Questions for Tri Cities Educators (Richland, Pasco: best schools, move to, friendly)

[j_crown]

Hello there. I am a first year intermediate elementary teacher, and I'm planning to move to the Richland area in the spring of next year. I have two questions:

1 - What elementary schools would you recommend for a beginning teacher in the area?

2 - Are the schools consistently hiring? (I've seen jobs posted on the different district websites, but I know Washington has been pretty hard hit in this economy - especially in education. Is the Tri Cities area the exception?)

Thanks so much!

[trobec]

Jobs can be found in the Tri-Cities for a first year teacher. Look early, but even if you don't get hired during the early summer, sometimes things come through in the late summer or even early fall. The only down fall is that a lot of those jobs are 'one year non-continuing contracts' and you could be vulnerable to being laid off at the end of the year with no guarantee of a job in the fall. I've seen really good teachers come and go in this manner. It's a bummer, but probably not exclusive to the Tri-Cites. As with most jobs, it's kind of a 'who you know' kind of deal, but again, that's not out of the norm at any school district, I imagine. Any one of the schools would probably be fine. If you are bi-lingual, you may look into Pasco school district. Otherwise, Richland probably offers the best schools. Look just outside the tri-cities to the smaller school districts...Benton City, Finley, Burbank, Prosser...all good schools with very warm and friendly staffs, at least in my experience, and only about 15 to 30 minutes drive from anywhere in the TC area.
In my job as a grant director, I have spent quite a bit of time in several of the schools, and I have yet to find one that I would not consider working in. Good Luck!!