I almost Took it Back

today at work one of our paras announced she had decided she needed to be a stay at home mom and put in her notice. What with school being in full swing, this isn't what anyone wanted to hear, and she's one of our best paras. She's supportive of school policies, she shows up, she helps the kids without doing the work for them. I guess her husband makes enough money that she can afford to stay home, and her wage barely covers the cost of having the baby in daycare.

Hiring another para will take a while. The last one we needed was three weeks start to finish.

Jason has been looking for steady work for over two years. He was laid off in 2008, and has been back to school and hired, laid off and put to part time in several positions. At the moment he's working for an HVAC contractor, most days he shows up and get sent home after a couple of hours. Working outside and in people's homes is a lot different from being a para in a high school inclusion program. But I told him about the position.

And I am sort of wondering if I should have. I don't want him or anyone, to apply if they don't want to. Its a job that you shouldn't be in if you don't feel like you need to be there. And it would be really weird for him to be working where I work, with me being in a supervisory position in relation to him. And he'd have to move here, which would probably mean moving in.

But the guy's been looking for work for so long. And I think we need a male in our program. We have one male Special education teacher of four. We have six paras, none male. But most students with IEPs are male, and some of our kids just respond better to a guy, and the only men they see are just horrible examples. We need a dude.

I know that's completely sexist of me. One should not hire based on gender. And one should probably not direct one's boyfriend to a job in their company.

And I did both. He's free to apply or not. If he decides to apply and interviews, I will offer him as much or as little insight as he wants. But I'm going to stay out of it.

I really hope this doesn't bite me in the ass.