Study Reveals FCPS Teacher Career Salaries $142K Below Average of Regional Peers

[Anonymous]

We just lost the best teacher any of our children have had in FCPS to Arlington. Multiple kids and lots of teachers, so sad to lose this one and concerned about who else we might lose.

[Anonymous]

Most teachers I know tutor for approximately $300 more per week. Several days after school for 1 hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this does not take benefits into consideration. The delta is MUCH less.

Please share the info you have.

Yes. Please do. The WABE report came out just recently for last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My husband teaches in FCPS. He has a Masters degree and 15 years of teaching experience (10 of them at the same FCPS school) - he makes about $65k. He's strongly considering switching to Arlington for the pay. It's tough living in this area on that kind of income. We realized we weren't going to be well-off with his career choice, but this has gotten to be too much.

We have two kids in FCPS schools, so we care about the quality of schools and teachers here. I hope FCPS finds a long-term fix soon.

65k at his level is way too low IMO.

Agree--however, he does have excellent health benefits for his family. And, good retirement prospects. In addition, he gets three months of vacation--if you include paid holidays and breaks during the year. I have been a teacher and understand how hard they work, but the pay is deceiving when you balance it with the time off allotted.
The other schools district in the area also get what you listed but are paying their teachers more. This is what this study is about. Not about what "teachers in general" get paid but what FCPS teachers get paid in comparison to teachers in surrounding districts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband teaches in FCPS. He has a Masters degree and 15 years of teaching experience (10 of them at the same FCPS school) - he makes about $65k. He's strongly considering switching to Arlington for the pay. It's tough living in this area on that kind of income. We realized we weren't going to be well-off with his career choice, but this has gotten to be too much.

We have two kids in FCPS schools, so we care about the quality of schools and teachers here. I hope FCPS finds a long-term fix soon.

65K seems on the low end for a teacher with his qualifications/experience in FCPS. How is it that some of his peers are make 30K+ more than him in the same school system. I am not a teacher, I have just seen 6 figure salaries reported elsewhere.

Not the PP, but a teacher with 15 years and a Masters makes in the upper 60s. The degree step does not necessarily match the number of years experience.

The only teachers making $30k more than that have almost 30 years and a MA. My DH has 23 years with FCPS and makes around $85k. Not a complaint, just a comment.

O.k. but that doesn't include all of the earning opportunities that they have during the summer and even taking on additional responsibilities at the school. They can earn more if they wish to earn more can't they?

Of course that is true about summer. Right now he watches the kids during the summer so we don't have to pay for child care. Maybe someday though! I'm not sure what extra jobs they can do during the school year that would earn them more money though (or maybe you meant that as part of the summer opportunities).

Don't they get extra for coaching a sport or being year book advisers or leading an after school activity (I'm not talking about a monthly club, I'm talking about something regular).

[Anonymous]

The amounts given for club advising and coaching is incredibly small compared to the time put in. Like $2,000 to be a head coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband teaches in FCPS. He has a Masters degree and 15 years of teaching experience (10 of them at the same FCPS school) - he makes about $65k. He's strongly considering switching to Arlington for the pay. It's tough living in this area on that kind of income. We realized we weren't going to be well-off with his career choice, but this has gotten to be too much.

We have two kids in FCPS schools, so we care about the quality of schools and teachers here. I hope FCPS finds a long-term fix soon.

65K seems on the low end for a teacher with his qualifications/experience in FCPS. How is it that some of his peers are make 30K+ more than him in the same school system. I am not a teacher, I have just seen 6 figure salaries reported elsewhere.

Not the PP, but a teacher with 15 years and a Masters makes in the upper 60s. The degree step does not necessarily match the number of years experience.

The only teachers making $30k more than that have almost 30 years and a MA. My DH has 23 years with FCPS and makes around $85k. Not a complaint, just a comment.

O.k. but that doesn't include all of the earning opportunities that they have during the summer and even taking on additional responsibilities at the school. They can earn more if they wish to earn more can't they?

Of course that is true about summer. Right now he watches the kids during the summer so we don't have to pay for child care. Maybe someday though! I'm not sure what extra jobs they can do during the school year that would earn them more money though (or maybe you meant that as part of the summer opportunities).

Don't they get extra for coaching a sport or being year book advisers or leading an after school activity (I'm not talking about a monthly club, I'm talking about something regular).

I lead an organized club after school each week. It is 2 hours of actually leading, and another hour or so of prep work. For that, I get paid $24 ($12/hour, planning time doesn't count). It is a labor of love, not a way to pay the bills. It would be more financially savvy for me to wait tables in the evening.

