Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the info. I should have specified that I am an ESOL teacher and want to stay at my current school. I'm pretty sure my principal would allow me to work 3 or 4 full days I'm just worried about going .8 and having our allocation reduced and then I'm at .5 and need to look for a .3 somewhere else. But maybe even that would be better than working full time.

Wow- I didn't even realize something like this would be a possibility. I was .8 for a year before getting a FT position, but it still meant showing up to work 5 days a week and teaching 4 classes instead of the normal 5. What you're proposing sounds like a sweet deal.

Sounds like you're in secondary. I teach elementary. I'm hoping next year will be the year to go part time but it seems like such a crapshoot as to whether it would work out well in the long term. I'm so jealous of the people who have enough guts to take the plunge. --OP

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the info. I should have specified that I am an ESOL teacher and want to stay at my current school. I'm pretty sure my principal would allow me to work 3 or 4 full days I'm just worried about going .8 and having our allocation reduced and then I'm at .5 and need to look for a .3 somewhere else. But maybe even that would be better than working full time.

Wow- I didn't even realize something like this would be a possibility. I was .8 for a year before getting a FT position, but it still meant showing up to work 5 days a week and teaching 4 classes instead of the normal 5. What you're proposing sounds like a sweet deal.

Also, keep in mind that the contract doesn't guarantee part time employment - only full time employment. So, if the allocation in your school goes up, you're not considered a priority placement and if you don't want the full time job and can't find another part time job, you're out of luck...you will have to go full time or resign.

Make sure you ask questions about how this will affect your retirement (if you plan to stay in the county). A former colleague of mine thought she was set to retire, but then found out those early years when she worked part time (half day kindergarten) affected her amount of years working in the system. She ended up needing to work another full year to retire with full benefits.

Are there other ESOL teachers at your school? If so, and one of them was hired by MCPS after you, then your position should not be reduced if your allocation goes down. Seniority is supposed to make the final call when it comes to whose position gets cut. So if you're not the last one in and you want to stay .8, you'll stay .8 and then 1.0 later-hire would get trimmed down.

OP here. Thanks for the info. I should have specified that I am an ESOL teacher and want to stay at my current school. I'm pretty sure my principal would allow me to work 3 or 4 full days I'm just worried about going .8 and having our allocation reduced and then I'm at .5 and need to look for a .3 somewhere else. But maybe even that would be better than working full time.

I went from full to .6 and got a job that I love, but it wasn't too easy (elementary). A lot of listings came up, but were often gobbled up by involuntary transfers or people switching from full to part in their school. The other thing was that all principals seemed to want a 5-day shortened schedule rather than a shortened work week. That wasn't a problem for me, but I definitely would not have gotten hired if I was not able to be flexible. As for keeping the job, it is definitely stressful come spring waiting for the new allocations! So far it has been fine, but if this position closes, the county has to find me another part time position. Not ideal, but it allows me to be a mother and a teacher.

You have to log onto the careers section on the website and apply for full time to part time job link. Then, you submit for part time job listings during transfer season in the spring. Interview for positions and if offered, accept. If you take a position at .5 or above you stay at .5 or above and retain healthcare and retirement. If you accept less than .5 you do not retain any of these things. I had no problem getting a .6 position and going from full to part time but I am a special ed. The ease of this often relates to the certs you have and positions you are looking for.

Anybody in MCPS who went from full-time to part-time? I'd like to go to either .8 or .6 and work either 3 or 4 full days. What was your experience if you have done this? Has your preferred allocation been reduced to an amount that is too low for you? That would be my concern. When did you file paperwork with ERSC? Can it be in the middle of the year or does it have to be at the end of a school year to go into effect at the beginning of the next year? I don't have much faith in ERSC telling me the correct info since I've been screwed by their ineptitude before...