LCPS parents - are you worried about the number of open teaching postions?

[Anonymous]

With PF, something else to look out for is counselor retention. It was awful when my child’s counselor resigned right before college application season started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What they're paying is downright criminal and why they can't staff. My friend is an IA with 20 years experience in special education moving to the area from out of state. They offered her 24k to start. Despite absolutely falling in love with the school she interviewed with, she had to turn the position down once she received the offer.

Yeah, TA's across the country everywhere aren't paid well. I think their pay is kind of insulting. I worked with a TA this year in my classroom who truly was amazing. She worked 1:1 with a child with an IEP. I do not know what I would have done without her and most certainly, the child's outcomes improved exponentially simply because she was so good. I'd like to see TA's in HCOL cities start at 35-38K with full health benefits. It doesn't matter if most teachers with a BA start at 50-55K in most cities, we desperately need good TA's. This, to me, is even more serious than a very serious teacher shortage. My sister teaches in a district where it looks like they aren't going to be able to open their headstart PreK program on time along with the rest of the grades because they cannot get enough TA's (required by law) to staff it.

In this area a TA should start at like 45,000 with room for growth. Teachers starting pay should be 65,000 and steps/cola should happen yearly.

Exactly. You can't hire and retain people if you don't even pay a living wage for the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing in your daughter’s case is that they have to collapse a section and add those 25ish kids across the other classes so each class size might be a few kids bigger. There is still also 3 weeks left before school and I’ve seen people get hired the day before school starts. But of course, those late hires are either brand new teachers or the people who weren’t picked in earlier hiring rounds so it’s a crapshoot. Some turn out ok, some are terrible but that’s really true for all teachers.

Overall your DD will be fine but the hiring issue will not get better during your kids’ tenure in school. The job has changed. Younger people are not entering the field in numbers. When career educators (the 30+ year vets) leave, there’s nobody in similar experience coming up behind them because doing this as a lifelong career has become so much more difficult. It’s a milestone to make it beyond 5 years now; 10 is a benchmark. So the field is over time becoming less and less experienced -the vets retire and who is left are novices or mid careers. Add in the political nonsense and being hammered by parents over some book that’s on a shelf in your room that’s driving them to fits and too many people are saying why deal with this pressure for this money? It’s unfortunate. I’ve seen so many great colleagues leave the last few years.

-teacher

The overused book censorship example is not the reason why teachers are leaving in droves. - teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing in your daughter’s case is that they have to collapse a section and add those 25ish kids across the other classes so each class size might be a few kids bigger. There is still also 3 weeks left before school and I’ve seen people get hired the day before school starts. But of course, those late hires are either brand new teachers or the people who weren’t picked in earlier hiring rounds so it’s a crapshoot. Some turn out ok, some are terrible but that’s really true for all teachers.

Overall your DD will be fine but the hiring issue will not get better during your kids’ tenure in school. The job has changed. Younger people are not entering the field in numbers. When career educators (the 30+ year vets) leave, there’s nobody in similar experience coming up behind them because doing this as a lifelong career has become so much more difficult. It’s a milestone to make it beyond 5 years now; 10 is a benchmark. So the field is over time becoming less and less experienced -the vets retire and who is left are novices or mid careers. Add in the political nonsense and being hammered by parents over some book that’s on a shelf in your room that’s driving them to fits and too many people are saying why deal with this pressure for this money? It’s unfortunate. I’ve seen so many great colleagues leave the last few years.

-teacher

The overused book censorship example is not the reason why teachers are leaving in droves. - teacher

But doesn’t it all go towards attacks on the teaching profession as a whole (blaming teachers for school closures, indoctrination of students, etc)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Scrolling through the list. Why are there so many openings at Champe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scrolling through the list. Why are there so many openings at Champe?

This is just a BS tweet, IMO.

I'm a gay LCPS parent. Two teens that are friends with our kids have come out to me and my wife for guidance and support. Teens (and even adults) coming out to others before their own family members is not uncommon. Coming out is a scary thing to do even in 2022 and especially if you're under 18 where your life is still heavily controlled by your parents but that doesn't mean they're abusive.

