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Old 03-28-2022, 02:16 PM
 
Location: Arizona
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It's been about 10 years, but having lived in both the Poconos and the LV I believe the higher costs of LV are worth every penny. I would never move back to the Poconos. I'd move back to Lehigh without giving it a second thought.
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Old 03-28-2022, 05:02 PM
rhe rhe started this thread
 
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Originally Posted by charmed hour View Post
IMO, the LV is expensive for what it is, same with parts of the Poconos (are growing more expensive given the current real estate market) Full disclosure, I live in the tail end of the Poconos - my husband actually works out of Breinigsville. We would chose to not live in the LV due to costs- we have pretty much the same house you find in the LV at probably 50% of the cost, more land and lower overall taxes. Other side of that, longer commutes for work, errands, etc.

Speaking as someone that explored the idea of teaching in PA, I have found it's not necessarily easy to find a SD that doesn't seemingly have a system of nepotism in place with hiring in the smaller SDs. Allentown actually made me an offer but it made more sense to continue in my current position/career (ie $$$).
Oh, you have intrigued me. So many questions now. I am also looking to teach in PA, in the process of getting my PA cert. I've taught here in NJ for 15 years so I'm not sure what it will look like salary wise over there but it's interesting your take on the hiring process.

Also, where about are you currently? I'm not looking to buy immediately and I do have to consider the schools for my daughter. I was looking at apartments/townhomes to see if we like the area enough to settle. I sort of promised my daughter we'd find a place with a pool to make the blow of moving schools a bit easier. And although I have found plenty of townhome/apartment communities with a pool, I'm worried about the leap of faith in location. Hope this makes sense.
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Old 03-29-2022, 11:52 AM
 
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Originally Posted by rhe View Post
Oh, you have intrigued me. So many questions now. I am also looking to teach in PA, in the process of getting my PA cert. I've taught here in NJ for 15 years so I'm not sure what it will look like salary wise over there but it's interesting your take on the hiring process.

Also, where about are you currently? I'm not looking to buy immediately and I do have to consider the schools for my daughter. I was looking at apartments/townhomes to see if we like the area enough to settle. I sort of promised my daughter we'd find a place with a pool to make the blow of moving schools a bit easier. And although I have found plenty of townhome/apartment communities with a pool, I'm worried about the leap of faith in location. Hope this makes sense.
These are the requirements to obtain a certification in PA with current certification in another state:

https://www.education.pa.gov/Educato...xperience.aspx

I'm outside of the town of Jim Thorpe in Carbon County. There is one community near with townhomes but seems they are more of a tourist rental community, Lake Harmony. There are two larger communities of SFH that have lakes and pools- Towamensing Trails and Indian Mountain Lakes, which do long-term and short-term rentals.

I totally get the hesitation in finding a new location. We came from NYC and wound up further out in the Poconos than we really wanted to be, we would have preferred to be in Monroe County. Parts of Carbon can be pretty rural feeling when you come from a more populated area with easy access to box stores and other shopping.
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Old 03-30-2022, 07:47 AM
 
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Are you familiar with Breinigsville? The other two places I mentioned turned out to be way too expensive for me. Gosh this is tough!
Breiningsville is more of an area than an actual town Warehouses is what comes to mind when I think of Breiningsville. And townhouse complexes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breini...,_Pennsylvania Suburbs plus warehouses. Good school district though if you live really big!
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Old 04-01-2022, 06:45 AM
 
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Hellertown would seem to fit your needs and has a very nice community pool - you may be able to find a rental townhouse or home that fits the bill. I see a 2br on Zillow right now in a townhouse community that has its own pool.
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Old 04-02-2022, 08:20 AM
 
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Hellertown is a good suggestion. Nice downtown area. Good small schools. Really close to Bethlehem and easy to get on any of the main artery roads. I just had a thought though; we also used a bribe when we moved up here and that was a season pass to Dorney Park. We got them for the first two years and I would take the kids every couple of week during the week. There's a big water park there. Once they made friends we joined the community pool.
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Old 04-02-2022, 12:02 PM
rhe rhe started this thread
 
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That's a good bribe too! Thank you all for your help. I'm putting together another trip for next weekend and I am going to include these areas suggested. I really appreciate it. My PA certification is almost complete. Just waiting on on more document to complete it. Hopefully, it'll all come together.
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Old 04-03-2022, 09:58 PM
 
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Speaking of PA certification, I know Parkland and I believe East Penn both require you to sub before they offer you a position. Allentown doesn't, and it is the best paying too, so if you are okay with a poor inner city school, Allentown is the way to go.
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Old 04-04-2022, 06:52 AM
 
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Originally Posted by Tweb66 View Post
Speaking of PA certification, I know Parkland and I believe East Penn both require you to sub before they offer you a position. Allentown doesn't, and it is the best paying too, so if you are okay with a poor inner city school, Allentown is the way to go.
Good suggestion about subbing. I think most districts tend to hire past grads, subs and long term subs in general. It's really hard to fire a teacher, even during the probationary period, so schools are pretty picky with their hires if it's an area where there are a lot of candidates. Most aides in my district (Southern Lehigh) are certified and either hoping to get their own classroom, or working as a part time aide for supplemental income but don't need benefits, or the headache of lesson plans, IEPS, etc. Aides generally work 29 hours a week. Once you get on the sub registry, you can work at any of the area schools.
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Old 04-05-2022, 04:31 PM
rhe rhe started this thread
 
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Originally Posted by Tweb66 View Post
Speaking of PA certification, I know Parkland and I believe East Penn both require you to sub before they offer you a position. Allentown doesn't, and it is the best paying too, so if you are okay with a poor inner city school, Allentown is the way to go.
Wow! I did not know that was a prerequisite. That's actually quite disheartening. I don't have a problem with inner city schools at all so if Allentown is the answer then I will try that direction. Thank you for the info.
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