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I currently live in North Carolina and I've had it with this place. To the point that I'm literally considering just packing up and leaving. I had planned a move this Summer, but some things didn't work out and I had to postpone it a bit. I'm also currently working on my doctorate and will start residencies in Seattle next Summer. I'm looking to move to the Vancouver area, as I'm not keen on the idea of living in Seattle, but need to be within driving distance. Anywho, I had a few (several) questions:
Currently, I'm a High School English Teacher, but I'm also licensed for Moderate to Severe Special Education. How are the job prospects? Even Substitute work? I figure, if I move mid year, that may be my best bet at getting a job. From what I've seen, the average pay is around 120 a day, give or take. I'll also see about Adjuncting at a local community college to bring in a little extra cash. Anyone have any advice on that?
How are the schools in general? I get that it's probably all dependent on the neighborhood, but overall?
How are the Special Education services, especially for students with Autism? Autism supports, how are they as far as resources, etc.?
How bad is the search for an apartment. I admit, I don't have the best credit, but plan on going with roughly 6500 dollars in the bank to get me rolling? If I need to pay a few months in advance, I can probably make that work. What about renting a house? I'm mostly looking at 1-2 bedrooms. My son will be with me, but custody will be split with his mother (who's in the Portland area). So, I can make a 1 bedroom work and sleep on the couch when he's there, or something to that effect.
I'm also a bit of an outdoorsy kind of guy. Mountain Biking, Fishing, that kind of thing. So, how's the fishing? How's the cycling "scene"?
Vancouver has two big school districts that have 4 high schools each. Vancouver School District which covers the western side of the city and Evergreen School District which covers the eastern side of the city. They are pretty equivalent. They both have a mix of wealthier areas and more modest areas. Both are fairly tough to get into. Vancouver has a job fair every spring. Evergreen just does electronic applications as do all the other districts in the area.
All the other districts in the area are smaller one-high school districts: Camas, Washougal, Hockinson, Battle Ground, and Ridgefield. Camas would be the toughest to get into, affluent area close to Portland. The others are a bit further out and do more hiring.
After that you have long drives up the freeway to schools in Woodland, Kelso, Kalama, and Longview.
They all post their job openings online so find and bookmark the HR sites for all those school districts and start looking for openings. I did all my interviews long distance via skype and got hired that way. But I suspect it is better to be here in person.
You are doing the right thing looking for teaching jobs in Vancouver rather than across the river in Portland. Teaching jobs are much tougher to find in Portland. And the farther north you go in the Vancouver metro area (away from Portland) the easier they will be to find because you'll start dropping the Portlanders who want to commute up.
You need to be a certified teacher to sub in WA. You can do all the application process online and your NC license will likely transfer over to earn you an initial WA license. You'll possibly have to take a test or two. I had to take the science test which I was able to take at a Prometric test center in Texas before moving out. If you are serious about the move then you should get on the licensing part now so you aren't waiting for that when you get here.
All the teacher certification stuff is handled through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction through this web site: Certification - OSPI go there to start the licensing process
As for finding an apartment. It's fairly tight but not impossible if you have the resources. Better than in Portland.
As for your other questions. Schools in WA are generally decent. The larger and more urban schools tend to have more resource than the smaller more rural schools but that is the same everywhere. Probably better than in NC these days but not up to the same level as the states with really good public schools like MN or MA. But teaching is teaching. It really wasn't that different moving from TX to WA in terms of the job. The special ed programs seem decent but stretched for resources like every other place.
Thanks for the info. Honestly, I think I'd rather stay away from the bigger districts. Right now, I'm working in a school with 1750 students, which is large for the area. I'd prefer a smaller setting. I average about 35-40 students a class. There are still teachers in my building that I don't know, and I've been there for almost 3 years. We're also starting to get some gangs coming in. They aren't bad....but they are there. In another year or two, well, I hope to not be around to see it.
I've already looked into the license transfer. I'm just waiting for them to finish processing my Special Education add on and then I'll start the process of switching it over. Roughly how long does it take to process a transfered license?
Also, about the testing, in NC I had to take the Praxis. Do you know, off the top of your head, if that'll transfer over to meet WA requirements?
