NYC teacher relocating to the Atlanta area (Marietta, Clayton: budget, salary)

[Chris_Davis]

I am a New York City high school history teacher relocating to Atlanta. I am looking for a job for the 2008-09 school year and beyond. Can anyone give me some advice on hiring practices of Atlanta area school districts? I'd like to know things like what time of year they do their hiring, do I apply to individual schools or to the county, should I avoid any areas, etc. I teach inner city kids currently and love it... would not have a problem doing so in Atlanta but mainly I need to just get a job.

Any advice?

[Hopeful127]

Try all of these school boards:

Atlanta Public Schools-All my friends who taught in FL and NJ have gone here and love it.
Gwinnett Public Schools
Dekalb Public Schools-I heard they are pretty good.
Cobb County
Fulton County
Fayette County
Clayton County-not so sure about this one.

[lastminutemom]

Highest paying systems are Atlanta and DeKalb and Clayton but still will be much less than NYC.

Have you gone to the following website...

Teach Georgia - Home Page

Most systems start hiring around March -- high school history jobs won't be the easiest, but it shouldn't be impossible.

You do know that unlike NYC -- GA is a right to work state -- no real unions to protect you. Collective bargaining is not allowed.

[DoveDiva]

Originally Posted by Hopeful127

Try all of these school boards:

Atlanta Public Schools-All my friends who taught in FL and NJ have gone here and love it.
Gwinnett Public Schools
Dekalb Public Schools-I heard they are pretty good.
Cobb County
Fulton County
Fayette County
Clayton County-not so sure about this one.

Atlanta Public Schools: I don't recommend them because they hire any warm body with a teaching certificate. I taught there for 2 years and I found that while the pay was higher, I was paying more for my benefits in comparison to my counterparts in other districts. I also found that APS doesn't have as many resources as other districts do.

Gwinnett--haven't heard anything negative. They are the largest district here in GA.

DeKalb-they are hit or miss. They tend to have some of the same problems that Atlanta City Schools has.

Cobb-I work for them now and I really don't have any complaints. There are a lot of opportunities for advancement, leadership academies if you eventually want to move up into administration,etc. I've found in my experience that Cobb has more respect for you as an educator in comparison to other metro area districts. Each teacher gets a take home laptop, we've got access to quite a few teaching resources, and at least at the middle school level, we get 2 planning periods per day. Also, pretty much any type of teaching situation you want to teach in, you'll find in Cobb--they have urban schools, middle of the road schools, and cookie-cutter/Stepford wife neighborhood schools.

Fulton-I think they are a decent district. I haven't heard anything negative.

Fayette-Haven't heard anything negative.

Clayton-I hear a lot of negatives about them, but I just read something in a state teacher magazine about how the teachers association is making a lot of strides when it comes to getting their opinions heard.

Marietta City Schools--also known as Cobb lite. Haven't heard anything negative.

Hiring Process--My recommendations:
1. October-January: Get an idea of what districts you are interested in. From there, determine what SCHOOL you are interested in--the openings are listed by school in Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Dekalb. Not sure about the others. Contact the Georgia Professional Standards Commission if you haven't already in order to apply for your teaching certificate. You'll have more leverage with a Georgia contract in hand.

2. January-February: Get your references, etc. ready in order to apply.

3. March-April: the bulk of openings will be posted. Start applying. The openings at the good schools will most likely be snapped up before mid-May, usually.
You'll find openings left and right after April, but the closer you get to July and August, you'll find the bulk openings left are those at more challenging schools.

I hope this helps!

[Chris_Davis]

Thanks... actually glad about the right to work thing. Not really much of a union person. Seems to me they lose sight of what's important; the kids. At least the NYC teachers union has.

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

Highest paying systems are Atlanta and DeKalb and Clayton but still will be much less than NYC.

Have you gone to the following website...

Teach Georgia - Home Page

Most systems start hiring around March -- high school history jobs won't be the easiest, but it shouldn't be impossible.

You do know that unlike NYC -- GA is a right to work state -- no real unions to protect you. Collective bargaining is not allowed.

[Chris_Davis]

Originally Posted by DoveDiva

Atlanta Public Schools: I don't recommend them because they hire any warm body with a teaching certificate. I taught there for 2 years and I found that while the pay was higher, I was paying more for my benefits in comparison to my counterparts in other districts. I also found that APS doesn't have as many resources as other districts do.

Gwinnett--haven't heard anything negative. They are the largest district here in GA.

DeKalb-they are hit or miss. They tend to have some of the same problems that Atlanta City Schools has.

Cobb-I work for them now and I really don't have any complaints. There are a lot of opportunities for advancement, leadership academies if you eventually want to move up into administration,etc. I've found in my experience that Cobb has more respect for you as an educator in comparison to other metro area districts. Each teacher gets a take home laptop, we've got access to quite a few teaching resources, and at least at the middle school level, we get 2 planning periods per day. Also, pretty much any type of teaching situation you want to teach in, you'll find in Cobb--they have urban schools, middle of the road schools, and cookie-cutter/Stepford wife neighborhood schools.

Fulton-I think they are a decent district. I haven't heard anything negative.

Fayette-Haven't heard anything negative.

Clayton-I hear a lot of negatives about them, but I just read something in a state teacher magazine about how the teachers association is making a lot of strides when it comes to getting their opinions heard.

Marietta City Schools--also known as Cobb lite. Haven't heard anything negative.

Hiring Process--My recommendations:
1. October-January: Get an idea of what districts you are interested in. From there, determine what SCHOOL you are interested in--the openings are listed by school in Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Dekalb. Not sure about the others. Contact the Georgia Professional Standards Commission if you haven't already in order to apply for your teaching certificate. You'll have more leverage with a Georgia contract in hand.

2. January-February: Get your references, etc. ready in order to apply.

3. March-April: the bulk of openings will be posted. Start applying. The openings at the good schools will most likely be snapped up before mid-May, usually.
You'll find openings left and right after April, but the closer you get to July and August, you'll find the bulk openings left are those at more challenging schools.

I hope this helps!

Thank you so much! This is exactly the info I was looking for. Sounds like you're pretty happy where you are... any openings that you know of?

[DoveDiva]

Glad I could help.

Cobb's openings are listed on their website. As it stands right now, we don't have many openings, however....

Next school year, Allatoona High School will be opening to relieve overcrowding in the NW section of the county. Their school blog has their staffing timeline attached.

If you are interested in being a department head, hiring will begin soon.

The following link provides more information:
Allatoona High School: Allatoona HS Staffing Timeline

[irvm]

Unless you require something that can't be found elsewhere - nightlife, for example - you should also look at the school systems outside the city. With the influx of people from all over, what used to be 'rural' areas are now building new, modern, well-equipped schools that will obviously require more teachers. Homes in those areas are less expensive, traffic is less hectic, and there's easy access to activities like hiking, boating, golf, etc.

[jeffreda30238]

Atlanta has had some problems with budgeting and the retention of teachers. I can remember one year ( i think about 2004 or 2005) they were laying off teachers in the middle of the school year bc. of their budget, and the negligence of School Administration. That would be the LAST place I would tell you to look for a teaching position. Try Gwinette County...they seem to be doing well.

[fil]

Be prepared for the salary shock.

My best friend from college thought about joining me in Atlanta until she applied for a few positions and saw the huge pay cut.

She taught at Bank Street Elementary in the City and now is in White Plains with 10 years experience and tenure making almost $100k and Gwinnett was only willing to pay her $45k.

She's still in White Plains teaching.