Anonymous wrote:I also work for Fairfax County. Schools are funded to the detriment of other services. I have an MA and 10 years experience in my field but have not seen an increase above a non-fully funded CoLA since 2008 while teachers were getting grade and step increases. The retirement benefit keeps me here but I get paid about 25% less than other jurisdictions pay my specialty.

My kids go to school here and I appreciate the good schools and teachers but what would you cut to increase their pay?

What do you do, PP? If you're not in front of 30 kids every day and dealing with the insane parents this county attracts, then you don't deserve half whatever they pay the teachers.

I work in a very high-stress, on-call environment. I have volunteered occasionally in my child's classroom and have emerged thinking that a 3 a.m. crisis call is far preferable. The kids run the gamut from entitled to extremely needy, and they're all disrespectful to adults. Our teachers are saints.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All teachers also make the same pay regardless of their specialtyz so a gym teacher makes the same as special ed or English with copious amounts of grading!

Have you worked as a PE teacher and an English teacher? I am a Social Studies teacher and believe we should receive the same salary. It is ignorant to think one content should make more than another. How would you know what is involved in someone else's job, unless you have walked in their shoes?

An English teacher complained about the disparity to me. He had many hours of grading after school compared to the gym teacher.

Should I be paid more because I am a high school math teacher and there is a STEM focus? No. I think my child's kindergarten's teacher/PE/whatever teachers have a more difficult job than teaching my AP calc class. You can't compare. That English teacher is probably someone always complaining that things are not fair.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All teachers also make the same pay regardless of their specialtyz so a gym teacher makes the same as special ed or English with copious amounts of grading!

Have you worked as a PE teacher and an English teacher? I am a Social Studies teacher and believe we should receive the same salary. It is ignorant to think one content should make more than another. How would you know what is involved in someone else's job, unless you have walked in their shoes?

An English teacher complained about the disparity to me. He had many hours of grading after school compared to the gym teacher.

And the gym teacher probably teaches drivers Ed and is the girls basketball coach... It's ridiculous to parse out payscale by subject.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery is only 5k more. Whatever. Teachers make a darn good salary when one considers their hours and days of work. Actual work. The teacher workdays are a joke.

Parent here. And Arlington is 25% more. It always amazes me that as a culture we justify paying CEOs millions of dollars regardless of what boneheaded decisions they make, and find ways to demean the people in charge of giving our kids an education.
Whatever. You get what you pay for, folks. I'm glad my kids won't be in FCPS for much longer.

Arlington can afford to pay its teachers more than Fairfax because it has fewer students per tax paying adult. Arlington has less than 10% of its population enrolled in public schools. Fairfax has over 16% of its population in public schools. That is why Arlington's property tax rate is always LOWER than Fairfax's and their per pupil school budget is always higher. I have lived in the area for over 20 years and Arlington, DC and Alexandria have always paid significantly more to teachers. The OP left off Loudoun, Stafford and Prince William Counties- which are always lower than Fairfax.

I do think that Fairfax needs to pay its teachers more, the School Board is certainly for it, the BOS is always reluctant to increase taxes- yet they have shifted an increasingly larger % of their budget to the schools significantly over the past 20 years and cannot anymore. There used to ban almost 50/50 split between the schools and everything else in Fairfax county. EVERYTHING else in the county budget has taken larger hits over the years so the the schools can squeak by. For example the libraries suffered a 40% slash. 40%. The State will never change the current formula that it gives schools- a super majority in the House and Senate benefit from the formula. SO, Fairfax will continue to pay thousands for each public school students outside of its boundaries. The Federal contribution to FCPS is minimal.

I think the gap will continue to get worse and the schools will suffer and then, only then, will people stop moving to FCPS for the schools and we will have a more balanced % of public school students as compared to the adult tax paying population. IMO it is the high % of students first and the state taxation and dispersal formula second that makes it nearly impossible for Fairfax to pay its teachers salaries closer to the WDC area schools.

http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/wabe/2015.pdf Page 38 shows that PW pays more at 10 years and is substantially higher at the top of the scale.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All teachers also make the same pay regardless of their specialtyz so a gym teacher makes the same as special ed or English with copious amounts of grading!

Have you worked as a PE teacher and an English teacher? I am a Social Studies teacher and believe we should receive the same salary. It is ignorant to think one content should make more than another. How would you know what is involved in someone else's job, unless you have walked in their shoes?

An English teacher complained about the disparity to me. He had many hours of grading after school compared to the gym teacher.

Anonymous wrote:All teachers also make the same pay regardless of their specialtyz so a gym teacher makes the same as special ed or English with copious amounts of grading!

Have you worked as a PE teacher and an English teacher? I am a Social Studies teacher and believe we should receive the same salary. It is ignorant to think one content should make more than another. How would you know what is involved in someone else's job, unless you have walked in their shoes?

