Pros
The only redeeming aspect of working here is that they have an admirable mission. The charter school is attempting to open a residency-model graduate school; its a very successful k-8 school, and they have a lot to offer people who want to teach or be administrators in urban schools; however, they believe that it is appropriate to have people with their bachelors degree teach master's degree candidates, and they are not interested in hearing why that might not be appealing to students who are going to pay over 20k for a one-year degree.
Cons
Do not work here. I was hired as a project manager, under the impression that I would be managing a project. I was the third person in this role in 6 months. My predecessor was hired as a grants manager, and then after starting the job, he was made aware that he was expected to do scheduling and meeting agendas. The role was neither a grants manager position (which is how the role is now once again advertised as of 10/13/2016), nor a project manager position. It is an administrative assistant role consisting mostly of scheduling meetings and writing agendas, reminding people to do their work, and helping them to manage their time.
There is no HR department, which led to a number of issues in the hiring process. During hiring conversations, I was led to believe that the 7% 401K contributions would begin immediately, but found out after accepting the job that contributions would not start for a year. I was also told that both dental and health were covered at 95%, when in fact the school had changed plans 8 months before my hire date, and dental was 100% employee-paid.
These are just a few examples of the gross incompetence of the people running the Teaching Studio. Not only were major elements of the compensation package misrepresented, but there was no apology made by the person who hired me. It is gross negligence at worst, and plain incompetence at best.
I was also told explicitly on my first day that people do not take lunch breaks, and that I should plan to eat lunch at my desk each day. I was told that even though the employer knows it is illegal to deny employees state-mandated breaks, the expectation is that I demonstrate my level of passion for the work by skipping lunch.
Finally, the culture of the school is very meetings-oriented. They do not believe in doing pre-work for meetings, so meeting time is often devoted to reading. You would think that a team of teachers would be able to apply the concept of a flipped classroom to meetings. Instead, team members spend this time reading, drafting agendas for future meetings, and delaying making any major decisions. Efficiency is not a priority for this team, so if you believe in wasting time, this is the job for you!