Wake County Public Schools vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools

[urbancharlotte]

Originally Posted by North_Raleigh_Guy

Urbancharlotte,

Why would you point people to an inaccurate website like salary wizard when exact teacher salary numbers are available directly from the source? The only accurate source of teacher pay info would be from the school systems website for each county. You will notice that pay varies by years of service and qualifications. Depending on your years of service and degree you may make a few hundred more in Wake or mecklenburg county as there is variability across the board.

For example, here are the salary schedules for a teacher a BS degree and both 0 and 10 years of service in each system. As you can see in this case you actually make slightly more in Wake. It varies by year and degree level, but in the end it is all a wash.

Wake
0 years: $34,462.00
10 years: $44,763.20

Charlotte Mecklenburg
0 years: $34,385.90
10 years $44,273,40

Here are real sources of teacher pay for Charlotte Mecklenburg and Wake County. You are welcome!

Charlotte Mecklenburg
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Teacher Salary Schedules (http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/departments/HR/compensation.asp - broken link)

Wake County
Wake Teacher Salary Schedules

Both sources are reliable. They both fall into the standard 1% margin of error for any public stat. The best advice I can give is to get a job offer from both school systems and visit both. This way you can see which community is a closer urban comparison to the NH area. The difference may surprise you. Good Luck with your search!!! Oh yeah, before I go. I would like to leave you with some video images of Charlotte. My GOOD friend "North Raleigh Guy" can provide you with his video images of Raleigh. This will give you an idea of what the respective areas look like!!! Here are my Charlotte videos. Enjoy!!!

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by urbancharlotte

Both sources are reliable.

Not really. The only true source is the county school system website. Why point them anywhere else beside the actual source? It should be noted that based on the numbers on the websites your statement about making more in Charlotte was incorrect. Again it varies by years of service and degree, but the best comparison can be made looking at the schedules side by side and not through a third party guestimate.

Thanks for the video of the "dancing drunk". That is very educational and impressive!

[urbancharlotte]

I only posted them because "Roshero" did not sound too familiar with NC. I wanted to give him/her a visual of one of NC's cities before he/she goes and commits to Raleigh without even stepping foot in Charlotte. This is my message to any teacher (or professional) looking to move to NC. I would strongly urge anyone considering Charlotte to look at Raleigh too. The same goes for anybody considering Raleigh; they should look at Charlotte too. NC's two largest cities are very different. The biggest difference is the look and feel of the respective communities. You can not possibly make a sound decision on taking a job in either city if you have no clue what these cities look like. People live at home. Most of us don't live at work.

At any rate, here is a link to one of Charlotte's better performing schools. This school is actually located in a safe/clean/urban envirnment. It challenges the myth that urban schools perform poorly and are unsafe.

First Ward Accelerated Learning Academy : We are a CMS Magnet School!
First Ward Elementary School - Charlotte, North Carolina - NC - School overview

This school is just one example of many great schools in Charlotte. Most of these schools are more suburban than this one, but First Ward is an excellent location. It is also perfect for teachers and staff that wish to save a few $$$ by using mass transit to get to work. First Ward is only 4 blocks away from Charlotte's 7th Street light rail station BTW.

If you really want to be close to work and transit, Sterling Elementary school's playing field is on top of I-485 light rail station's parking deck in Pineville, NC. This is a nice suburban location with inexpensive urban rapid transit ON THEIR PROPERTY!!! How cool is that? These are just a few of the little things teachers and staff just won't find working in Raleigh. Here is that school
http://pages.cms.k12.nc.us/sterling/
The station and playing field is a short walk from the main building that you saw in the link. Many of the kids and parents at Sterling take advantage of the train too. This is the only such project where public education and rapid public transit joined forces in the state. The innovative thinking that improves the overall learning experience in Charlotte will and have surprised many!!!

