Teaching in WA? (Seattle, Vancouver, Sammamish: credit, teaching jobs, transfer)

[Coast2Coast]

Greetings,

My wife and I are considering a relocation to the greater Seattle area (we're focusing on Sammamish, Issaquah, Snoqualmie and North Bend).

Regardless of where, she is having a... frustrating time trying to get information regarding teaching jobs. Her qualifications are:
- 12+ years experience
- Master's degree in Elementary Education
- National Board Certification
- Renewal credits too numerous to count

Can/will anyone comment on the state of things out there? Are there teaching jobs to be had? Where are they? What's up with the salary schedule (MA+45?) Who sets the salary? The state or the school district? Who can she call?

We've looked at some district web sites, she's called some folks, but the people she's managed to contact either don't know the answers to these sorts of questions and/or transfer her to a voice mail box that never returns her call.

THANK YOU for ANY insights or feedback related to this.

Coast2Coast

[KidBlue]

Like near Sacramento, CA. Your wife sounds like she would be a great addition to our school system. And she's already highly qualified per NCLB!

[frogamigo]

What kind of job does she want? Some jobs, such as in special education or high school math/science, are nearly always available *somewhere*.

I believe the salary in WA is set by the state. It's the only state to do that, along with Hawaii. (Other places it's the state + local districts that negotiate this.)

MA + 45 means 45 credit hours of continuing education. I think - I could be wrong. I looked this up once since I'm going into speech pathology but I can't recall offhand what it all was about. Anyway if your wife does have a master's plus lots of CE's, then she'll qualify for the highest salary schedule, which is good since cost of living is so fugly expensive.

- Chris

[atvone]

Generally, school districts are having a tough time right now do to lower state funding. I think it would be hard to come up with a job in Snoqualmie or North Bend due to size. The other two you mentioned are large areas with good incomes meaning they probably pass the voter tax levys for funding.

[diggitydot]

Quite a few of my famiy members are teachers in WA state, but in southern WA near the OR border, not near Seattle. All of their districts have hired VAST amounts of teachers in the last few years.

Southwestern WA is still growing in leaps and bounds, particularly Clark County. My sister is a 6th grade teacher in Camas,WA and my aunt is a principal in the Evergreen SD in Vancouver, WA. (I have various cousins teaching in the area, too.) Both the Camas and Evergreen districts are opening new schools this year and in the next few to come.

As for pay, I'm not certain, but I can find out. My sister has a Master's degree in education plus 90 credit hours. I could probably get a rough idea of what her district pay scale looks like. I think in WA the pay varies by district. (Some have better tax bases than others.)