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We are teachers considering relocation to the Cary/Reaserch Triangle/Morrisville area.
With so much discouraging info about teacher salary in NC, I wanted to get a realistic view after hearing from a teacher who moved from NC, that the no-higher pay-for-higher education was only for education related courses, not the content courses.
I wanted some input and clarification on that.
1. For example with a PhD in Science does a teacher get a PhD-based pay or not?
2. How about Bachelors plus 18 credits in Science (for spouse)
3.How do the years of experience add up? If one has 3 years of experience in SC, will that count for the pay?
4. How is retirement and health insurance? We have the State Health Plan in SC which is quite reasonable.
Moving from an inner city school in Charleston, I am looking for a more realistic view on really how much worse or better the situation is.
As comparison, this is the teacher pay scale n Charleston: http://www.nctq.org/docs/FY16Teach.pdf
5. Do maternity leave benefits apply (FMLA etc) like in SC?
6. Miscelleneous: with ONE 45 minute planning period, no duty-free lunch and no unions, teaching at an inner city school in SC can be stressful. But I don't know about teachers serving food and cleaning up tables and sweeping the floors like I heard about in NC. Are these things really true?
Looking at High School are these still duties High School teachers are expected to perform?
7.Lastly, how easy is it to transfer the teaching certificate from SC to NC? Earned SC certificate through 'PACE' alternative program and completing it to get the licensure, does th final licensure get transferred to NC?
Can one apply for a transfer during the summer ?
Thanks a lot for redaing through the questions and highly appreciate any input.
I can't tell you about the experience based pay (and you're posting in the Raleigh-Durham forum, not the NC forum....makes a difference, for instance Wake County pays a supplement to its teachers). Anything I know is specific to Wake County and the pay scale is on their website Wake County Public School System / Homepage. There is no master's pay in Wake County anymore - they'd rather their teachers are National Board Certified.
Health insurance is very expensive under the state plan.
I do not think you can transfer your license, my sister had a NY teaching license and had to get re-licensed here.
FMLA is a federal, not a state law.
Lunch is handled different at every school. At some schools the teachers are with the kids in the cafeteria and the TAs handled recess and that's your alone time; at other schools it is the opposite. And it's not 45 minutes, it's 30. There is also a specials period for planning.
My DS is in HS and the teachers are expected to hold tutorials twice a week during half the lunch period. Most high schools here are on block scheduling which is another thing to be aware of.
You'll see that the pay is higher here than it is in Charleston, by and large.
Doctorate nets an additional $253/mo ($2,530/year, 10-month schedule) in salary above the master's, which is a somewhat smaller increase per year than it would be in Charleston. That's up to you to determine if it's worth it to you or not. (It's most certainly not worth it to me, but that's me. )
I don't think there are any salary provisions for Bachelor's + X licenses. At least it's not made obvious.
Twingles is right in that you have to apply for a NC teacher's license instead of bringing in your SC license. They give you a year, during which you're compensated as a beginning, bachelor's-level teacher. Pro tip: START THE PROCESS EARLY. It can take months for them to move it along.
Once they do, though, your certified experience will carry over.
Overall here in Wake County, I would say that the schools are very good, but the compensation has lagged the increase in COL despite WCPSS paying the 2nd or 3rd highest teacher salaries in the state.
May I ask what would bring you and your family to the area?
I am not a teacher and can't give any specific advice, but I will say that I am optimistic that our new governor Roy Cooper will work to treat educators with the respect and pay that they deserve. NC almost always re-elects an incumbent governor, but this time we kicked out Pat McCrory by a slim margin and I think that was due mainly to HB2 and his treatment of educators in NC (getting rid of the master's pay boost statewide, etc). Overall, I am hopeful that things will start looking more positive for teachers in NC. It may not be overnight, though.
I agree that you'll get better responses to your NC vs SC questions in the General NC board (higher traffic). None of the questions you're asking are unique to the Triangle area.
All anecdotal evidence I've heard says that things are getting worse for teachers in NC; a small raise in pay but decidedly worse working conditions (getting rid a large number of Teacher Assistants, for example), which almost certainly would increase the number of non-educational duties expected of a teacher. I was pretty sure the salary bump for Masters degrees was discontinued a few years ago, though it might have a grandfather clause for ones already attained or in progress at the time. I'm pretty sure that it does not make a distinction for subject-area Masters vs Masters in Education, though. And "18 hours of XXX" means nothing--just degrees and experience.
You might contact the NC Board of Education and find someone at the state level to ask these specifics to if they aren't answered directly on the website. If you're on Facebook, there might be a group for NC Teachers, too.
My out of state license did not transfer to NC, and my many years of certified experience did not carry over. I had to do three years of an SP I (entry level license) before I could apply for the SP 2.
Teachers receive this if they were grandfathered when the cut to master's pay was implemented OR if their job description requires it.
I had to do a lot of digging to corroborate what you say, but here it is. Apparently the grandfather cutoff date was 8-1-2013, so if you got your degree prior to then, you're golden. What's good is that it applies to new teachers to the state as well.
Still, I would imagine that, unless they reinstate the master's bump under Cooper, all these universities that offer master's-level teacher prep programs are going to see their graduates leave the state in droves. Or, probably more accurately stated, continue to do so.
Last edited by papilgee4evaeva; 02-20-2017 at 10:45 PM..
Reason: yay formatting
I had to do a lot of digging to corroborate what you say, but here it is. Apparently the grandfather cutoff date was 8-1-2013, so if you got your degree prior to then, you're golden. What's good is that it applies to new teachers to the state as well.
Still, I would imagine that, unless they reinstate the master's bump under Cooper, all these universities that offer master's-level teacher prep programs are going to see their graduates leave the state in droves. Or, probably more accurately stated, continue to do so.
Anyone who has read education related news or knows ANYONE in the schools knows they did away with Master's pay. As I said, they prefer here for the teachers to be NBCT.
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