems, etc and you have to have a certain mindset to be ok with that. In regards to the work-life balance issues, it is spoken about and discussed as an area of growth in the school/network and what is encouraging is that in 3+ years here, I've seen major improvements. However, there are a lot of type A personalities here that work 12 hours a day because they are striving for perfection. It is possible to get your work done during the school day and be a great teacher, but at times you can feel guilty for not working 12+ hours a day because so many people are.