[Anonymous]

My hope for this year is that classes without permanent teachers or long-term subs are absorbed into other classrooms. My kid taught himself Physics last year because he didn't have a teacher for more than half of the year. They finally got a permanent sub in there just before February. The other science teachers held open hours before and after school to try to help the science students without teachers. However, none were physics teachers or, shockingly enough, very good at teaching physics. Their efforts were still appreciated because it was a hell of a lot more than the admins ever seemed to do.

There were days when the class had no sub at all so they all just reported to the auditorium and sat for 90s mins. They were told by the monitor (an Assistant Principal) to do other work, read a book, listen to music, or sleep... just anything but talking or bothering them. Nice.

I am happy to see that there is no open physics position at my kids school for this year! Kid #2 is enrolled in it so at least, at this moment, it looks like he'll have a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing in your daughter’s case is that they have to collapse a section and add those 25ish kids across the other classes so each class size might be a few kids bigger. There is still also 3 weeks left before school and I’ve seen people get hired the day before school starts. But of course, those late hires are either brand new teachers or the people who weren’t picked in earlier hiring rounds so it’s a crapshoot. Some turn out ok, some are terrible but that’s really true for all teachers.

Overall your DD will be fine but the hiring issue will not get better during your kids’ tenure in school. The job has changed. Younger people are not entering the field in numbers. When career educators (the 30+ year vets) leave, there’s nobody in similar experience coming up behind them because doing this as a lifelong career has become so much more difficult. It’s a milestone to make it beyond 5 years now; 10 is a benchmark. So the field is over time becoming less and less experienced -the vets retire and who is left are novices or mid careers. Add in the political nonsense and being hammered by parents over some book that’s on a shelf in your room that’s driving them to fits and too many people are saying why deal with this pressure for this money? It’s unfortunate. I’ve seen so many great colleagues leave the last few years.

-teacher

The overused book censorship example is not the reason why teachers are leaving in droves. - teacher

Hey fellow teacher - you surely know what an anecdote means and that I never said “teachers are leaving because of books.” You know very will it was one example of the endless BS that gets added to our plates every year. Don’t be dense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing in your daughter’s case is that they have to collapse a section and add those 25ish kids across the other classes so each class size might be a few kids bigger. There is still also 3 weeks left before school and I’ve seen people get hired the day before school starts. But of course, those late hires are either brand new teachers or the people who weren’t picked in earlier hiring rounds so it’s a crapshoot. Some turn out ok, some are terrible but that’s really true for all teachers.

Overall your DD will be fine but the hiring issue will not get better during your kids’ tenure in school. The job has changed. Younger people are not entering the field in numbers. When career educators (the 30+ year vets) leave, there’s nobody in similar experience coming up behind them because doing this as a lifelong career has become so much more difficult. It’s a milestone to make it beyond 5 years now; 10 is a benchmark. So the field is over time becoming less and less experienced -the vets retire and who is left are novices or mid careers. Add in the political nonsense and being hammered by parents over some book that’s on a shelf in your room that’s driving them to fits and too many people are saying why deal with this pressure for this money? It’s unfortunate. I’ve seen so many great colleagues leave the last few years.

-teacher

The overused book censorship example is not the reason why teachers are leaving in droves. - teacher

Hey fellow teacher - you surely know what an anecdote means and that I never said “teachers are leaving because of books.” You know very will it was one example of the endless BS that gets added to our plates every year. Don’t be dense.

Teachers are leaving because of terrible Admins, terrible parents, and terrible kids - in that order.

My sister quit in June. She started a new job August 1 where she's making $15k more than where she capped out as a LCPS teacher with two masters and over 20 years of teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst thing in your daughter’s case is that they have to collapse a section and add those 25ish kids across the other classes so each class size might be a few kids bigger. There is still also 3 weeks left before school and I’ve seen people get hired the day before school starts. But of course, those late hires are either brand new teachers or the people who weren’t picked in earlier hiring rounds so it’s a crapshoot. Some turn out ok, some are terrible but that’s really true for all teachers.

