teacher

instructional assistant

substitute teacher

elementary school teacher

custodian

Henrico County Public Schools

Good co-workers. Administrators are poor communicators who don’t practice what they preach.  Some schools are very clique-ish and you can’t advance if you aren’t in the admin’s clique. Central office does not supervise admin enough, even when they make poor decisions or half of their teachers quit at the end of a school year. They don’t even care enough to do exit interviews. The county does “climate surveys,” but most of what is done is to make them look good. There usually isn’t follow-through. 

Some admins treat teachers as if they know nothing even though they have been there for years. A lot of favoritism and very little recognition in most schools. Admins can be very unprofessional and disrespectful but are not held accountable. 

Students do not receive consequences consistently. They often might give an in school detention (for things like fighting) that is undocumented to avoid having higher suspension numbers. 

If you want to work for a county where you can be heard and opinions are appreciated, go to a smaller county. If you can just go to work and be okay with unequal treatment and watching administrators make mistakes over and over, you will be fine. 

Parents are either too involved or not involved enough. 

Job security is good, if you can handle the rest, it would be a good fit. 

I hope the new superintendent will make some serious changes. Exit interviews should be given with feedback strongly considered.

As far as locations for teachers to work in, this can be a good county to work for. Still, the work life for teachers is not improving, even in Henrico County. The expectations and duties are so high that they are unreasonable. At the school I taught all teachers were expected to fulfill extra duties around the school that are not outlined in your contract, which is very common. I worked 70-100 hours a week during the school year, depending on the time of year. As a teacher your salary is based on 10 months of work, but when you're starting out you're still expected to do a fair amount of work over the summer as well. 
The worst thing I experienced were the toxic office politics that seem to be supported by the overall infrastructure and the main central office. It can be particularly difficult finding your place in the county or in the school when you're starting out. There was never any support for me. 
Another theme of Henrico County is that the central office is notorious for catering to the complaints of the community and parents, at the cost of supporting their school staff members. As am employee it can feel degrading and disrespectful. 
Having said all of this, these trends are common for all teachers in all locations, and some people find Henrico County to be a nice place to work. Ultimately I left my job as a teacher more for personal reasons. All of these negative experiences and the overall workload didn't help me stay, though, either.

A normal work day up and ready way in time to be on time. I found that I am always so early. But better early than late. I do my hours which mostly consist of 6 to 8 hours a day. But am always available for overtime hours. I do not like leaving a job incomplete. These jobs that you will see on my resume shows well that I can work in all environments. Also, shows that I am great multi-tasker. I can move from ond job to other without any problems. I complete my hours that is applied to me and the I return home to get my rest and get ready to do all again. I am very customer service savvy. With all my customer service since 1983 shows my customer service talents. All my jobs include working with people and making them feel good about themselves whether they are having a good or bad day. I try to make them laugh and show them things could always me worse. I try to treat others like I would want to be treated. I am great team worker always there to help lead and always willing to learn. All my experience with co-workers have been very successful. I find the hardest part of a job is making sure when I leave for the day I have the feeling I have done my best to make others feel better. Again, I most enjoy people of all ages and seeing them happy and with a smile on there face.

Between student behaviors and some of their parents, it can be very challenging to want to come to work because you spend most of your time redirecting inappropriate behaviors and then justifying your response (detention, in/out school suspension) to angry parents who fail to understand behaviors at home are not always acceptable in the classroom. In some cases, parents fail to accept their "model" child or "advanced" child is not the sweet or respectful child at school that they are when at home, so there is that sense of entitlement for all students, regardless of demographic or learning level. The problem comes in if you're in a school whose leadership provides negative reinforcement but, in most schools, leadership is well rounded and objective. One thing I love about my particular school, John Rolfe Middle School, located on the eastern part of the county, is our principal. Not only does he set the tone for professional leadership, but he also encourages faculty and staff by providing us with professional development opportunities and cultivates a family atmosphere. 

HCPS is not a terrible school county, but like most school districts in the area it really struggles to support its employees. 

HCPS used to help pay for its employees to take classes. Last I checked their compensation amounted to about half of one class. 

