APS teachers leaving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for APS and several of my colleagues resigned after this year. APS pay and benefits are no longer competitive with neighboring school districts. If you can’t afford to live in Arlington, why would you commute here when you can get an equally paying job near your house in Fairfax or Loundon or Alexandria?

Arlington parents are a tough crowd to please…some amazing families but also some scary ones. My friends didn’t feel the juice was worth the squeeze, so to speak. Makes me sad because I am watching some really incredible teachers walk away from APS.

Bridget Loft and Dr Duran need to rally their troops, improve compensation and do everything they can to boost morale. APS needs to hang on to talented, experienced teachers.

For what it’s worth, I am an APS parent too. My DD’s AWESOME teacher just accepted a job in another county and she will make more money and have a shorter commute. Why wouldn’t she do that?

Surprising, APS used to be the highest paying county around. When did that change?

I can tell you because I interviewed with APS, Loudon and FCPS and the pay was nearly identical. APS did offer me a step increase which is why their offer came in higher but honestly, only by like $1500 per year.

[Anonymous]

I'm an APS teacher. Parents complain about the "systems of schools" all the time. It plays the same every year on the ground. Those schools whose principals take care of their staff and are not toxic have virtually no turnover. The ones that's not so turn over more frequently. I'm seeing the same this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an APS teacher. Parents complain about the "systems of schools" all the time. It plays the same every year on the ground. Those schools whose principals take care of their staff and are not toxic have virtually no turnover. The ones that's not so turn over more frequently. I'm seeing the same this year.

I ditto all of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of APS students have left, too.

But they are likely coming back after a year when pandemic is truly over; then the system will be overcrowded AND understaffed.

Still no plans for HS overcrowding right?

Why would they come back once they’re established and happy in their private schools? A few sure, for financial reasons, but most are gone for good. This past year and a half really shined a light on a lot of APS’ flaws, not just it’s failure to handle the pandemic.

APS will deal with HS overcrowding by requiring students take some classes virtually. It’s been a decades long desire of the SB to address overcrowding this way and the pandemic gave them license to implement it on a more permanent basis. They will claim that HS students actually preferred it to hybrid and point to all the kids who tried hybrid and switched back to all virtual, ignoring the fact that HS hybrid was almost a complete joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for APS and several of my colleagues resigned after this year. APS pay and benefits are no longer competitive with neighboring school districts. If you can’t afford to live in Arlington, why would you commute here when you can get an equally paying job near your house in Fairfax or Loundon or Alexandria?

Arlington parents are a tough crowd to please…some amazing families but also some scary ones. My friends didn’t feel the juice was worth the squeeze, so to speak. Makes me sad because I am watching some really incredible teachers walk away from APS.

Bridget Loft and Dr Duran need to rally their troops, improve compensation and do everything they can to boost morale. APS needs to hang on to talented, experienced teachers.

For what it’s worth, I am an APS parent too. My DD’s AWESOME teacher just accepted a job in another county and she will make more money and have a shorter commute. Why wouldn’t she do that?

With what districts isn’t APS competitive? APS still pays higher than FCPS for most folks AND hasn’t to my knowledge had the multi-year step freeze. We’re not even getting the full 4 or 5% “raise” because the district won’t kick in its half.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS administration treated teachers terribly. Everything from ongoing whiplash messages about when they'd go back, no answers from HR on who had to go back in person, no confidence in safety measures or what was or wasn't allowed, lack of IT support or guidance, shoddy teacher vaccine roll out, and on and on. It was a hot mess. From my conversations with teacher friends, there was more APS teacher angst over APS administration indecision, poor communication and lack of leadership than from any parents. Not to mention that a ton of parent angst was completely the fault of APS leadership. Let's put the blame on those with actual accountability.

Teacher here. In my opinion the group "Smart Restart" made the teachers situation a lot worse. They started to speak on behalf of all teachers, but they didn't understand that they were only talking to a small cadre of staff who were understandably scared about returning to school. For most of us though, we were tired of virtual education and were ready to go back once we were vaccinated. I wish APS would have waited until the second shot was in our arms, but I think parent pressure from the other side APE prevented that. I loved meeting and seeing my kids even twice a week. It's the virtual students I always felt bad for. I don't think I gave them a good education this year. Even to the ones who excelled at home. If there was anything you should have fought for all year, it was to make concurrent education not even a consideration.

I agree that APS treated us horribly too, but we're used to it. Prepandemic, APS was a lousy employer, and we're used to keeping our heads low and switching things up quickly. It just got worse. A lot of my relationships with parents were irreparably ruined, and I hope this summer I can regroup so that I can trust you again next year.

