Teacher vacancy announcements (job openings, school district, lawsuit)

[FatTails]

For any teachers and/or school district employees out there, when are teacher vacancies usually announced? I'm checking every couple of days but I'm just curious what the typical schedule is. Bonus points if anyone has insider knowledge on possible music teacher/band director openings for next school year. Feel free to PM me with any info.

For anyone who is curious, I'm an engineer but my wife is looking to get a job next school year (we recently moved to the area) and I'm being a good husband by helping her out

Thanks for any answers that can be provided.

[Madmom2000]

If a teacher does not have tenure (they have not worked for that particular school system for three complete years) they could receive pink slips on the last day of school. If they have tenure they have to die or retire to be replaced. The last day of school is May 23 this year for our three area systems. If a teacher is leaving this semester early for maternity leave or surgery or some other reason they could fill that vacancy with a qualified person such as your wife or they may just fill it with a sub. My advice would be for your wife to take a few minutes and send every principal an email for any school she would be willing to work for. Good luck! One other thought if you are new to Alabama, does she have her Alabama teaching license? That takes about 8-12 weeks to get so she'll want to get that ball rolling.

[hey teach]

Most of the positions to be filled will be posted during May and June. Sadly, for positions like music and band, one often has to wait for another teacher to die or retire (or in HCS get fed up) for these positions to come open. Hopefully, your wife has an alternate certification. The best way to get your foot in the door is to get on the sub list and start working in some of the schools. This will also help your wife to get a feel for how the systems here work and which schools she would like to work in. Unfortunately, in HCS one has no choice about where they are hired or teach. One goes where one is sent.

[FatTails]

Thanks for the responses. I'll make sure my wife gets started on her AL teaching license. She's technically certified in educational administration but I'm not sure that helps much. Hopefully she gets a job. I don't know what the general feeling around here is regarding teachers' pay, but I was ecstatic when I first saw the state mandated minimums. She'd be getting around twice what she was getting back in Arizona.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of tenure, but I have seen how ridiculous parents can be. My wife has probably been threatened with a lawsuit (not a serious threat, just a parent temper tantrum) at least once a year since she first started teaching just for following and enforcing classroom rules. My wife is definitely strict, but I can't believe how furious parents get when its their kid who is punished for not following rules. At least in my wife's case there have usually been ten happy parents who will tear down the one unhappy parent. Anyway, that's my rant and has nothing to do with my original question. Thanks again for the responses.

[Madmom2000]

Wow, who yells at a music teacher? That's crazy. She sounds like a great teacher who enforces the rules. Hope she finds a job here soon.

[pyro4ik]

There are also a lot of private schools in the area and I'm pretty sure they list their openings on their websites. Just google huntsville private schools.

[AliHew]

I was told that December and January are the best times to look at job openings for the private schools.