3% raise for teachers? What a joke FCPS!

[Anonymous]

Honestly, people need to stop comparing. The reality is teachers are leaving. Supply is low. Teaching is a high stress job. If you want teachers demands need to decrease and pay needs to increase. There are NO resumes coming in. So unless you are ok with random subs for your kid, parents need to really start understanding the job of a teacher in 2023 and why teachers should be paid way more for what they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3% is a perfectly reasonable COLA.

I think plenty of us would be okay paying teachers more if they were full time, year round. Teachers forget how much time they have off when they’re comparing their salaries. 80k would be 100k if they worked year round and got 3 weeks vacation.

FCPS teachers work 195 days. People who work all year with no vacation equals 260 days. Subtract your three weeks of holiday/vacation and you have 245. A difference of 50 days. But here is the thing….

Most teachers put in over 40 hours in a week which adds up to additional work days. So in reality the difference could end up being a lot less. Also many professional jobs get more than 3 weeks vacation. My husband is a fed and has enough vacation time to take off more than 3 weeks a year.

Many salaried jobs are not just 40 hours. On average I work roughly 50 hours a week and my husband works 60 per week. Not a valid argument bc the same thing happens in the private sector.

Yes. But the point is teachers are working more than 195 days a year. With all the overtime hours they put in it adds up to more days. This is in response to a PP who said if they worked all year.

Ok and private sector professionals work more than 260 days per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers do get 2 months off. It is unique.

Teachers don’t get paid for two months.

I work 60 hour weeks for 40 weeks a year. When summer comes, I have to get another job for 2 months so I can pay my bills. I’m also paying (out of my own pocket) for classes to stay certified as a teacher. Summers aren’t the extended paid vacation many non-teachers think they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, people need to stop comparing. The reality is teachers are leaving. Supply is low. Teaching is a high stress job. If you want teachers demands need to decrease and pay needs to increase. There are NO resumes coming in. So unless you are ok with random subs for your kid, parents need to really start understanding the job of a teacher in 2023 and why teachers should be paid way more for what they do.

The comparison game is always going to exist because teachers whine about how hard they have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, people need to stop comparing. The reality is teachers are leaving. Supply is low. Teaching is a high stress job. If you want teachers demands need to decrease and pay needs to increase. There are NO resumes coming in. So unless you are ok with random subs for your kid, parents need to really start understanding the job of a teacher in 2023 and why teachers should be paid way more for what they do.

I agree! We can’t fill positions at our school. Reading DCUM would make one believe that teachers have the best job ever, yet reality shows nobody actually thinks that.

Want to keep teachers? Pay us, but also treat us professionally. Don’t expect teachers to do half the job at home. Give us a healthier work/life balance. Then we’ll stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is 3% + a step.

$80.9 million to provide a market scale adjustment of 3.0% for all employees.
$58.2 million to provide a step increase for all eligible employees.
$4.3 million to provide a step extension for all scales.

I'm not sure what you want from FCPS. The Fairfax Board of Supervisors needs to raise taxes further if you want big teacher raises.

We do want greater increases for teachers because we believe they deserve them.

What we want from FCPS is to stop spending on contractors and lawyers. The money allocated to social engineering programs and to protect FCPS employees who break the law should be plenty to increase teachers salaries more significantly than proposed. No need to raise our taxes more than they already are. What we need is to redirect expenses by prioritizing what really matters: Our teachers. They are our boots on the ground when it comes to educating our children. Panorama Education, Planned Parenthood, Sidley Austin LLP, and other contractors, are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, people need to stop comparing. The reality is teachers are leaving. Supply is low. Teaching is a high stress job. If you want teachers demands need to decrease and pay needs to increase. There are NO resumes coming in. So unless you are ok with random subs for your kid, parents need to really start understanding the job of a teacher in 2023 and why teachers should be paid way more for what they do.

The comparison game is always going to exist because teachers whine about how hard they have it.

I’m the PP.

You’re welcome to join us if you think it’s such a great deal. My school has had multiple openings all year, and I’ve been using my planning periods to help fill one of the vacancies. I can’t tell you how wonderful it would be if you would share the load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, people need to stop comparing. The reality is teachers are leaving. Supply is low. Teaching is a high stress job. If you want teachers demands need to decrease and pay needs to increase. There are NO resumes coming in. So unless you are ok with random subs for your kid, parents need to really start understanding the job of a teacher in 2023 and why teachers should be paid way more for what they do.

+1

And for all those comparisons, if you think teaching is so great, why don’t you quit and become a teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, people need to stop comparing. The reality is teachers are leaving. Supply is low. Teaching is a high stress job. If you want teachers demands need to decrease and pay needs to increase. There are NO resumes coming in. So unless you are ok with random subs for your kid, parents need to really start understanding the job of a teacher in 2023 and why teachers should be paid way more for what they do.

This. I'm a parent and a teacher. Our school had two highly qualified teachers leave midyear. Both positions would have been quickly snapped up in previous years but they stayed vacant and the jobs were filled by a rotating group of warm bodies. We got offered a fantastic destaff from a neighboring school for next year for one of the positions but that person declined. They accepted a job in a neighboring county because the pay is higher.

[Anonymous]

There are more undergrads that just graduated in elementary Ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers do get 2 months off. It is unique.

Teachers don’t get paid for two months.

I work 60 hour weeks for 40 weeks a year. When summer comes, I have to get another job for 2 months so I can pay my bills. I’m also paying (out of my own pocket) for classes to stay certified as a teacher. Summers aren’t the extended paid vacation many non-teachers think they are.

Of course, you must work summers. Who gets 2 months off in a job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers do get 2 months off. It is unique.

And winter break and spring break and many holidays. It’s not fair to compare salaries without taking that into account. And most professionals work “after hours” too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 3% raise is frustrating because the senior leadership team is expanding in 2023-24 and they have also promoted themselves and received a larger than 3% raise (but they will now also receive 3% raise). Flattened the organization, net neutral, more efficient.

Where do you see senior leadership expanding and where do you see that they got a larger raise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers do get 2 months off. It is unique.

Teachers don’t get paid for two months.

I work 60 hour weeks for 40 weeks a year. When summer comes, I have to get another job for 2 months so I can pay my bills. I’m also paying (out of my own pocket) for classes to stay certified as a teacher. Summers aren’t the extended paid vacation many non-teachers think they are.

Of course, you must work summers. Who gets 2 months off in a job?

I don’t get two months off. I’m not PAID for those two months. It isn’t vacation time.

60 hours a week x 40 weeks = 2400 hours
40 hours a week x 50 weeks = 2000 hours

It appears I’m working far more in 10 months than a 12-month position.

If I have it good, again: join me! We lost 3 teachers mid year. I guess they didn’t see how good they had it. That means their positions are open, so you are welcome to apply! Please do, so I don’t have to do their work on top of mine again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are more undergrads that just graduated in elementary Ed.

And you think that will fill the open position? It didn’t last year.