There is no payment for staying after with students for extra help. That is an expectation that each teacher will stay a minimum of 90 minutes per week tutoring students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband teaches in FCPS. He has a Masters degree and 15 years of teaching experience (10 of them at the same FCPS school) - he makes about $65k. He's strongly considering switching to Arlington for the pay. It's tough living in this area on that kind of income. We realized we weren't going to be well-off with his career choice, but this has gotten to be too much.

We have two kids in FCPS schools, so we care about the quality of schools and teachers here. I hope FCPS finds a long-term fix soon.

+1

[Anonymous]

if a person working 'full-time' at 40 hours a week is 2080 hours a year. Take 4 weeks off for holidays and vacations (160 hours) makes $85K (hourly rate of around $43) as a federal employee or contractor- I would love to see comparable match for teachers. (Not overtime or grading papers at home or anything like that- just time at work because the rest of us do overtime and business travel, etc).

I feel for teachers and know they have a hard job but they have perfected whining about how hard they have it. Working sucks for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if a person working 'full-time' at 40 hours a week is 2080 hours a year. Take 4 weeks off for holidays and vacations (160 hours) makes $85K (hourly rate of around $43) as a federal employee or contractor- I would love to see comparable match for teachers. (Not overtime or grading papers at home or anything like that- just time at work because the rest of us do overtime and business travel, etc).

I feel for teachers and know they have a hard job but they have perfected whining about how hard they have it. Working sucks for everyone.

What does any of this have to do with the fact that Fairfax teachers are paid less than Arlington teachers and teachers in other neighboring districts?

[Anonymous]

Well it's 180 days of school correct? The typical contract length ranges from 194 days to 260 days. I think about 200 is average. A typical school day is about 6.5 hours of which a teacher gets off about 0.5 hours. Planning time is built into the remaining 6 hours. 200 days x 6 hours = 1200 hours per year. If you wanted to add 1 hour of extra planning/grading time per day just add an additional 180-200 hours. You can divide whatever teacher pay (including or not including benefits) by these amounts to get an hourly rate.

[Anonymous]

13:19 again. They may have a longer day schedule. I don't know. I think most are contracted for probably 7 hours per day but lunch is included during this time. So at 7 hours per day x 200 days, that would be 1600 hours per year required. Plus whatever additional is needed.

What school requires 90 minutes of tutoring per week? Is that at the middle and high school level? Is this part of your contract time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if a person working 'full-time' at 40 hours a week is 2080 hours a year. Take 4 weeks off for holidays and vacations (160 hours) makes $85K (hourly rate of around $43) as a federal employee or contractor- I would love to see comparable match for teachers. (Not overtime or grading papers at home or anything like that- just time at work because the rest of us do overtime and business travel, etc).

I feel for teachers and know they have a hard job but they have perfected whining about how hard they have it. Working sucks for everyone.

Okay, sure.

Let's go with 40 hours per week at 38.8 weeks (194 days) for teacher contracts. That's 1552 hours. I made about $52k last year, so $33.50/hour. Technically my lunch doesn't count for my hours (though that's usually when I attend IEPs, have lunch duty, counsel my students, or hold kids for detention), so if you want to look at my job on paper I only work 7.5 hour days and it would be $35.70 per hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My SIL is a 4th grade teacher in a Long Island, NY school district. She's been at her job for about 20 years, is in her mid 40s and makes a salary of $125K/year (plus benefits). That's more than I make as an engineer with the same experience. I sometimes wonder if I made the right choice.

I'm in my 40's in FCPS. I make $83K. You really can't equate FCPS with Westchester or Long Island, NY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband teaches in FCPS. He has a Masters degree and 15 years of teaching experience (10 of them at the same FCPS school) - he makes about $65k. He's strongly considering switching to Arlington for the pay. It's tough living in this area on that kind of income. We realized we weren't going to be well-off with his career choice, but this has gotten to be too much.

We have two kids in FCPS schools, so we care about the quality of schools and teachers here. I hope FCPS finds a long-term fix soon.

65K seems on the low end for a teacher with his qualifications/experience in FCPS. How is it that some of his peers are make 30K+ more than him in the same school system. I am not a teacher, I have just seen 6 figure salaries reported elsewhere.

Steps don't match the number of years of experience. Our step increases have been frozen many of the last 10 years (I forget, maybe 6-7 of them?) So a teacher might have 10 years of experience but actually only moved up 3 or 4 steps on the scale.