Overall your DD will be fine but the hiring issue will not get better during your kids’ tenure in school. The job has changed. Younger people are not entering the field in numbers. When career educators (the 30+ year vets) leave, there’s nobody in similar experience coming up behind them because doing this as a lifelong career has become so much more difficult. It’s a milestone to make it beyond 5 years now; 10 is a benchmark. So the field is over time becoming less and less experienced -the vets retire and who is left are novices or mid careers. Add in the political nonsense and being hammered by parents over some book that’s on a shelf in your room that’s driving them to fits and too many people are saying why deal with this pressure for this money? It’s unfortunate. I’ve seen so many great colleagues leave the last few years.

-teacher

The overused book censorship example is not the reason why teachers are leaving in droves. - teacher

Hey fellow teacher - you surely know what an anecdote means and that I never said “teachers are leaving because of books.” You know very will it was one example of the endless BS that gets added to our plates every year. Don’t be dense.

Teachers are leaving because of terrible Admins, terrible parents, and terrible kids - in that order.

My sister quit in June. She started a new job August 1 where she's making $15k more than where she capped out as a LCPS teacher with two masters and over 20 years of teaching.

Nobody denies this. But when you say “terrible admin” that encompasses a lot of behaviors. As does “terrible parents.” Parents threatening your job because they oppose an LGBTQ book being in your classroom library, which has happened to multiple LCPS teachers, is an example of the behavior from “terrible parents” that is driving out teachers. It’s just one of many. This isn’t difficult to understand.

[Anonymous]

With people like Ian Prior terrorizing LCPS who would want to teach there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With people like Ian Prior terrorizing LCPS who would want to teach there?

Um no, but thanks for playing. Like any school district, they are unable to hire enough because it just doesn’t pay enough for the amount of hours they have to put in. There are many more higher paying options now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They laid teachers off last year and now don’t have enough? Seriously?! These people don’t know their $&@ from a hole in the wall.

When, and why, we’re teachers laid off in LCPS? I don’t remember that happening.

I know at my kids' LCPS school, when the estimated numbers came in for new students, the school had to make the equivalent of like three FT staff position cuts. Staffing is based on school population and the incoming class is expected to be the smallest one in a number of years, likely because people who sent their kids to private during the pandemic are keeping their kids there. Plus any additional funding from pandemic stuff is gone now. So the county didn't announce cuts or anything, but the school principals have to make new numbers work by cutting staff.

In our case, the fourth guidance counselor, who had just been hired the prior year, was the first to go. I don't know what other positions were cut, but I think they may have knocked a few people down from FT to PT, including the choir teacher. So mental health and the arts are, as usual, the first on the chopping block.

So yeah, those folks were notified before the end of last year about their contracts not being renewed. Then as teachers leave at the end of the year and over the summer, the schools find out they now don't have enough staff to fill the positions that they do need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They laid teachers off last year and now don’t have enough? Seriously?! These people don’t know their $&@ from a hole in the wall.

When, and why, we’re teachers laid off in LCPS? I don’t remember that happening.

I know at my kids' LCPS school, when the estimated numbers came in for new students, the school had to make the equivalent of like three FT staff position cuts. Staffing is based on school population and the incoming class is expected to be the smallest one in a number of years, likely because people who sent their kids to private during the pandemic are keeping their kids there. Plus any additional funding from pandemic stuff is gone now. So the county didn't announce cuts or anything, but the school principals have to make new numbers work by cutting staff.

In our case, the fourth guidance counselor, who had just been hired the prior year, was the first to go. I don't know what other positions were cut, but I think they may have knocked a few people down from FT to PT, including the choir teacher. So mental health and the arts are, as usual, the first on the chopping block.

So yeah, those folks were notified before the end of last year about their contracts not being renewed. Then as teachers leave at the end of the year and over the summer, the schools find out they now don't have enough staff to fill the positions that they do need.

Just want to clarify these aren’t lay offs. They’re called destaffs. A schools enrollment may change so that school may only be allotted 4 counselors instead of 5. The 5th doesn’t get fired or laid off, LCPS just moves them to a school where there is an opening for them. So these things don’t really affect staffing numbers - if they’re short, it isn’t due to destaffs, and teachers don’t get “laid off.” Shortages would only be due to teachers leaving for whatever reason (moving, retiring, quitting) and there not being enough applicants (or qualified ones) to replace.