What happens if FCPS isn't staffed by the first day of school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our school, when a teacher left right before school started, they just had two classes of 34/35 instead of three. They did not add a class when more kids came during the year. It was a disaster.

I've seen this done....not good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, when a teacher left right before school started, they just had two classes of 34/35 instead of three. They did not add a class when more kids came during the year. It was a disaster.

This can also be a factor of the principal not wanting to shift teachers from other grades.

I taught first with 30+ when the sixth grades were 20. Principal said the sixth grade teachers could not teach first. Sadly, it was likely true.

6th grade teachers are PK-6 certified. They could teach it but they probably don’t want to.

PP. This was a while back. I do think that one of the teachers was certified for middle school-not elementary. And, the other two were likely not suited for first. Not sure they were suited for sixth either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, when a teacher left right before school started, they just had two classes of 34/35 instead of three. They did not add a class when more kids came during the year. It was a disaster.

This can also be a factor of the principal not wanting to shift teachers from other grades.

I taught first with 30+ when the sixth grades were 20. Principal said the sixth grade teachers could not teach first. Sadly, it was likely true.

6th grade teachers are PK-6 certified. They could teach it but they probably don’t want to.

Now I think they have to choose in college between pK-2 or 4-6 (8?). I am old so PK-6.

[Anonymous]

Back in the day it was 1-8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, when a teacher left right before school started, they just had two classes of 34/35 instead of three. They did not add a class when more kids came during the year. It was a disaster.

This can also be a factor of the principal not wanting to shift teachers from other grades.

I taught first with 30+ when the sixth grades were 20. Principal said the sixth grade teachers could not teach first. Sadly, it was likely true.

6th grade teachers are PK-6 certified. They could teach it but they probably don’t want to.

Now I think they have to choose in college between pK-2 or 4-6 (8?). I am old so PK-6.

It’s mainly still PreK to 6th, but they often prefer lower or upper.

[Anonymous]

What a stupid question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, when a teacher left right before school started, they just had two classes of 34/35 instead of three. They did not add a class when more kids came during the year. It was a disaster.

This can also be a factor of the principal not wanting to shift teachers from other grades.

I taught first with 30+ when the sixth grades were 20. Principal said the sixth grade teachers could not teach first. Sadly, it was likely true.

6th grade teachers are PK-6 certified. They could teach it but they probably don’t want to.

Now I think they have to choose in college between pK-2 or 4-6 (8?). I am old so PK-6.

It depends on where you went to school. For example, I came from another state where I was 1-4. My VA certification is NK-8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It makes me sad to read these stories about how mismanaged FCPS is now. It did not used to be like that when I was a student.

Would you increase the budget and hope that improves working conditions or just throw in the towel and give people vouchers?

I personally don’t have a lot of confidence in FCPS any longer but am willing to defer to those with current roles in the system - up to a point.

it isn’t new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school is fully staffed!

Ours too...four teacher trainees

How do you know this?

I'm not the PP but our school has a few and they are listed are on the school website-this is how SPED is filling many vacancies.

Oh, good. What could *possibly* go wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers here are also paid disproportionately low compared to other teachers in high COL areas. My sister makes 6 figures in a seattle suburb with 8 years of experience. If I were a brand new baby teacher, I'd be headed elsewhere.

Even areas that are not high COL. I have 30 years with FCPS. A friend teaches an ES grade outside of Pittsburgh and is making over $115k.

The average teacher pay in the Pittsburgh metro area is 56k. Not sure how your friend is managing this salary.

Do…you not know what the word “average” means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are not that many vacancies. My (highly regarded) ES has 0. And the MS and HS we are zoned for have 2-3 each, mostly in autism SPED. So, not relevant for us.

If this comment doesn’t sum up one segment of our county (and country) perfectly, I don’t know what does.

PP states as fact that there are NOT that many vacancies.
And how does she “know” this fact?
Because there are no vacancies in her little utopia, therefore, vacancies do not exist.

Priceless.

Well, Miss Utopia, my neighborhood elementary school is short 2 K teachers, 1 2nd grade teacher, 1 3rd grade teacher, and 4 special ed teachers. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Oh, she doesn’t care about that, because it’s “not relevant for us.” Like so many other parents in the district, she’s selfish and insufferable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It makes me sad to read these stories about how mismanaged FCPS is now. It did not used to be like that when I was a student.

Would you increase the budget and hope that improves working conditions or just throw in the towel and give people vouchers?

I personally don’t have a lot of confidence in FCPS any longer but am willing to defer to those with current roles in the system - up to a point.

Nobody is getting “vouchers.” Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school is fully staffed!

Ours too...four teacher trainees

How do you know this?

I'm not the PP but our school has a few and they are listed are on the school website-this is how SPED is filling many vacancies.

Oh, good. What could *possibly* go wrong?

Nobody wants to teach sped. Those teachers take so much abuse from the kids and then the parents personally hold them responsible for the lack of support and resources the school provides for them to do their jobs. Then a lawsuit says they have to go back to 2020 and evaluate every single kid on their caseload and the hours of services they received and write recommendations for recompense. The sped system is INSANE in this country.

[Anonymous]

It is so misleading to say we are fully staffed. At our school, we are down 4 teachers. They combined classes so class size is just south of 30 kids and there is a patchwork of coverage. We are talking 4-5 people taking shifts to cover the day. It’s a disaster. I don’t know if Reid understands how bad it is in schools or if she just doesn’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is so misleading to say we are fully staffed. At our school, we are down 4 teachers. They combined classes so class size is just south of 30 kids and there is a patchwork of coverage. We are talking 4-5 people taking shifts to cover the day. It’s a disaster. I don’t know if Reid understands how bad it is in schools or if she just doesn’t care.

FCPS does one thing really well....covers up the issues. Fabulous PR!