[Roshero]

Thanks for all the info.... I am just I little afraid. I hope I can Make down in NC. I hope I can find a good school and be able to teach. my Fear is tha since there is so many people spaking spanish they might no need spanish teachers!!! I have a simple regular life... not big spender...hopefully star saving to buy a house in NC y have my family nest down there. I hope I can get some interviews for next school year. I am planing to go down NC in Spring with my hubby and visit. At the same time hopefully I can have some interviews arrange.

We'll see
Roshero fron NH

[metro.m]

Originally Posted by urbancharlotte

I only posted them because "Roshero" did not sound too familiar with NC. I wanted to give him/her a visual of one of NC's cities before he/she goes and commits to Raleigh without even stepping foot in Charlotte. This is my message to any teacher (or professional) looking to move to NC. I would strongly urge anyone considering Charlotte to look at Raleigh too. The same goes for anybody considering Raleigh; they should look at Charlotte too. NC's two largest cities are very different. The biggest difference is the look and feel of the respective communities. You can not possibly make a sound decision on taking a job in either city if you have no clue what these cities look like. People live at home. Most of us don't live at work.

At any rate, here is a link to one of Charlotte's better performing schools. This school is actually located in a safe/clean/urban envirnment. It challenges the myth that urban schools perform poorly and are unsafe.

First Ward Accelerated Learning Academy : We are a CMS Magnet School!
First Ward Elementary School - Charlotte, North Carolina - NC - School overview

This school is just one example of many great schools in Charlotte. Most of these schools are more suburban than this one, but First Ward is an excellent location. It is also perfect for teachers and staff that wish to save a few $$$ by using mass transit to get to work. First Ward is only 4 blocks away from Charlotte's 7th Street light rail station BTW.

If you really want to be close to work and transit, Sterling Elementary school's playing field is on top of I-485 light rail station's parking deck in Pineville, NC. This is a nice suburban location with inexpensive urban rapid transit ON THEIR PROPERTY!!! How cool is that? These are just a few of the little things teachers and staff just won't find working in Raleigh. Here is that school
Sterling Paideia Academy : Welcome to Sterling Paideia Academy!
The station and playing field is a short walk from the main building that you saw in the link. Many of the kids and parents at Sterling take advantage of the train too. This is the only such project where public education and rapid public transit joined forces in the state. The innovative thinking that improves the overall learning experience in Charlotte will and have surprised many!!!

The reality is Charlotte is still in search of finding it's self and being comfortable. Hopefully the students there can get a much better school system working for them soon.

BTW. What happened to all of the Education Lottery plans. From what I can tell, there hasn't been much of an improvement.

[imsavdru]

Originally Posted by shell down under

I had narrowed it down to Wake County, however would appreciate any views you might have regards the schools. I am totally against corperal punishment (something i didn't realise still existed) and saw that Wake is also. i also liked the look of some of the Catholic schools, as we are currently in the Catholic system over here. Are the Private schools worth their tuitions?
thanks for your time in advance.
Michelle

Yes, the private schools are worth it! The education is bar none to any public school in Wake County. Not saying the schools in Wake County are bad (there are quite a few good ones) but there are sooo many more pros to the private schools.

1) The student to teacher ratio is really low! On average - there are 20-22 kids in a class with a teacher and an assistant or a shared assistant.

2) The teachers don't "teach to the test"...they teach so that the kids learn!

3) The private schools are generally way ahead of the public schools for many reasons - they spend more time teaching than disciplining and they don't teach to the test.

4) You don't have to worry about what track your child will be on and what school they will go to next year.

Cary Christian School is a wonderful school!! I wouldn't trade it for the world. They have issues just like any school but nothing that I would pull my child out for. My son is in 2nd grade and he is learning the scientific names of the bones of the body, has spelling words such as Corinthians, Galatians and phalanges and is already writing in cursive...just to name a few.

CCS does believe in corporal punishment, though....so that school may be out for you. But if your children listen and obey - then you should have nothing to worry about. Any corporal punishment administered is made aware to the parent before it happens anyhow. And it is administered in extreme cases of disobedience.

Good luck with your move and your decision!