Also, if you want to transfer to another school, when you're a current teacher you have a window of a few months from when the jobs are posted to when you have to resign your contract. After that you cannot be considered for a position because you are under contract. That means if you have not had an interview basically between February and the end of May, you are stuck in your position for another year, or you have to not continue your contract and risk not having a job in the fall. 

Lastly, instead of training new/struggling teachers, most administration focuses on creating more work for struggling teacher, through data collection, accountability pieces, and evaluations. Obviously evaluation is important, but the schools and teachers that need the most help seem to drown in data collection instead of helping actually teach the kids.

My typical day at work is only 2 hours per day as a Lunch Monitor. I happily greet all the students and assist in opening food items they can not. I assist in making sure the students are following all the rules the cafeteria and teacher have set for them. If students get loud or not following directions I will have a talk with them and if it persists that table gets a cone and I report back to the teacher what has happened. 

I have learned that each student is not the same and I have to treat each of them differently. Some students are more difficult than others so I have to be very careful how I handle their situations.

The management and support team at Seven Pines Elementary School are the best. I can go to anyone and ask questions when needed and they teach me how to handle these issues.

The hardest part of my job is trying to maintain a satisfactory noise level with students from First grade through Fifth grade.

My most enjoyable part of my job is getting to know the students and all the hugs and all the "Thank You's" I get from the students. That really makes my day.

It's been a very different work environment for me that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Being an educator was the most fulfilling career I could ask for. Working with fellow educators who truly cares about children was  an amazing experience. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Not all, but a majority of admin and county leadership view teachers as minions to be ordered around and student success as a commodity to be exploited so that they can brag about their own success. Leadership issues are prevalent and their is no accountability for failing administrations. Teachers take the fall and have to compensate for the ignorance of county leadership (English Specialist) who believe students shouldn’t have to read books anymore. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It varies but most teachers are highly stressed but supportive of each other. There are some great principals in the county but there are plenty who take “pass the buck” as their personal mantra. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Ha! Exhausting. I’ve worked construction and in high throughput laboratory settings. I never had to work harder than when I was a teacher.

If you work in a school that is "under improvement" be ready to take on extra clerical tasks. More forms to fill and maintain, more duties, more documentation and closer observation. Teachers over all are stressed about scores and extra duties, but our particular school's leadership is doing a great job of creating a supportive environment for teachers and emphasizing the responsibility of the students. 

Coworkers are great and honest. Our specialist is very knowledgeable, although feels like her hands are tied and can't be as much of a support and advocate as our teachers would need her to be.
-Hardest part of the job: clerical work not related to teaching while you need to focus on individual students' needs and work on differentiated classroom instruction.
-Most enjoyable part: working with students, seeing them in after school activities, like sports games, chorus, etc.

Henrico County is a fast paced, well run county in many regards. We have ample technology and some of the best professional development around. We believe in our students. The division in our county, however, is a problem. It is very hard to work in the east end of our county and a huge problem we run into is a lack of substitutes. While we receive great benefits and ample sick days, it is often harder to take those days because we cannot find substitutes. The schools in the east end are hard to work at, those teachers and subs should be paid more. This is not an issue that is unique to Henrico, school districts across the nation face this. When I look at the hours worked (over 12 most days because good teachers don't stop thinking about teaching), I make less than $12 an hour. I have a master's degree, something about this is not right. Again, it's a national issue.

Starts out very quickly with everyone assigned to their morning jobs.  Everyone is very friendly and we all have built our own relationships with each other outside of work.  Its a very team oriented environment.  I learned how to solve problems very quickly and efficiently and my manager is a very patient, understanding, but firm person which I think makes a great boss.  My co-workers are from every walk of life,  which makes it a very interesting and fun place to work.  It is also a very diverse group of people, which means I learn a lot about other cultures and different foods. The hardest part of the job for me when I first started was remembering ALL the many duties that I had to carry out before the day was over and also getting it done in a small time frame.  The most enjoyable part of my job is when my boss decides to cook for all the staff and make something fancy or something from his ethnic background for lunch.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 6 salaries reported	$61,373 per year
Instructional assistant 3 salaries reported	$19.70 per hour
Substitute teacher 5 salaries reported	$264 per day
Elementary school teacher 2 salaries reported	$32.99 per hour
Custodian 6 salaries reported	$17.97 per hour

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