Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Met many teachers who agree that they are not valued well here. Hope this changes with the next elections.
On the North Shore of Long Island there's a town where property taxes are literally ten times higher than what people pay in Wake County. In that town the starting teachers pay is $58k and the average teachers salary is $98k. They receive excellent benefits and a generous pension.
They complain that they are not valued and that they have to fight the school district every time their contract needs to be renewed.
Funny how a retired IT person seems to know everything (that's bad) about the current job situation in every trade and industry. I could be wrong, but I don't seem to recall reading (m)any responses from current teachers to this or similar threads complaining about their situations. Maybe the OP should wait to hear from some of the actual teachers for more accurate and relevant information.
To the OP: In addition to the public schools, there are also plenty of private and christian schools in the area. I'd suggest that the proportion of students in private : public schools here is higher than most areas of the country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkCanWrite
I know several teachers and they all say they wish they could move out of the state and somewhere where they (A) respect teachers and (B) pay them what they're worth.
Someone might be able to write, but I'm debating his reading comprehension... he is clearly not a teacher. There's still not much/any feedback from actual teachers. Would love to hear from them, and not from folks who happen to have talked to one or two and are generalizing for the thousands in Wake County.
Last edited by Thr3stripe; 04-03-2015 at 10:44 AM..
The first question is...can you live on @$2400 per month( after taxes)? If you think you can't, then n.C. Won't work for you.
Why do you use 10 months worth of salary to determine if someone can afford to live here. Could this teacher not supplement their 'total' income by seeking employment for those 2 months they are off.
Thank you for your feedback. I'm coming from CT. I am certified to teach grades K-6. I do not have a preference as to type of school(public, charter, private). I honestly think the whole country does not value teachers. I can easily live in $2400 a month since that is what I live on now in CT which is an expensive state. Any other advice would be great.
OP I agree that teaching is not valued in this county neither is social work, another female dominated profession. As for your request for advice here is my 2 cents. I believe Wake County (WCPSS) has a better supplement for teacher salaries then Johnston County or some of the other counties nearby. Chapel Hill, I believe has the highest supplement but it is a smaller district and therefore probably does not have as many openings.
As far as renting my advice is to secure your position first and then look for areas nearby to rent preferably near things you like to do too. Good luck to you!!
Why do you use 10 months worth of salary to determine if someone can afford to live here. Could this teacher not supplement their 'total' income by seeking employment for those 2 months they are off.
Of course they could, but you have to assume that you won't be able to find any other work that will make the same or more money and it's only 2 months off... part of which will be spent being asked to attend some sort of inservice and start getting ready for students to return to class. And, what do YR teachers do? You cannot expect that some place is going to give you a job every time you're out of school. They don't work more than traditional calendar teachers.
It's best to look at the salary and figure out if you can live off it. If you find extra income each year, that's just gravy, really.
__________________
When in doubt, check it out: FAQ
My advice is to see if wake county is having any job fairs, I applied for dozens of positions online prior to moving here....with no results. But after attending one job fair, and letting principals that I spoke with there know I had secured a rental here in n.c,( a white lie , but I did have a few lined up in case I got an offer)...I got 4 job offers from that one job fair. This was 8 years ago during the " boom" of teachers being hired , but a job fair indicates that counties are actively looking again.
I would also come here during the summer for at least a week and meet with wake county human resources....they can point you to particular schools that are hiring. And if you do get interviews, try to be convincing that you have everything lined up to move immediately.... I know many principals / asst. Principals personally now, and they have all told me that if a potential employee is not certain they are moving here, or haven't moved here, they dont even consider them.
Good luck!
Last edited by newmom5497; 04-03-2015 at 06:18 PM..
Thank you for your feedback. I'm coming from CT. I am certified to teach grades K-6. I do not have a preference as to type of school(public, charter, private). I honestly think the whole country does not value teachers. I can easily live in $2400 a month since that is what I live on now in CT which is an expensive state. Any other advice would be great.
We moved here in Feb, my wife put her license transfer application in today. She hopes to get it before the wake job fair in May. You may want to try to go to that fair.
I think it's in May 2nd. We also came from CT but fortunately I was able to secure a job before moving down.
There has been a lot of talk about how teachers are treated in NC, and it hasn't always been good, especially in the last few years. The state budget took a huge hit in 2008-2009, and there wasn't any raises until last year. They even froze step increases, so they changed the salary schedules every year so that the first step went from no experience, to no experience up to 5 or 6 years experience last year. It's not just about salary though. There have been some nasty things said about teachers by state legislators. There's a big conflict going on between the NCAE and a lot of the Republican leadership in the State, so there isn't always the compromise that you would hope for.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help. I might be able to ask around for you.
first and most importantly, thank you for such a thorough and great answer to the OP's question. Because your response was so "even-handed", I'd be curious to get your input on the paragraph I've quoted above. What are some of the "nasty things said about teachers...", especially since it sounds as if it's not one or a few bumpkin politicians you're implying.
North Carolina is a great state; it's a wonderful place to live. It's generally not a great place to be a teacher. I have many friends who are young teachers; most of whom just barely made the cut for teaching fellows before that program was disbanded. Many of those who had teaching fellows scholarships are the lucky ones who will get 5 years here building their resume here before being able to relocate to a more teacher-friendly state. The biggest places I hear people saying they will move when their teaching fellows commitment is over are Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
No doubt you will be able to find a teaching job here very quickly; the question is will you want to stick around here (at least as a teacher) for very long once you do or will you be a part of the large turnover.
I spent all 13 years at Wake County Public Schools. They have their issues but generally offer quality education and most teachers when I was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s seemed content even with their notoriously low pay. The political atmosphere over the past few years seems to have pushed many of them over the edge though.
My former AP US History Teacher (a great man who has been there for years and also coaches football and is a mentor to many students) was on the news last year talking about how bad the situation had gotten ... http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/13662153/
Last edited by TarHeelNick; 04-04-2015 at 08:39 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
