Arllington County Public Schools (Richmond, Arlington: 2015, best school, living)

[ipzig1]

I am a middle school teacher in the Richmond, Virginia area. Arlington County Public Schools will be having a job fair on March 21, 2015, and I plan on attending. Has anyone been to their job fair in the past and been hired? Can any current teachers tell me what it is like working for the county? Thank you for your help.

[car54]

All I can tell you is that the competition will be fierce. Arlington pays much better than neighboring districts, especially Fairfax County. I know that many Fairfax County teachers have applications on file in Arlington.

[tgbwc]

Unless you specifically need Arlington for a particular reason see if you can set up an interview with Fairfax County while you are in the area. That's nothing against Arlington, but if you need a job in general it couldn't hurt.

Will you be attending other job fairs?

[JD984]

Originally Posted by car54

All I can tell you is that the competition will be fierce. Arlington pays much better than neighboring districts, especially Fairfax County. I know that many Fairfax County teachers have applications on file in Arlington.

We've had several kids go all the way through FCPS, with another to graduate soon. They've had teachers who left to move to areas with a lower cost of living, but not one who has left FCPS for APS. APS pays more, but it's also more expensive to live there and/or a longer commute from more affordable areas.

[car54]

Originally Posted by JEB77

We've had several kids go all the way through FCPS, with another to graduate soon. They've had teachers who left to move to areas with a lower cost of living, but not one who has left FCPS for APS. APS pays more, but it's also more expensive to live there and/or a longer commute from more affordable areas.

Well, maybe they're lying to me, but I've had several teachers tell me they have applied to Arlington County. I do a lot of field trips and the teachers aboard are sometimes quite talkative while we're enroute to our destination. Again, maybe they're lying, but the subject has come up. They have been all been young 20-something teachers, so that might be part of it. Over a career, Arlington vs. Fairfax could mean $10K+ per year in pay.

About the "commute" to Arlington...I dare say that many Fairfax County residents live closer to an Arlington school than they do to a lot of Fairfax schools. I know I do.

I'm done...we're not helping the OP here.

[ipzig1]

Thank you all for the responses. I have been told that Arlington is a very difficult district to get into, but they are also one of the best school systems. I have been looking at Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, and Alexandria as well.

[VAGeek]

Historically, teaching positions in Arlington County public schools, especially North Arlington schools, were the most coveted teaching positions in the DC metro area. Compared to most Fairfax County public schools, Arlington County public schools had greater resources, better support for teachers, better management / less bureacracy, and less teaching to the test. I can't say whether this is still the case.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by VAGeek

Historically, teaching positions in Arlington County public schools, especially North Arlington schools, were the most coveted teaching positions in the DC metro area. Compared to most Fairfax County public schools, Arlington County public schools had greater resources, better support for teachers, better management / less bureacracy, and less teaching to the test. I can't say whether this is still the case.

Interesting, then, that Arlington County hired a 19-year veteran of FCPS as its Superintendent in 2009, and didn't promote internally. You'd tend to think they thought he'd acquired some useful knowledge over close to two decades with FCPS that could be used to Arlington's benefit.

From what I can tell, APS remains less bureaucratic than FCPS, as one might expect given its substantially smaller size, but FCPS students can avail of a wider range of programs than their Arlington counterparts.

The larger size and scope of programs, of course, creates more teaching positions available within FCPS than in APS and some of the other smaller systems in the DC region.

[ACWhite]

You might find the handful of comments more interesting than the story:

Arlington Public Schools chief named finalist for superintendent of the year - The Washington Post

[JD984]

Originally Posted by ACWhite

You might find the handful of comments more interesting than the story:

Arlington Public Schools chief named finalist for superintendent of the year - The Washington Post

He may be awful (school superintendents always seem to be a lightning rod for criticism), but Arlington hired him directly out of FCPS, knowing that he'd been in charge of an "accountability" unit, and has now kept him on board for six years.