Working for FCPS

[Anonymous]

Is pay comparable with lcps and pwcs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is pay comparable with lcps and pwcs?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does FCPS still have teacher/staffing shortage?
I just heard our school de-staffed.

Please someone tell me.

Not much of a shortage anymore. We had destaffs at the end of last year and will have more at the end of this year. The reason is that our main vehicle of population increase in Nova has been immigrants, and they aren't showing up anymore. We are short thousands compared to what was expected. We also had quite a few Doge victims transition to teaching, so teacher numbers are up and students are down = destaffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is pay comparable with lcps and pwcs?

Yes

PWCS pay can be much, much lower depending on your experience. Although the pay scales look similar (with PWCS being lower, but not by too much), FCPS tends to place teachers new to the county higher on the payscale. PWCS places people generally very low. I had an offer from PWCS last year that was 30K lower than what I am being paid now in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does FCPS still have teacher/staffing shortage?
I just heard our school de-staffed.

Please someone tell me.

They always de-staffed teachers. They will be first in line to transfer to a different school. Sometimes that happens because not enough kids sign up to take ART 1 class because it lowers someone GPA, or in elementary school there was a dropped in enrollment for the following school year. I know someone who de-staffed because they were a Multiple Disabilities Teacher for kindergarten, now they working for 6th graders and never been de-staffed.

It's different this year though. Generally destaffing notices come around spring break (at the secondary level at least) since future enrollment is known early. Teachers have months to find a new position within the county, can be a little bit picky where they interview, and still quit by the June 15th deadline if they aren't happy and want to go out of county.

This year, destaff notices literally came the last week of school. The deadline to quit without prejudice (allowing another county in VA to hire you) was only a week later. That's not enough time to interview and evaluate your options. If they don't have another school lined up by July 1, they will be automatically assigned somewhere. A teacher who lived and worked in Alexandria could be assigned to a school in Herndon, and they have no say. If they quit, they are ineligible to be hired in surrounding counties for 3 years. The staff facebook page was full teachers bemoaning the situation. This isn't (solely) enrollment based, it's because Reid changed the staffing ratio at the last minute so principals had to scramble last minute to make more cuts. Classes are going to be absolutely packed next year at my school, I assume it will be the same elsewhere.

So when FCPS crows about how they are "fully staffed" going into fall, know that it's because they basically trapped a lot of people.

They also claim they are “fully staffed” because they fill teaching positions with warm bodies (unqualified adults) instead of qualified licensed teachers. Parents are not informed about these details.

I work in a high school and this is not true for us. Everyone has a license, with only a few provisionals, and I would not describe them as unqualified. The people I wish we could get rid of are the dead weight - the septuagenarians hanging around for that pension bump but not doing a damn thing except boring kids to death.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I get hired and work for FCPS how likely is to get a step increased ever year ? I am looking at my options and applying to many counties around the DMV.

I worked there for 10 years and got a step increase every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I get hired and work for FCPS how likely is to get a step increased ever year ? I am looking at my options and applying to many counties around the DMV.

I worked there for 10 years and got a step increase every year.

For FCPS? There were a few times where steps were not given in the past 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does FCPS still have teacher/staffing shortage?
I just heard our school de-staffed.

Please someone tell me.

Not much of a shortage anymore. We had destaffs at the end of last year and will have more at the end of this year. The reason is that our main vehicle of population increase in Nova has been immigrants, and they aren't showing up anymore. We are short thousands compared to what was expected. We also had quite a few Doge victims transition to teaching, so teacher numbers are up and students are down = destaffs.

FCPS also cut a bunch of positions this year so it "appears" there is no shortage. There is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I get hired and work for FCPS how likely is to get a step increased ever year ? I am looking at my options and applying to many counties around the DMV.

I worked there for 10 years and got a step increase every year.

Wow...party of 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does FCPS still have teacher/staffing shortage?
I just heard our school de-staffed.

Please someone tell me.

Not much of a shortage anymore. We had destaffs at the end of last year and will have more at the end of this year. The reason is that our main vehicle of population increase in Nova has been immigrants, and they aren't showing up anymore. We are short thousands compared to what was expected. We also had quite a few Doge victims transition to teaching, so teacher numbers are up and students are down = destaffs.

FCPS also cut a bunch of positions this year so it "appears" there is no shortage. There is.

+1. They also pushed class sizes to the max and in some cases beyond.

[Anonymous]

Class sizes are HUGE in FCPS now, more than ever.

I have had my step increase about 60% of the 13 or so years I have worked in FCPS. It is an absolute disgrace because they don't hesitate to screw teachers on our steps, but god forbid they cut instructional coach, math coach, tech coach, and zillions of Gatehouse middle management positions. They'll destaff classroom positions and give teachers 32 students but principals hang on to those precious, precious, precious coach positions. (Yes, I'm resentful. I don't think a school with high pass rates should be allowed to create coach positions when class sizes are as high as they are.)

[Anonymous]

What are these coaches you speak of? Will you please elaborate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are these coaches you speak of? Will you please elaborate?

Instructional coaches that do very little beyond making more work for teachers.