How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No way it’s 97% staffed. Way too many vacancies listed. (Plus we know that not all are listed.)


Math is our friend:

13,149 classroom teachers (https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&ID2=5101260)

This doesn’t include positions such as counselors, librarians and IAs. So let’s add to that number and make it 13,200 total instructional positions.

At the principals’ briefing yesterday, there were currently 588 vacancies.

13200 - 588 = 12612 filled positions.

12612 / 13200 = 96% filled

So she was off by 1 percent.


Yeah, 97% filled sounds much better than 588 vacancies.


112 of those are K-6 classroom teachers. Not IA, SPED or Specials teachers - just classroom teachers.


There are 140 elementary schools. That’s less than one teacher per school.

Whatever you have to say to make yourself feel better. Its nice and theoretical until your kid gets the long term sub. DP


Yeah it’s definitely not an average of one per school. Things are more dire than they say and they are working on contingency plans. My school still needs half my team!


My school is fully staffed, including SPED.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wonder why she got the percentage wrong?



She might have updated information. The staffed numbers go quite a bit each day at this time of year.


Why do they change each day? Which teachers are looking for positions this late in the summer?


There are always de-staffs. Not sure if that will happen this summer or not. But every year, teachers are de staffed right before school starts.


What is a de-staff? Is it people who got fired or people schools don't need because they miscalculated the number of enrolled students or both?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wonder why she got the percentage wrong?


She might have updated information. The staffed numbers go quite a bit each day at this time of year.


Why do they change each day? Which teachers are looking for positions this late in the summer?


I switched schools in early June (during the internal transfer process). My transfer was approved within a couple days, my transfer just occurred this week. The job I was filling was online (but filled) for almost 2 months. HR just kept saying I wasn’t a high priority because the job was filled.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wonder why she got the percentage wrong?



She might have updated information. The staffed numbers go quite a bit each day at this time of year.


Why do they change each day? Which teachers are looking for positions this late in the summer?


There are always de-staffs. Not sure if that will happen this summer or not. But every year, teachers are de staffed right before school starts.


What is a de-staff? Is it people who got fired or people schools don't need because they miscalculated the number of enrolled students or both?


Yep, pretty much. This happened at my school a few years ago after a rezoning. They are still guaranteed a job with FCPS, just not at their current school.
Anonymous
People move in and out of the area all the time. Also, they are still recruiting new graduates who are trying to decide where they want to teach.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wonder why she got the percentage wrong?



She might have updated information. The staffed numbers go quite a bit each day at this time of year.


Why do they change each day? Which teachers are looking for positions this late in the summer?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wonder why she got the percentage wrong?



She might have updated information. The staffed numbers go quite a bit each day at this time of year.


Why do they change each day? Which teachers are looking for positions this late in the summer?


There are always de-staffs. Not sure if that will happen this summer or not. But every year, teachers are de staffed right before school starts.


What is a de-staff? Is it people who got fired or people schools don't need because they miscalculated the number of enrolled students or both?


Not needed. I was de staffed because they thought they’d have the #s for 4 classes but did not. So I got transferred to another school.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Superintendent says 97% staffed.

https://www.fcps.edu/blog/message-superintendent-regarding-fall-planning


I know a little but about what into this number. (Not full information.)

What is not said:
- The 97% includes long term subs
- The percentage of SPED classes with a licensed teacher is lower. It depends on how you define it, but there are likely close to 30% of students with IEPs who either 1) do not have their IEP hours staffed by a SPED teacher and/or 2) their specialist (OT/PT/speech etc) staffed.




Do you know how many positions are currently filled by long term subs? Also, what are they going to do about the SPED positions? I've heard of other districts bringing in outside providers to provide OT/Speech services and even RBTs to take data in some cases but you'd have to get that arrangement in place well ahead of time.
Anonymous
I don’t believe the 93%.
Anonymous
Meant to say that I think there are more vacancies than they’re letting on.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No way it’s 97% staffed. Way too many vacancies listed. (Plus we know that not all are listed.)


Math is our friend:

13,149 classroom teachers (https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&ID2=5101260)

This doesn’t include positions such as counselors, librarians and IAs. So let’s add to that number and make it 13,200 total instructional positions.

At the principals’ briefing yesterday, there were currently 588 vacancies.

13200 - 588 = 12612 filled positions.

12612 / 13200 = 96% filled

So she was off by 1 percent.


Yeah, 97% filled sounds much better than 588 vacancies.


