How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

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.

Can you get out of your contract without penalty if you're destaffed? I thought about leaving last year but decided to stick it out at least one more year to see if things improve post-pandemic. If I got transferred to a worse school that's a much longer commute, that might just be the last straw for me.

If I get moved to a school that is far out.... I will not stay. This will be a delicate process for HR. If you apply to a school it's for a reason. Many teachers have their own kids in county schools and can't be an hour commute away. I hope someone balanced and intelligent is overseeing this process.

+1. I picked the school over several others that offered me a position for a bunch of reasons. Commute is a huge factor. If they try to place me at a different school that's significantly further away, I'll walk. I doubt neighboring counties that are geographically closer would turn down a licensed teacher right now.

I'm also worried they'll try to shift teachers around to some of the schools that have a large number of vacancies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

Some of this is fake news. Spouses will have the FEE waived, but still need to be qualified. Veterans on the other hand have some qualifications waived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

Some of this is fake news. Spouses will have the FEE waived, but still need to be qualified. Veterans on the other hand have some qualifications waived.

Veterans don't even need to have a bachelor's degree. Spouses can have a temporary certification for longer than others. They have to be a "certified educator" though--but that's a looser qualification than a licensed teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

If things do reach that level, we'll see public policy adapt. I can foresee class size limits legally increasing except for Title I schools. After all, I'd rather have my child with a real teacher and 40 kids instead of a substitute with 25 kids. I can also see seniors being offered hybrid or alternating in-person type of virtual learning. Not perfect solutions but enough to alleviate some of the issue.

I have about 160-170 students per year already. Teachers would have a lot of trouble dealing with a class size increase of that magnitude.

[Anonymous]

We need some drastic moves recruit and retain high quality teachers. One bold move would be to go to a 4-day school week for kids. Increase T-F by 30 minutes. Kids do async work on Monday’s. Teachers plan, have pd on Monday’s. That means less time away from kids T-F. There are other models to accomplish this.

Parents will have to decide whether they want 5 days of school with a crappy, unqualified teacher in a large class or figure out childcare one day a week and get a high quality teacher in a decent sized class.

https://www.edsurge.com/amp/news/2022-06-22-can-four-day-school-weeks-keep-teachers-from-leaving

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/19/texas-schools-four-day-weeks/amp/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need some drastic moves recruit and retain high quality teachers. One bold move would be to go to a 4-day school week for kids. Increase T-F by 30 minutes. Kids do async work on Monday’s. Teachers plan, have pd on Monday’s. That means less time away from kids T-F. There are other models to accomplish this.

Parents will have to decide whether they want 5 days of school with a crappy, unqualified teacher in a large class or figure out childcare one day a week and get a high quality teacher in a decent sized class.

https://www.edsurge.com/amp/news/2022-06-22-can-four-day-school-weeks-keep-teachers-from-leaving

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/19/texas-schools-four-day-weeks/amp/

That’s ridiculous. Everyone clowned on all the states and districts that had to resort to this during the recession. A 4 day school week doesn’t solve the problems. What would solve long term staffing issues is increasing teacher pay across the board and especially for the hard to fill positions. And stop asking teachers to do more with less all the time. They shouldn’t have to give up their planning and admin time for bogus meetings and “professional development.” Just let them teach and treat them like real professionals, not micromanaged and underpaid babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need some drastic moves recruit and retain high quality teachers. One bold move would be to go to a 4-day school week for kids. Increase T-F by 30 minutes. Kids do async work on Monday’s. Teachers plan, have pd on Monday’s. That means less time away from kids T-F. There are other models to accomplish this.

Parents will have to decide whether they want 5 days of school with a crappy, unqualified teacher in a large class or figure out childcare one day a week and get a high quality teacher in a decent sized class.

https://www.edsurge.com/amp/news/2022-06-22-can-four-day-school-weeks-keep-teachers-from-leaving

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/19/texas-schools-four-day-weeks/amp/

That’s ridiculous. Everyone clowned on all the states and districts that had to resort to this during the recession. A 4 day school week doesn’t solve the problems. What would solve long term staffing issues is increasing teacher pay across the board and especially for the hard to fill positions. And stop asking teachers to do more with less all the time. They shouldn’t have to give up their planning and admin time for bogus meetings and “professional development.” Just let them teach and treat them like real professionals, not micromanaged and underpaid babies.

Can you read? They would get planning time on Mondays! As for attracting teachers—did you even read the articles???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need some drastic moves recruit and retain high quality teachers. One bold move would be to go to a 4-day school week for kids. Increase T-F by 30 minutes. Kids do async work on Monday’s. Teachers plan, have pd on Monday’s. That means less time away from kids T-F. There are other models to accomplish this.