None of the other districts are that great either, except for salary. I love my school and teaching your children, and that's the only reason I'm staying.

Thank you for your perspective. I hope you are able to rest this summer. Please know that these parent groups don't speak for most parents. I hope all of them go away now that schools are returning to five days a week.

I'm in Smart Restart. We did not advocate for staying virtual. We advocated for things like ventilation, outdoor lunch, testing. Many of the parents in SR sent their kids hybrid.

APE tried to paint SR - and everyone else not in APE for that matter- as "stay closed" but that is and was not true at all.

I'm the teacher who posted above earlier. I had a smart restart parent badgering me via email semi periodically for my opinions on everything, trying to get me to come to their side. I was never interested in promoting someone else's goals for the school year. Smart Restart never spoke for me, or even my colleagues at my school. I'm not saying that APE was any better though. At least they didn't try to be "my friend"

10,000x this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for APS and several of my colleagues resigned after this year. APS pay and benefits are no longer competitive with neighboring school districts. If you can’t afford to live in Arlington, why would you commute here when you can get an equally paying job near your house in Fairfax or Loundon or Alexandria?

Arlington parents are a tough crowd to please…some amazing families but also some scary ones. My friends didn’t feel the juice was worth the squeeze, so to speak. Makes me sad because I am watching some really incredible teachers walk away from APS.

Bridget Loft and Dr Duran need to rally their troops, improve compensation and do everything they can to boost morale. APS needs to hang on to talented, experienced teachers.

For what it’s worth, I am an APS parent too. My DD’s AWESOME teacher just accepted a job in another county and she will make more money and have a shorter commute. Why wouldn’t she do that?

With what districts isn’t APS competitive? APS still pays higher than FCPS for most folks AND hasn’t to my knowledge had the multi-year step freeze. We’re not even getting the full 4 or 5% “raise” because the district won’t kick in its half.

Lol wut?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are drones of APS teachers really leaving? I have heard of 10 Ashlawn Elementary school teachers retiring or going to other schools. Is this partly because of the new Cardinal school?

Cardinal school?

The new school at the Reed site, comprised mostly of former Mckinley students.

So jealous. That is so much better than Innovation.

What does the comment about Innovation mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are drones of APS teachers really leaving? I have heard of 10 Ashlawn Elementary school teachers retiring or going to other schools. Is this partly because of the new Cardinal school?

Cardinal school?

The new school at the Reed site, comprised mostly of former Mckinley students.

So jealous. That is so much better than Innovation.

What does the comment about Innovation mean?

DP. Terrible name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are drones of APS teachers really leaving? I have heard of 10 Ashlawn Elementary school teachers retiring or going to other schools. Is this partly because of the new Cardinal school?

Cardinal school?

The new school at the Reed site, comprised mostly of former Mckinley students.

So jealous. That is so much better than Innovation.

What does the comment about Innovation mean?

DP. Terrible name.

Ohhhhh. Yes, the name is not the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of APS students have left, too.

But they are likely coming back after a year when pandemic is truly over; then the system will be overcrowded AND understaffed.

Still no plans for HS overcrowding right?

I wouldn’t count on it. Many private schools offer a better product. Hard to return to your overcrowded public school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an APS teacher. Parents complain about the "systems of schools" all the time. It plays the same every year on the ground. Those schools whose principals take care of their staff and are not toxic have virtually no turnover. The ones that's not so turn over more frequently. I'm seeing the same this year.

True... Ashlawn used to be that way in previous administration. I've heard Glebe teachers unhappy about how they had to teach last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an APS teacher. Parents complain about the "systems of schools" all the time. It plays the same every year on the ground. Those schools whose principals take care of their staff and are not toxic have virtually no turnover. The ones that's not so turn over more frequently. I'm seeing the same this year.

True... Ashlawn used to be that way in previous administration. I've heard Glebe teachers unhappy about how they had to teach last year.

Not surprising Glebe administration was a disaster last year. So many terrible decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of APS students have left, too.

But they are likely coming back after a year when pandemic is truly over; then the system will be overcrowded AND understaffed.

Still no plans for HS overcrowding right?

I wouldn’t count on it. Many private schools offer a better product. Hard to return to your overcrowded public school…

I would hope you're paying undergraduate rates to educate a third grader!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I wouldn’t count on it. Many private schools offer a better product. Hard to return to your overcrowded public school…

If this is how you see education, education may not be right for you.