Roanoke area immigration (Richmond, Round Hill: apartments, school districts, live in)

[aab7855]

Hey everyone,

I currently live in the New Orleans area after a long stint in Colombia and grad school in Puerto Rico. I'm not Hispanic, but my wife is from Colombia and we're both bilingual. We're educators by trade, and we're sorting out where we'll end up in the future. I am checking in to getting my teaching certificate in Virginia, and a place with lots of outdoors activities and a relaxed pace appeals to me. Roanoke seems to fit the bill.

While the numbers will clearly be less than in NOVA, would you all say there is a growing Hispanic population in Roanoke? We want to end up somewhere where we can make a difference (decent percentage of immigrants) but that we are still very marketable (not a large percentage of Spanish speaking professionals, like say Miami).

I hope to visit your fine city soon if the folks at the Department of Education in Richmond don't make me go through too much trouble with teacher certification. Reciprocity between states can be a nightmare. Also, if anyone has experiences with the school districts in the area, feel free to chime in. Any and all input is appreciated.

Thank yall in advance for any advice you can give!

[Artist83]

I'm moving back to Roanoke next week and I remember last time I was there, there were a lot of people who spoke different languages and from different countries.

[Watchful]

I moved here from the Houston area - which is so strongly Hispanic and has a strong international presence.

Roanoke thinks they are becoming more international, but to my Houston eyes it seemed like mostly white folks and black folks! But there is a small but lively international presence that is celebrated by a group called Local Colors (localcolors.org).

Williamson Road north of downtown is where you see the most international presence in terms of small retail - and it has a larger Latino presence in terms of residents. I drive for Uber and I was surprised by the large numbers of Latino students waiting for the bus near some apartments south of Hershberger and just east of I-581. I think Round Hill and Preston Park would be the elementary schools with the largest Latino presence. That would be my hunch. Let me check that out.

# pause

Yes, I was right - there are three of the 17 (?) regular elementary schools in Roanoke City that have 25% or more Hispanic student population - Preston Park (39) Round Hill (25) Fallon Park (25).

As far as jobs - my wife had a hard time getting hired on in the city or county and wound up as a teaching assistant. I think it may have been a disadvantage that she had some years of teaching experience, and for budget reasons, they may have preferred hiring teachers with less years of experience. That is just a guess... she couldn't get hired but they were always yelling that they needed teachers.

I would think that the language ability would be a huge plus in getting hired. Getting the state certification involved jumping through some hoops - but that was not the big issue!

Good luck - I think you might like it here in Roanoke!