Parents will have to decide whether they want 5 days of school with a crappy, unqualified teacher in a large class or figure out childcare one day a week and get a high quality teacher in a decent sized class.

https://www.edsurge.com/amp/news/2022-06-22-can-four-day-school-weeks-keep-teachers-from-leaving

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/19/texas-schools-four-day-weeks/amp/

DP. We are facing shortage of doctors, a shortage of dentists, a shortage of veterinarians, a shortage of teachers, as well as a general shortage currently of every type of worker.

The solution is not to radically change the school week or the profession. The problem is simpler than that - not enough people in the right place and, to some extent, not enough people anywhere. The unwinding and uncoupling has started, and it's painful. It'll continue to be painful - but maybe we'll get through it and be better on the other side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

That's pretty myopic. Teachers have been saying very loudly what needed to change for quite a while. FCPS could have at least attempted some sort of strategy to retain people but instead, they watched the hemorrhage occur and now they're all shocked and shaken... Leadership should be fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need some drastic moves recruit and retain high quality teachers. One bold move would be to go to a 4-day school week for kids. Increase T-F by 30 minutes. Kids do async work on Monday’s. Teachers plan, have pd on Monday’s. That means less time away from kids T-F. There are other models to accomplish this.

Parents will have to decide whether they want 5 days of school with a crappy, unqualified teacher in a large class or figure out childcare one day a week and get a high quality teacher in a decent sized class.

https://www.edsurge.com/amp/news/2022-06-22-can-four-day-school-weeks-keep-teachers-from-leaving

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/19/texas-schools-four-day-weeks/amp/

I agree with a 4 day work week. I bet the mental health benefits would be worth it alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

Some of this is fake news. Spouses will have the FEE waived, but still need to be qualified. Veterans on the other hand have some qualifications waived.

Veterans don't even need to have a bachelor's degree. Spouses can have a temporary certification for longer than others. They have to be a "certified educator" though--but that's a looser qualification than a licensed teacher.

I read an interview with an older waitress excited to become a teacher. By the time her waiver expires, she'll be retired anyway. Her husband served 30 years ago, so she qualifies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

That's pretty myopic. Teachers have been saying very loudly what needed to change for quite a while. FCPS could have at least attempted some sort of strategy to retain people but instead, they watched the hemorrhage occur and now they're all shocked and shaken... Leadership should be fired.

No one is listening to the on the floor workers right now. Across many fields. Amazon is planning to have run dry of taking advantage of people in 2024-ish. This is ok now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

That's pretty myopic. Teachers have been saying very loudly what needed to change for quite a while. FCPS could have at least attempted some sort of strategy to retain people but instead, they watched the hemorrhage occur and now they're all shocked and shaken... Leadership should be fired.

I said the same thing a few things ago. The county could have prevented some of this by making changes many years ago. It also didn’t help to push virtual for that long. I know I know, it was the “safest” but other districts and teachers across the country survived. Now it’s almost too late to fix things.

They also could help sponsor visas. Many certified teachers in other countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes to the first. Combine classes so that there may be grades combined. Also resource teachers will be placed in classrooms to start the year. And central office staff. It will be done on a school by school basis.

Yep- I’ve heard central office resource teachers will be assigned to schools (which, good- it’s about time) and possibly folks who were classroom teachers last year but took other jobs this year May be put back in the classroom (ICs are the position I specifically keep hearing, which, again, good!)

What are IC positions??

instructional coaches

This would make me happy, so they can see that some of their ideas are t always practical in reality.

I guess that I am troubled by the fact that these solutions are just a band-aid and that they do not address the systemic problem in K-12 education. What is going to happen next year when more people leave again because these solutions are short-term? At some point, FCPS will run out of people. FCPS has failed to respond to a crisis that people in the trenches saw coming a long time ago. I remember even back in my 2010 grad classes the professors were talking about a significant decrease in the people coming into teacher prep programs.

Why do you think FCPS can fix a teacher pipeline shortage? They already heavily promote the grow your own program. This is a much larger issue than FCPS.

Unfortunately it plays right into political attempts to destroy public education. Let’s just hope VA doesn’t go the way of FL by allowing unqualified people to teach just because they are military spouses.

Some of this is fake news. Spouses will have the FEE waived, but still need to be qualified. Veterans on the other hand have some qualifications waived.

Veterans don't even need to have a bachelor's degree. Spouses can have a temporary certification for longer than others. They have to be a "certified educator" though--but that's a looser qualification than a licensed teacher.

I read an interview with an older waitress excited to become a teacher. By the time her waiver expires, she'll be retired anyway. Her husband served 30 years ago, so she qualifies.

I think I read the same article. The teacher mentoring her started talking about phonics and the waitress-turned-teacher didn’t know what phonics were. Let’s hope we don’t have to stoop as low as Florida.