112 of those are K-6 classroom teachers. Not IA, SPED or Specials teachers - just classroom teachers.


There are 140 elementary schools. That’s less than one teacher per school.


My school still has 50% of classes unstaffed in upper elementary. New teachers report to training in 6 days, and to their school in 11 days. Long-term subs? We can’t even get regular subs. Where these teachers will magically come from is a mystery.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wonder why she got the percentage wrong?



She might have updated information. The staffed numbers go quite a bit each day at this time of year.


Why do they change each day? Which teachers are looking for positions this late in the summer?


There are always de-staffs. Not sure if that will happen this summer or not. But every year, teachers are de staffed right before school starts.


What is a de-staff? Is it people who got fired or people schools don't need because they miscalculated the number of enrolled students or both?


Yep, pretty much. This happened at my school a few years ago after a rezoning. They are still guaranteed a job with FCPS, just not at their current school.


It’s not both. It’s the latter reason. Thos who are fired are fired, not destaffed.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No way it’s 97% staffed. Way too many vacancies listed. (Plus we know that not all are listed.)


Math is our friend:

13,149 classroom teachers (https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&ID2=5101260)

This doesn’t include positions such as counselors, librarians and IAs. So let’s add to that number and make it 13,200 total instructional positions.

At the principals’ briefing yesterday, there were currently 588 vacancies.

13200 - 588 = 12612 filled positions.

12612 / 13200 = 96% filled

So she was off by 1 percent.


Yeah, 97% filled sounds much better than 588 vacancies.


112 of those are K-6 classroom teachers. Not IA, SPED or Specials teachers - just classroom teachers.


There are 140 elementary schools. That’s less than one teacher per school.


My school still has 50% of classes unstaffed in upper elementary. New teachers report to training in 6 days, and to their school in 11 days. Long-term subs? We can’t even get regular subs. Where these teachers will magically come from is a mystery.


Yikes!

Which school?
Anonymous
So here’s my question:

What is the plan? There are 588 missing teachers. That’s roughly 18,000 kids (30 per class) without a teacher.

What are the levers?
- Do they just make the classes bigger?
- move teachers around to share the pain between schools? Seems unfair to have some schools fully staffed while others are at 50%
- Put kids into the cafeteria all day?

Seriously, what is the PLAN?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:So here’s my question:

What is the plan? There are 588 missing teachers. That’s roughly 18,000 kids (30 per class) without a teacher.

What are the levers?
- Do they just make the classes bigger?
- move teachers around to share the pain between schools? Seems unfair to have some schools fully staffed while others are at 50%
- Put kids into the cafeteria all day?

Seriously, what is the PLAN?



Here is what will happen:

Destaffs will happen when we get back and those teachers will move to schools with vacancies.
Middle/High School will be offered 6th period option
ES will have subs. Some might not have a teacher all year. This occurred last year as well. I did sub plans (double the work) with no additional compensation. Unfortunately, FCPS is not the only district dealing with this and it could be like this for awhile.
Everyone should be thankful if their kid has a certified teacher this school year cause there absolutely will be kids with subs all year.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:So here’s my question:

What is the plan? There are 588 missing teachers. That’s roughly 18,000 kids (30 per class) without a teacher.

What are the levers?
- Do they just make the classes bigger?
- move teachers around to share the pain between schools? Seems unfair to have some schools fully staffed while others are at 50%
- Put kids into the cafeteria all day?

Seriously, what is the PLAN?


Each school makes and communicates its own plan based on its particular vacancies.
Each day there are less than 588 vacancies. And the average teacher-to-student ratio is 14-1 at FCPS (includes sped which has lower ratios and specialist positions like reading specialist or librarian that don't have specific assigned students), so it's more like 8300 students. So the plan is to try as hard as possible to whittle away the remaining vacancies and then those that are left will be handled in school-specific way. In ES, they will try to max out class sizes and use IAs etc. to support so that every child has a home teacher. For MS/HS they will probably offer overloads to more experienced teachers who can get by with fewer planning periods and do things to increase class size. This may result in under-enrolled electives being combined -- this has already happened in art classes in the past--a teacher in a single period may be teaching Photo 1, with small groups of Photo 2, 3 and AP studio art in the same class session. You'll probably see this more in other courses. Administrators and coaches will continue to be floating substitutes as needed.

FCPS is in a much better position than many school districts across the country but it's still going to be challenging.
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