Anonymous wrote:There are other things Fairfax needs to do. They need to quit making all the teachers be in lockstep in the classroom.

I agree with you, but then the problem is parents complaining that one school is different from another. Parents want their kids' teachers to be creative while at the same time being exactly like the teachers in the next school over.

What are these three month vacations people speak of?

School gets out LATE June and starts again late August or mere days into September. Plus, all teachers have mandatory work days before kids begin in the fall.

So by my count that's less than 2 months vacation. And seeing as how they're either only receiving checks for when they work or spreading out a thinner paycheck over 12 months, I don't think we can call it a "vacation" anymore than we can call weekends a vacation.

All teachers also make the same pay regardless of their specialtyz so a gym teacher makes the same as special ed or English with copious amounts of grading!

There are other things Fairfax needs to do. They need to quit making all the teachers be in lockstep in the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:I also work for Fairfax County. Schools are funded to the detriment of other services. I have an MA and 10 years experience in my field but have not seen an increase above a non-fully funded CoLA since 2008 while teachers were getting grade and step increases. The retirement benefit keeps me here but I get paid about 25% less than other jurisdictions pay my specialty.

My kids go to school here and I appreciate the good schools and teachers but what would you cut to increase their pay?

Your statements that "schools are funded to the detriment of other services" says it all. I guess you would suggests reducing funding for a school system that is rapidly growing? Because you feel underpaid, teachers should continue to be underpaid too? I consider teaching to be one of the most important jobs in our society. More of NOVA tax dollars need to stay in NOVA. Fairfax County needs to adjust the formula that determines how much apartments and condos contribute toward schools. The assumption that kids don't live in apartments and condos is a ridiculous one, especially here in Fairfax County. There are many areas that should be looked into to try to fix the budget issues, but begrudging teacher grade and step increases isn't one of them.

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery is only 5k more. Whatever. Teachers make a darn good salary when one considers their hours and days of work. Actual work. The teacher workdays are a joke.

How many days have you worked as a teacher? It's not an easy job at all. I was a public school teacher for 2 years. Then, I went to business school, took a job in the private sector and more than tripled my salary over the course of that 3 year period. My job now is a cakewalk compared to teaching.

I left FCPS for one of those other districts. More than the salary, I didn't feel respected as a professional. Everything we did was micromanaged and it was only about test scores and eCart. I couldn't work in that environment. Learning and students are more important. The fact that my salary increased was a bonus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery is only 5k more. Whatever. Teachers make a darn good salary when one considers their hours and days of work. Actual work. The teacher workdays are a joke.

Parent here. And Arlington is 25% more. It always amazes me that as a culture we justify paying CEOs millions of dollars regardless of what boneheaded decisions they make, and find ways to demean the people in charge of giving our kids an education.
Whatever. You get what you pay for, folks. I'm glad my kids won't be in FCPS for much longer.

Arlington can afford to pay its teachers more than Fairfax because it has fewer students per tax paying adult. Arlington has less than 10% of its population enrolled in public schools. Fairfax has over 16% of its population in public schools. That is why Arlington's property tax rate is always LOWER than Fairfax's and their per pupil school budget is always higher. I have lived in the area for over 20 years and Arlington, DC and Alexandria have always paid significantly more to teachers. The OP left off Loudoun, Stafford and Prince William Counties- which are always lower than Fairfax.

I do think that Fairfax needs to pay its teachers more, the School Board is certainly for it, the BOS is always reluctant to increase taxes- yet they have shifted an increasingly larger % of their budget to the schools significantly over the past 20 years and cannot anymore. There used to ban almost 50/50 split between the schools and everything else in Fairfax county. EVERYTHING else in the county budget has taken larger hits over the years so the the schools can squeak by. For example the libraries suffered a 40% slash. 40%. The State will never change the current formula that it gives schools- a super majority in the House and Senate benefit from the formula. SO, Fairfax will continue to pay thousands for each public school students outside of its boundaries. The Federal contribution to FCPS is minimal.

I think the gap will continue to get worse and the schools will suffer and then, only then, will people stop moving to FCPS for the schools and we will have a more balanced % of public school students as compared to the adult tax paying population. IMO it is the high % of students first and the state taxation and dispersal formula second that makes it nearly impossible for Fairfax to pay its teachers salaries closer to the WDC area schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery is only 5k more. Whatever. Teachers make a darn good salary when one considers their hours and days of work. Actual work. The teacher workdays are a joke.

How many classrooms have you been in? How many days as a teacher have you had?

Your ignorance is a joke.

+1 spend some time volunteering in the classroom. If you think that teachers work only the 6 hours the kids are in school you are on crack. My kids school stars at 9:10. Teachers are there by 8 if not before and stay at least until 5 if not later. All of them. FCPS