How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please catch me back up. Are the largest holes to fill SPED related? What percentage of the FCPS student population falls under SPED?

Teacher contracts in FCPS are year-to-year, correct? Don’t most vacancies get filled at the last minute? That’s what I’ve been told as a partial explanation of why kids don’t know who their teaxher(s) are until a few days before school starts.

In ES, many classes are built at the end of the year. There may be changes but about 80-90% of the class will stay the same. Rosters aren’t finalized until mid-August when the SIA builds the classes in SIS. Vacancies are filled from April - August, mainly jobs are filled in the summer (not the week before school starts). It is incredibly stressful to fill positions a few days before school starts. It happens but it’s not really the norm. The positions filled late aren’t always the cream of the crop.

About 15% of FCPS students are SPED, but if those positions are not filled, the work will trickle down to other positions that will negatively affect the job satisfaction of classroom teachers AND affect the ability to meet accommodations in the IEP. When the district gets desperate they sometimes hire people on provisional licenses, who are inexperienced and not fully trained employees.

Many teachers, like myself, are in continuous contract. Meaning I have a job until I quit or am let go. I have not signed a contract with FCPS in 7 years, it’s a formality that isn’t done annually.

Thank you for providing this insight.

[Anonymous]

Are ES schools worse off than MS and HS in terms of staffing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are ES schools worse off than MS and HS in terms of staffing?

You can check for yourself:
https://careers.fcps.edu/vl/vacancy.htm

You can sort by school and by level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never seen schools advertise positions on Facebook before this summer. I’m seeing individual schools posting summer and regular year positions the past few days.

This is the worst summer ever for hiring. Colleagues and I are truly panicking about the unfilled positions. Special education teachers are nowhere to be found. This is very real. Anyone who tells you otherwise needs to stop by their local FCPS school and ask their principal.

--signed an FCPS principal.

That’s what I’ve been afraid of.
I need to retire.

ES Teacher

A neighbor who runs a daycare/preschool said they’ve lost several of their degreed staff to ESes because they can make more as IAs. So even if the holes in the schools get plugged, other places are going to leak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never seen schools advertise positions on Facebook before this summer. I’m seeing individual schools posting summer and regular year positions the past few days.

This is the worst summer ever for hiring. Colleagues and I are truly panicking about the unfilled positions. Special education teachers are nowhere to be found. This is very real. Anyone who tells you otherwise needs to stop by their local FCPS school and ask their principal.

--signed an FCPS principal.

That’s what I’ve been afraid of.
I need to retire.

ES Teacher

A neighbor who runs a daycare/preschool said they’ve lost several of their degreed staff to ESes because they can make more as IAs. So even if the holes in the schools get plugged, other places are going to leak.

Sorry to sound ignorant. But why does a preschool need degreed staff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had never seen schools advertise positions on Facebook before this summer. I’m seeing individual schools posting summer and regular year positions the past few days.

This is the worst summer ever for hiring. Colleagues and I are truly panicking about the unfilled positions. Special education teachers are nowhere to be found. This is very real. Anyone who tells you otherwise needs to stop by their local FCPS school and ask their principal.

--signed an FCPS principal.

That’s what I’ve been afraid of.
I need to retire.

ES Teacher

A neighbor who runs a daycare/preschool said they’ve lost several of their degreed staff to ESes because they can make more as IAs. So even if the holes in the schools get plugged, other places are going to leak.

Sorry to sound ignorant. But why does a preschool need degreed staff?

DP, per the state guidelines some positions require degrees.

[Anonymous]

I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

I took 2 years off from teaching to care for a sick child and then returned to teaching when my DC was better. It wasn’t stressful at all, not like teaching. It was more like boring and annoying. (by the way, I was making 18K more) I never had enough work to fill the day, and was constantly asked for more. I also worked in a cubicle area and got annoyed with all the talking, sounds, smells, etc…. And the need/desire to get consensus. Make a decision and move on. I was happy to return to teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

I have had many different jobs and am a career switcher. What is most difficult about teaching public HS is the amount of verbal and emotional abuse I endure at the hands of select students, parents, and administrators. There is little to no recourse for it, and as someone who is very well educated and accustomed to working with other well educated people, I was surprised at how discourteous, disrespectful, and unprofessional those in the school community can be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

I have had many different jobs and am a career switcher. What is most difficult about teaching public HS is the amount of verbal and emotional abuse I endure at the hands of select students, parents, and administrators. There is little to no recourse for it, and as someone who is very well educated and accustomed to working with other well educated people, I was surprised at how discourteous, disrespectful, and unprofessional those in the school community can be.

100% agree on the disrespect from school communities. It's also the total disregard of teachers time. Public schools pile on the expectations and unnecessary meetings and then are shocked when the actual teaching and planning go to the wayside. It's not sustainable and the pay does not match the demands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are ES schools worse off than MS and HS in terms of staffing?

You can check for yourself:
https://careers.fcps.edu/vl/vacancy.htm

You can sort by school and by level.

Thanks for sharing the link. Pleasantly surprised to see my kids’ school has no vacancies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are ES schools worse off than MS and HS in terms of staffing?

You can check for yourself:
https://careers.fcps.edu/vl/vacancy.htm

You can sort by school and by level.

Thanks for sharing the link. Pleasantly surprised to see my kids’ school has no vacancies.

Yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

I have had many different jobs and am a career switcher. What is most difficult about teaching public HS is the amount of verbal and emotional abuse I endure at the hands of select students, parents, and administrators. There is little to no recourse for it, and as someone who is very well educated and accustomed to working with other well educated people, I was surprised at how discourteous, disrespectful, and unprofessional those in the school community can be.

100% agree on the disrespect from school communities. It's also the total disregard of teachers time. Public schools pile on the expectations and unnecessary meetings and then are shocked when the actual teaching and planning go to the wayside. It's not sustainable and the pay does not match the demands.

It seems the community doesn't appreciate or genuinely care about the teachers or school system itself. They just expect their school to maintain high ratings on dubious ranking websites and they assume all is well at FCPS as long as the rating is high every year when the new list comes out. It's an echo chamber and most parents focus only on that surface-level data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

I can go to the bathroom when I need to, not when I can find someone to watch the room. If I make a doctors appointment, I can just…go. My lunch break is an actual lunch break and—god forbid—nobody cares if I sometimes dare to take longer than 25 minutes. There’s no moratorium on taking personal days on Friday.

Yeah, I’m never going back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear from former teachers if there new jobs/careers suck as much as teaching? All jobs are hard.

I can go to the bathroom when I need to, not when I can find someone to watch the room. If I make a doctors appointment, I can just…go. My lunch break is an actual lunch break and—god forbid—nobody cares if I sometimes dare to take longer than 25 minutes. There’s no moratorium on taking personal days on Friday.

Yeah, I’m never going back.

What job do you do now?