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I am interested in relocating from New Jersey around June 2008. I am in graduate school for education and I will be a first year, highly qualified and dual certified teacher from NJ. I am concerned about the demand for teachers in the city of Charlotte and also the pay rate.
In the area in NJ, you can start anywhere from 38-45 k (on average) and top out around 100k in 13 years. But, I do know the cost of living is different. Does anyone know what the pay rates for teachers are in NC? Teachers here have an opportunity to do pretty well for themselves, and I was wondering if that applies in Charlotte as well.
I love New Jersey and will probably settle down here, I just want to live somewhere else for now to seee what else the country has to offer--I heard charlotte is fantastic by a few people I know that live there.
Location: Between Belmont & Cramerton, North Carolina
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Hi,
Yes, it is very easy for teachers to find a job here. My wife had 4 interviews and 4 job offers after searching for three weeks. The pay, though, is not very high. Please check out: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/departments/HR/compensation.asp - broken link) for the "2006-2007 Annual Salary Schedule" -- the salaries for 07-08 are not that much higher.
Just a word of caution: some people say that they don't like working for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools b/c of overwhelming bureaucracy and inflexibility w/ regard to how you have to teach. As a result, you find teachers leaving Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools after their first year. These teachers try to find employment in the surrounding counties where the pay is even lower. Please refer to the school websites of other counties for specifics but, in general terms, you start with up to 4k less per year.
If you are certified to teach in NJ and NC then that's great but you can even start working here w/o being certified to teach in NC (I think you have to obtain the certification within 6 months or one year). We moved here from CO and my wife obtained her NC license beforehand but most new hires don't have a NC license yet.
Union county is full of people from the Northeast but if you want to be exposed to more Southerners, you might want to look at other counties.
I'm not sure if I'd say that Charlotte is fantastic. It is clean and a lot of the buildings in downtown are new but there's really not too much to it w/ regard to attractions / bars & clubs / things to do. I personally prefer Chapel Hill / Raleigh over Charlotte. The good thing about living in Charlotte is that you're about 3 hours away from the beach and 3 hours away from the mountains, so it is a good hub for weekend trips.
Gem- I'm not a teacher but from what I've always heard, the biggest difference in teaching between NJ and NC is the unions. The NJEA is very strong. Not sure how (if) NC teachers are represented.
You might want to google or find out the differences between the two.
If you are looking at coming in anothere year, I would keep in mind that Spring is the time for job fairs in and around Charlotte. Union County had theirs in early April last year and CMS's was a couple of weeks later.
1st year teacher in Rowan County, I will make $31,750 this year. I have heard that all first year teachers will receive a "bonus" so they can say all teachers made more than 30K (NC salary is 29,750 and Rowan gives $200 in supplements). They have increased the base pay by several thousand dollars over the last few years.
What separates one public (county wide, usually) school system from another in terms of salary is the local supplement. Example: Charlotte-Meck teachers with a Bachelor's earn about $2,700 more per year than similary qualified teachers in Union County, NC. The only difference is the local supplement.
The NC legislature has legislation in place to increase teacher pay a fixed sum for all step levels. Currently, two of these 5% raises have been passed, one last summer and one recently.
Here are the 06-07 pay schedules for CMS and Union Co (does not reflect most recent pay increase)
Salary Information (http://hr.ucps.k12.nc.us/php/salaries.php - broken link)
Remember, the salary is standardized statewide but supplements vary. Also, the insurance benefits should be the same for teachers in two different counties because all the insurance benefits come from the state government of North Carolina.
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