Science Teaching Jobs in Spokane?? (Seattle: how much, find a job, high schools)

[texasdiver]

Hi everyone:

My wife and I currently live in Texas with 3 young girls. She is not particularly happy with her current job situation (she is a doctor) and is looking at several possible offers in both the Boise and Spokane areas. We are not native Texans. I grew up in Oregon and went to school in Seattle and we lived 8 years in Juneau. So we know what to expect from the NW in terms of climate and culture.

I am a marine fisheries biologist and spent 10 years working for NMFS in Seattle, DC, and Juneau before moving to Texas for my wife's career. Here in Texas I got into teaching and enjoy it. I completed an alternative certification and am composite science certified which allows me to teach any science subject. Although I'm a biologist by training (masters from UW) I've been teaching chemistry and physics in Texas for the past 3 years and I think I'm pretty good at it.

My question is this. If I follow my wife to Spokane, how difficult will it be for me to find a science teaching position in one of the local high schools? Here in Texas a composite certified science teacher can sneeze and get 6 job offers. As an intern straight out of my certification program I put out 10 job applications and got 8 job offers. Several of them were made on the spot after a 15 minute interview. I suspect the profession is more difficult to break into in Spokane. I'm just wondering how much more difficult.

Am I looking at spending years working as a sub or commuting to some far flung rural school before breaking into a good job close by where we'd want to live in Spokane? Or is it reasonable to think I could land a science teaching job relatively easily?

Economically speaking I don't have to find a job immediately. We can obviously live on my wife's salary. But I'll go crazy if I can't find something productive to do.