How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?

[Anonymous]

For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

One of the major challenges facing Fairfax County is lack of flexibility. It’s a huge school system, I get it. However, managers need to be empowered to be creative. We see this all the time in Special Education where there is a cheaper and more effective solution, but Gatehouse prohibits us from putting it into practice because it doesn’t follow the mainstream model.

I’m sorry that this happened to you PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 850 vacancies right now in FCPS. As a point of reference, there were 550 a year ago and 350 four years ago at this time.

This is a national crisis.

Thank you for this data! This is the actual information that we need to highlight and push. No one cares about people complaining, but data can get peoples attention.

Are there any principals on here who attended the meeting this morning? Any updates? It sounded to me as though it was a bit of an urgent call about staffing.

Would love the major talking points from this call. From a FB post I saw, it seems like there are some within FCPS leadership in full blown panic and others who think “hope” will fix this crisis and that there is nothing else to be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 850 vacancies right now in FCPS. As a point of reference, there were 550 a year ago and 350 four years ago at this time.

This is a national crisis.

Thank you for this data! This is the actual information that we need to highlight and push. No one cares about people complaining, but data can get peoples attention.

Are there any principals on here who attended the meeting this morning? Any updates? It sounded to me as though it was a bit of an urgent call about staffing.

Would love the major talking points from this call. From a FB post I saw, it seems like there are some within FCPS leadership in full blown panic and others who think “hope” will fix this crisis and that there is nothing else to be done.

I'm also interested in what the call was about and what the solution (plan) is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

I had a job offer last year and declined for the same reason. I even doubled checked with HR. At this point what was a 23,000$ pay cut has become 30,000. It is sad.

[Anonymous]

I wonder what would happen if they removed the cap- would the give retroactive raises to previous hires, could their budget even hope to support that much more payroll? I'm guessing it's a can of worms that they don't want to open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

+1. FCPS is beyond stupid to not remove the maximum entry step, especially in the critical shortage positions. It's also time to consider signing bonuses for certain teaching and classroom positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

+1. FCPS is beyond stupid to not remove the maximum entry step, especially in the critical shortage positions. It's also time to consider signing bonuses for certain teaching and classroom positions.

If other districts did the same, how long until teachers just jumped between districts every year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


I agree. The school board is dragging its feet on this.



I used to be a huge supporter of unions. I think unfortunately for teachers locally, how Covid was handled really soured the public on the school system and by association-the teachers. The extremists marching around with coffins, the people who phoned it in on virtual, the teachers who refused to help kids catch up this year--a few bad apples spoilt it for the bunc

h.

Puh-leeze.
1) Show me the person in FFX Co. who "marched around with a coffin." Show me...bet you can't, because it didn't happen here in Fairfax.
2) It was impossible to "phone it in" during virtual. Impossible. It was very difficult work to teach under those conditions, and every teacher did their best.
3) What teachers are these who "refused to help kids catch up" this year? Seriously...who did this? No one. Every teacher out there did their best this year.
PP sounds like a sour grapes person who, even under the circumstances, cannot admit that teachers have been terribly maligned and mistreated. I'll bet PP was one of the loudest voices out there at the time.

Well said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

+1. FCPS is beyond stupid to not remove the maximum entry step, especially in the critical shortage positions. It's also time to consider signing bonuses for certain teaching and classroom positions.

If other districts did the same, how long until teachers just jumped between districts every year?

Experienced teacher here. Why would we do that? Some of us started teaching long before we had kids. Now that are own children are older, we want to work in the same district and be on the same schedule as our children but a 20k - 30k pay cut makes that hard to justify. What would anyone gain by switching every year?

[Anonymous]

^our own, before someone corrects me the mistake from autocorrect

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

+1. FCPS is beyond stupid to not remove the maximum entry step, especially in the critical shortage positions. It's also time to consider signing bonuses for certain teaching and classroom positions.

If other districts did the same, how long until teachers just jumped between districts every year?

Experienced teacher here. Why would we do that? Some of us started teaching long before we had kids. Now that are own children are older, we want to work in the same district and be on the same schedule as our children but a 20k - 30k pay cut makes that hard to justify. What would anyone gain by switching every year?

Because of seniority is fully portable between districts, you could easily cycle between FCPS, FCCPS, ACPS, and LCPS depending on where you live and collect signing bonuses every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For perspective - My daughter applied to Fairfax a few months ago from another county. She had eight interviews (all remote) the day she applied. Eight job offers on the spot. She still gets calls even though she has accepted a position. Fairfax needs teachers.

Another perspective, I contacted HR more than once in the spring to see if there could be any negotiation on the salary scale. I work in a neighboring district and would like to come to FCPS as an experienced and certified special ed teacher so I could be in the same district as my children. It would be a big pay cut since they won’t give experienced teachers all of their years of experience. I would make less even if I was put on the same step but it would be closer than their max entry that is posted. I never got a response.

They should just remove that maximum entry step. If you come over with 20 years exp, credit the 20.

+1. FCPS is beyond stupid to not remove the maximum entry step, especially in the critical shortage positions. It's also time to consider signing bonuses for certain teaching and classroom positions.

If other districts did the same, how long until teachers just jumped between districts every year?

Experienced teacher here. Why would we do that? Some of us started teaching long before we had kids. Now that are own children are older, we want to work in the same district and be on the same schedule as our children but a 20k - 30k pay cut makes that hard to justify. What would anyone gain by switching every year?

Because of seniority is fully portable between districts, you could easily cycle between FCPS, FCCPS, ACPS, and LCPS depending on where you live and collect signing bonuses every year.

Honestly I doubt people would do that, but maybe a few would. Most of us are looking to change for family/ work life balance and moving every year and reproving your “worth” year after year is not ideal.