Also, does Washington give any preference to Master's Degree holders? I have two at the moment, an MA in English and an MEd in Special Education. North Carolina is pretty horrible to their teachers, and one of the ways in which they show us love is to NOT pay for any education after Bachelor's degrees issued after 2013. I managed to get lucky and start my first one before then, so I got in on the Master's pay scale before they got rid of it, but if I were to take on a special education caseload I'd get a whopping 70.00 extra dollars.....a year. My doctorate won't provide me with a raise when it's complete, either.
Are there any neighborhoods you'd suggest looking into, either in Vancouver, or in the outlying suburbs that are decent enough to live in, but aren't as bad as what I've heard about Kelso, etc? Also, what's the average rent? Apartments.com and sites like that tend to run around 1200 a month for a 1 bedroom, but I also realize that's mostly high end apartments that can afford to pay sites to advertise for them.
Don't know about the Praxis. If your SAT scores are high enough and you still have them on record you can exempt from the math and English tests. I had to take a writing test because my SAT was from before the era that they included writing. The science test was no big deal for someone who teaches science for a living. They were pretty flexible about transferring over test scores.
It would be my guess that the majority of teachers in WA have masters degrees. That is mainly because the state salary schedule gives a pay bonus for an MA. So those who don't already have them end up doing some cheapie online thing just to get the MA. They also bump your pay for what they call "clock hours" which are inservice training hours. If you have 2 MA degrees then you should be able to count some of those semester hours towards your clock hours. I think it is a 10:1 ratio so 1 semester hour from a university counts as 10 clock hours. But all your inservice training from NC will likely not transfer over. I wasn't able to get credit for all the 9 years of inservice hours I took in TX even though many were the same courses like AP workshops that are offered in WA. You can pull up the salary schedules from most any district's web site. They will all be the same and match the state mandated salaries except for the two big districts which I think have slightly higher pay. Here's the one for Ridgefield but all the other smaller districts will be the same. You'll get credit for all your NC teaching years:
As for places to live. The reverse commute away from Portland is always going to be much easier. Both southbound I-5 and I-205 back up heavily in the mornings with all the commuter traffic heading into Portland but if you are driving northbound you can drive 70 mph every morning. Anywhere in Vancouver will probably be fine for renting. The nicer areas are going to be mostly south of Mill Plain Blvd which is a major E-W arterial street. There are a lot of nice newer apartments on the east side over closer to Camas. But you may not have the luxury of being super picky.
Another decent area is the Salmon Creek area which is more or less where I-5 and I-205 converge north of Vancouver. The downside is that if you land jobs further south in Vancouver proper you'll be stuck in the Portland bound commuter traffic just getting to work unless you can find side streets. The advantage to the Salmon Creek area is that it is further up north so easier commutes to towns north of Vancouver where jobs might be easier to find.
Just from browsing around the different district websites, it looks like they are always looking for substitutes. Unless I luck up and land a mid-semester job, or a long term sub gig, that's probably what I'll be looking at doing, at least until I can get on with a district. It'll be a little less than what I make, but I can make it work for a little while.
In NC there's a pretty big special education shortage, is that the case in Washington?
Also, thank you again for taking the time to educate me on the wonders that is Vancouver. :-)
I checked the salary schedule, nice to know I'll be making 3-5k more a year than I do now, 8k when I get my doctorate...and I'll reach NC's teacher salary ....12 years before I reach Washington's.
Oh, one other quick side question...do districts supplement there? In NC, I get what the state pays, then the county kicks another couple hundred dollars my way every month.
Jumping in a little late here. I m a retired speech pathologist and have worked many years in WA, besides getting my MA from the U of Washington. I ditto everything Texasdiver has already told you. I will add that your SPED certification will likely be your ticket to work anywhere you want. Besides the school districts, be sure to check out opportunities at ESD 123, which serves the special education needs in many of the surrounding (and some not so surrounding) smaller school districts.
I am concerned about how often you might have to drive to Seattle. It used o be a 3 hour drive, but lately I have taken 4.5 hours just to get to West Seattle. If you have to travel to Seattle very often, you might want to look for jobs further up I5, like Centralia/Chehalis or Olympia. Tacoma has a UW campus you might be able to access. On the salary scale you won't get credit for 2 Master's degrees, but the added credits above the BA level will boost you up n the scale.
