Moving? (Chicago, McHenry, Henry: house, job market, to buy)

[HomelessTeacher]

I am a current resident of West Virginia.
My boyfriend and I are looking into moving to Illinois.
Maybe outside of St Louis or Chicago.
I am an elementary education teacher, he is a music education teacher (preferably middle/high school).
Are there many teaching positions?
Are these diverse places?
I have heard it's EXTREMELY expensive to live there.
Is this true? Any advice?

[laney28]

I have a teaching degree and could not find a job, however that was SEVERAL years ago, so i am SURE with all the new schools there are job openings. Have you tried career builder? Monster? Your College's alumni placement services? They can tell you about jobs.

Now as for Chicago Burbs vs outside St Louis, comparing the two, is like two different nations IMHO.

Of course the cost of living is going to be more outisde a major metro city. But you get paid more, so that is all relative. I know many teachers who live in the metro area and own homes.

[Frank the Tank]

The outer "exurbs" of Chicago (Will, McHenry, Kendall, and Kane Counties) are the ones experiencing the most growth in terms of education jobs since they are also experiencing the fastest population growth in general. They are building new schools at a fast pace (although the downside is that those school districts are perpetually having to raise property taxes to fund them). Suburban teachers are paid a decent salary and if you have two incomes coming in, you can afford to buy a house in many of the Chicago suburbs. There are a decent number of elementary school jobs, but like most places in the country, the highest demand is for math and science teachers.

Music education jobs are tougher to come by since they aren't really being added - you usually have to wait until someone leaves or retires, and even then, that job market is notoriously known for being very clubby (it seems as though every music teacher in the Chicago area went to either the University of Illinois or Northwestern). I'm not sure if this is the case in other metro areas, but with Chicago being the third-largest market in the country, I would guess that it's a pretty similar or even worse situation elsewhere.

St. Louis is a whole lot cheaper, but then again, it's a city that's generally on the decline in comparison to Chicago and your salary will be different. As someone said earlier, Chicago vs. St. Louis is like comparing two different countries. In terms of character, local economy, politics, and diversity, Chicago has more in common with East Coast cities than its Midwestern neighbors.

[Kalysa19]

It is still very difficult to get a teaching job here in Illinois, even with all of the schools being built. The supply of new teachers exceeds the demands of suburban schools. If you have a masters degree in elem. ed, it will be virtually impossible unless you have years of experience. It is definitely much easier if you are middle/high school. You would also probably have no difficulties getting a job in CPS (but you do have to live in the city limits if you teach in Chicago).

I have my masters in elem. ed and haven't been able to get a job yet (hence the reason why I am probably going to have to move out of state). Alot of the people who I were in the program with also had to leave Illinois because they had difficulties too.

If you can get a job, there are lots of great areas in the northern and western suburbs of Chicago. My recommendation is to get Illinois certification and just apply to as many districts as possible (even the ones you don't particularly like).

Hope this helps!

[NannyinHE]

schoolmatters.com

try that to look at the schools ratings if thats a preference and if not just type in the name of the school you are looking at in a search engine and call the home office of the school and ask if they are hiring.

johnsburg is growing fast, try them http://www.jburgd12.k12.il.us/ (broken link)

mchenry too http://www.d15.org/d15/index.html (broken link) and the high school district for mchenry is http://www.dist156.org/

they are both growing areas and i went to johnsburg schools i absolutely loved. if you go to johnsburg, rick bailey is one of the best teachers to work with. if you go to those areas i hope that helps