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After a protracted illness, I'm ready to get back to scoping out the great wealth of information on this board. Possibly moving down to GSP area over the summertime. I am a teacher and curious as to how school system is structured down there (districts or county-wide systems). Any recommendations on ones that everyone wants to teach in (be as specific as possible, down to the school) and those that really are not anyone's cup of tea.
Wanted to start applying b/c may be coming down end of March and maybe could interview at that time. I am certified K to 8 in Maryland general education, K -adult special education. I'm also in the process of getting my ESOL certification (don't know how prevalent, if at all, your English Second Language population is).
If anyone can shed some info, I'd sure appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
In South Carolina, we have "consolidated" districts that are county wide and individual "area" districts that are usually a town or 2. Greenville County is a consolidated district. Spartanburg County has 7, I think, school districts. Anderson County has around 5 school districts. Pickens County is a consolidated district.
Elementary jobs are tough to come by. Your best bet would be in Special Education. Math, Science, and Special Ed are the critical need subjects in this state that need teachers.
ESOL certification will be a selling point. I am more familiar with the high schools than elementary, but Anderson 1 and Anderson 5 have good high schools. In Greenville, I would guess the elementary schools that feed Hillcrest, Mauldin, and JL Mann would all be pretty good schools. Pickens County is mostly rural except Easley High school, which would be the closest to Greenville.
Greenville county recently cut ESOL funding in the last 1 or 2 years. use to be if the student population demanded it each school had a ESOL teacher. now those schools have to share time with 1 person. can create huge demands on the teacher and in the end negatively impact the students and gen ed. staff who only have 50% access to the instructor.
most folks consider anderson 1 to be a good district because of wren. people forget that williamston high school (palmetto hs) is also part of the district and that wren will slowly become not so great a school once powdersville high school takes all their "good kids". and by "good kids" i mean rich white kids living in overpriced housing developments. don't let people fool you on here. people seem to equate good school with "white + low rate of poverty". you take the teaching staff at say Carolina High School a few miles away yet serving an entirely different crowd of kids and put them in powdersville and they'll give ya the same results as the present staff at powdersville. (no disrespect to staff at wren, powdersville or carolina as i have multiple friends at all 3 schools).
anderson 5 includes tl hanna and westside high schools. westside caters to the old mill neighborhoods of anderson city while hanna caters to a more economic power crowd of anderson city. hanna is IMO a good school but anderson 5 has some serious funding issues.
Hillcrest - lots of complaints from parents about the academic decline in the last 5 / 6 years.
Mauldin - ask any Greenville county sheriff deputy and they will say stay away from mauldin. Enormous gang problem. mauldin high is notorious for having entertaining race issues as well within its student body.
JL Mann - magnet school designed to attract the areas best athletes combined with locals who live in homes built on old south money. lots of parents with lots of connections and power. walk the hallways at Mann sometime. it is a zoo over there.
One of the most frustrating issues when I moved to the Greenville-Spartanburg area was identifying excellent public schools. This is much easier in other cities of the Southeast.
I'm currently zoned for Sara Collins, Beck, and JL Mann. For the most part, I'm very satisfied with Sara Collins. I've heard mixed reviews re Beck. Additionally, I'm cautiously optomistic about the new middle school planned for ICAR area - however, I've been told the zoned area for this school has not been determined. As for JL Mann, I've generally heard positive reviews - however, I don't understand the statement above, "walk the hallways at Mann sometime. it is a zoo over there".
To Greenvillebuckeye: what do you consider the best schools in the Greenville/Greer/Simpsonville area? (we do prefer to live as close to downtown Greenville as possible)
Mauldin - ask any Greenville county sheriff deputy and they will say stay away from mauldin. Enormous gang problem. mauldin high is notorious for having entertaining race issues as well within its student body.
Mauldin City Police have jurisdiction over the high school. I've got 1 graduated and 1 currently in 1st year and they have not had any problems there so you might want to call the Sheriff and prove or disprove that statement.
Mauldin City Police have jurisdiction over the high school. I've got 1 graduated and 1 currently in 1st year and they have not had any problems there so you might want to call the Sheriff and prove or disprove that statement.
wasn't mauldin also the school that had the race issues back in 05-06 and the race issues back in the 90s when KG attended there? stellar school lemme tell ya.
One of the most frustrating issues when I moved to the Greenville-Spartanburg area was identifying excellent public schools. This is much easier in other cities of the Southeast.
I'm currently zoned for Sara Collins, Beck, and JL Mann. For the most part, I'm very satisfied with Sara Collins. I've heard mixed reviews re Beck. Additionally, I'm cautiously optomistic about the new middle school planned for ICAR area - however, I've been told the zoned area for this school has not been determined. As for JL Mann, I've generally heard positive reviews - however, I don't understand the statement above, "walk the hallways at Mann sometime. it is a zoo over there".
To Greenvillebuckeye: what do you consider the best schools in the Greenville/Greer/Simpsonville area? (we do prefer to live as close to downtown Greenville as possible)
wade hampton - no ties to the school but a solid school all around.
top notch academics, solid above average 3A athletic program soon to be 4A, and well having the fine arts center on site doesn't hurt. they're a triple threat. academics, arts and athletics.
After a protracted illness, I'm ready to get back to scoping out the great wealth of information on this board. Possibly moving down to GSP area over the summertime. I am a teacher and curious as to how school system is structured down there (districts or county-wide systems). Any recommendations on ones that everyone wants to teach in (be as specific as possible, down to the school) and those that really are not anyone's cup of tea.
Wanted to start applying b/c may be coming down end of March and maybe could interview at that time. I am certified K to 8 in Maryland general education, K -adult special education. I'm also in the process of getting my ESOL certification (don't know how prevalent, if at all, your English Second Language population is).
If anyone can shed some info, I'd sure appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
Greenville County has a consolidated school district. The schools within the district range from awful to great, depending on a huge number of different factors. I'm not going to go into each specific school, but if you look at the individual school report cards going back several years you can get some idea of how the schools perform on paper. I know that doesn't always equate to the actual school itself but it does give some idea.
Despite the negative comments from another poster, I think Anderson District One has an excellent school district. Wren High has historically done the best but Palmetto High has typically been far above average as well. I would expect the new Powdersville High School to be an excellent school as well. Pretty much all the middle and elementary schools in the district perform well. People specifically move into Anderson District One for the school system and I think that helps to make the schools there even better because you tend to get parents that value education. Not all those people are "rich" as someone else suggested. I know our family is certainly not rich......
Thanks for all these replies, though it doesn't really help, in all honest - you know what I mean - everyone, naturally, has different opinions.
Let me ask this - would it be hard to substitute pretty steadily? Up here I could sub every day if I wanted to. No benies of course but flexibility, which you don't have as a contracted teacher.
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