I do not know of many districts in the area that are fully staffed in SPED classes. They are often staffed with emergency certificated staff. Usually they get bumped if a fully qualified person shows up. I see no reason you should need to sub. The difference in sub pay and salary pay is quite drastic. You are on the right track to get all your certification done before you arrive. Good luck and let me know if I can offer further information. This is the first year in 42 years that I am not starting school next week. Actually, it is first year since I was 4 years old that I am not going back to school o school. It is a very strange feeling.
The only reason I'm concerned I may end up in a sub spot is because I'll be a mid semester guy, coming in December, Januaryish. I checked out ESD 123, and it looks like it might be a bit outside where I'm looking. I'm trying to stay an hour-ish driving distance to Portland, as that's where my son's mother currently lives.
That said, in regards to Seattle. That's only going to be during Summer vacation. The main reason I actually need to move is that my son is Autistic, and living on the East Coast, I can't reasonably up and leave him for a two to three week period for my residency requirements. So, couple with the fact that I just flat out do not like North Carolina, it just makes sense to get out. Especially given the way the state treats its teachers.
I really mis-spoke about ESD 123. I actually meant ESD 112. It is located in Vancouver and serves many Clark County school districts, along with others across the state. Wing prepared to sub is a good dea, but you may be able to land a job in SPED mid year. There are many positions filled by teachers who are not fully certified. School districts around here have a shortage of teachers, especially in SPED.
Truth be told, I could leave as early as the end of November, though it would impact my savings just a bit (I'll be using a large portion of my summer savings and my retirement pay out to fund the move). But with a job waiting, that wouldn't be as much of a concern.
Oddly enough, I was looking into Salem Oregon as well, as they seem to have a lot of Special Education jobs open. They actually recently put out a Pool posting a few days ago, which is surprising this late in the Summer.
Salem is a decent place. Kind of sleepy and just far enough outside the Portland metro area to have escaped the extreme run-up in housing prices and out of control growth. My parents live down there and I have lots of family in the area. There is one big school district: Salem-Keizer Schools that covers the whole area. My understanding is that the schools have been rapidly becoming more Hispanic over the past decade as the area around Salem (and especially Woodburn) has become a favorite destination for Hispanic migrants drawn to the Willamette Valley area for agricultural jobs. So if you have Spanish (or just experience working with diverse populations) that would be a plus. I kind of recall a teacher down there telling me there has been lots of turnover but I'm not sure what the context was. Generally speaking, Oregon schools are more poorly funded than Washington schools so teachers are likely to be stretched more thin and resources more scarce in Oregon.
Salem is about 1 hour from Portland proper and it is a sucky drive during commute times because there is only one bridge across the Willamette river so 100% of the commute traffic gets funneled onto I-5 to cross the river at Wilsonville. The only alternative routes are long detours. So it would not be fun to commute to Portland from Salem but for off-hour and weekend stuff related to sharing custody of a child it would be OK I suspect. But about 2x the distance as from Vancouver depending on which part of Portland you are talking about.
Living in Salem would put you in reasonable driving distance of a lot of smaller school systems scattered around the northern Willamette Valley so there is that. Basically the further you get from Portland the easier it will be to find jobs because there are just a ton of unemployed teachers living in Portland who are looking for teaching jobs within a reasonable commute from Portland. Lots of young teachers get drawn to Portland from all over the country so there is a massive teacher surplus and a lot of them working in restaurants and coffee shops and such. That's also why it will be easier to find jobs on the northern edge of Vancouver and towns further out that are longer commutes from Central Portland.
EDIT: One piece of advice on Salem. Don't live in West Salem (unless you work there). West Salem is the area across the Willamette River from downtown Salem and there is basically one bridge and one way back and forth. It gets very congested and is by far the #1 traffic choke point in all of Salem. Tons of new suburban developments over there but everyone is trying to get back across the river every day for work and shopping so its a mess with no relief in sight.
Last edited by texasdiver; 08-20-2017 at 12:35 PM..
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