teacher

special education teacher

teaching assistant

monitor

substitute teacher

Loudoun County Public Schools

Sub hiring used to involve personal connections in the hiring process which involved orientations and opportunities to meet the hiring team. Now with a new team, it has changed. The inexperience and lack understanding of the value of subs comes through in the way they communicate on email. The system is mostly impersonal and automated with online trainings and the hiring process entirely on automated email. If you try to contact sub central on the job or not, you have to leave a message on the website and wait for a call back. If you call the number, it goes to a voicemail and they will call back at their convenience. Horrible, cold system that eliminates any human connections.

Typical day at work: Check in at the office, find your assigned class and follow the substitute plans and classroom schedule. Prior to 2020 sub plans contained a lot of actual teaching. Later it was more like babysitting a classroom full of unruly students. Stress levels are high. Kids as young as 2nd grade look down on subs and are very disrespectful. Subs are not supported unless there is a nice permanent teacher in the next class who you can ask for help from. Some permanent teachers  are polite and really very nice. Some are snobs and very rude to the subs in front of the class which makes for an awkward moment. This has been my experience. Overall, you are on your own. Ask for help and you will receive it one way or another. 

Pay is above average and the work is good although it comes with a lot of stress at times since managing children of any age nowadays is a challenge with disrespectful and rude behavior. 

Sometimes your assignment is changed by the school and when you get there they tell you that you are needed elsewhere. This can cause some stress if you come prepared for one assignment and are moved to another where  you may even be uncomfortable or lack the skills, like in special ed or a higher or lower grade, may be even in an unruly classroom which you would normally avoid. \
You just have to accept it as it is part of your job to be flexible and agree to wherever they send you.

Unless you pick assignments from the same school everyday, there is a lack of community for subs. In a school at the teacher's lunch room, subs sit separately sometimes with the teacher assistants and the lead teachers among themselves. 
There is no intermingling between permanent staff and subs for some reason.
I suppose a pecking order exists.

Overall, the experience was good to make some money and get job experience. There is no long term opportunities. Once a sub always a sub unless your goal is to work your way to a permanent position in a particular school and this is a great way to get to know the administration. Well, you could also do that by volunteering in that school so there really is no other major draw than to get a paycheck. 


What is the best part of working at the company?
It was flexible about jobs and where I could go for substituting. I also could substitute with an associates degree which helped me build skills for teaching later on.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I cannot really think of anything too stressful. Most students who I substituted for received me well.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Disclaimer: I substituted right before the 2020 Pandemic hit. You choose a substitute job posting before the beginning of the school day. You go into the sub system and look for job postings. Some are as short as 3 hours (half day substitute job), or as long as two weeks. It depends on what type of job you get. You are not restricted to any one type of teacher/support role job. You get to choose the content/grade level and locations as they become available. You are responsible for acting as the responsible adult in the room and managing student behaviors, passing out papers, filling out paperwork if there is an emergency, etc. And each grade level has their own unique qualities, so you can choose one grade level/content one day and then go to another one another day. I did the following type of jobs: Math, Earth Science, Middle School Science, Chemistry, Physics, Paraeducator for Specialized Instruction, History (middle school), Paraeducator for General Education, etc. You do everything the person in the role of teacher/paraeducator/etc. normally does day to day, but are not responsible for things such as grades, IEP goals, etc. Most times teachers know substitutes do not have teaching degrees or other credentials similar to this, so they usually plan for this and give out work to students that does not require intense knowledge about the subject on the part of the substitute to help students complete. Most tasks the teachers assign are either self-guided packets or have them complete missing work. You mostly keep them focused  on the task at hand. They only time this changes is if you get a Long Term substitute job. That will require actually planning and delivering instruction on your part. Short Term substitute jobs don't require planning; Long Term substitute jobs do require planning.

I will be polite and straight to the point in many different aspects of this job. Depending on what school your placed at and what grades you have the job is pretty simple and boring repetitive things. Positive side of this job is that you do the same thing everyday cleaning wise depending if you need to set up for meeting and such but other then that it's the same thing over and over again so you pick up on it fast. Negative is you do the same things over and over again and it can get very boring. Positive you can listen to music one ear phone in and that helps get through your day . Negative about this job is the management is wonderful and I never had a problem with them but depending on your principle you have many people telling you to do different things. The management tells the head custodian to do one thing but the principle and management clash so ou have to choose between the principle and management who your going to take your orders from. The lead custodian are by passed a lot do the the lack of getting things done . I say that referring to the lack of understanding of how much work goes into doing the jobs we are told too. When asked for something it takes weeks before you get what you need and if you don't get it and can't do a certain part of the job it's the custodian staffs fault. That's wrong and needs to be fixed. Positive aspect of the job is that you get pretty good benefits and weekends off unless your a head custodian. My advice to anyone starting in this field don't be a head custodian unless you are hard pressed in making sure you get a chance to move up the ladder because people have been in the system for years and can't get a job as a lead . They should pay the custodians based on how they work because it's not fair to be a good worker and get punished for other staff that lack the ability to work hard or care about the job. I have worked at many different schools and it's the same old thing with head custodians so be warned just go to work do your job and leave cause if you do not you will be sucked into the constant bad mouthing of the management . I would recommend this job because the growth is possible you just need to be a hard worker and really hassle the management about stepping up on the ladder.

I worked for LCPS long enough to see different styles of leaders, and getting assigned to a school is truly a game of Russian roulette.  Two styles of leadership prevail in the school system. There are principals in their first years who are ignorant, assertive, and always certain. Then there are the more seasoned principals who are quite knowledgeable and cautious. The latter type listen to their teachers with some degree of patience, but they've mastered the art of saying no.  There are so many teachers with admin degrees waiting in line for an AP position or a dean position. Some have been hanging on for a decade or longer.  The principals run them into the ground with extra tasks that are administrative. In the few schools of LCPS that I've observed, the carrot is dangled quite freely. Many teachers will trample one another to get a bite from it. People would be shocked to know how many of these wannabe principals are doing the principals' work for them.  I'd loosely estimate that 80% of admin. work is delegated down the flowchart. LCPS talks a good game about supporting its teachers, but it is 95% top-down in planning and decisions.  The principals typically don't trust those teachers who aren't trying to become administrators. The school system has also given away gobs of money to fly-by-night consultants who are in some cases buddies of school-level administrators.  A common tendency of administrators in LCPS is to fight tooth and nail to get a promotion and then to act furious at all new subordinates when they realize how overwhelmed and disappointed they feel.

In my three years with LCPS I have had nothing but a great working experience. Overall LCPS really cares about their teachers and depending on the school you work at, it can be a rewarding career choice.

The school that I worked at was a high-performing school where the administration had high expectations for student success. In the primary grades the focus, of course, is on advancing students' reading and in 3rd-5th it was preparing them for the SOLs. I've learned a lot from working here both on a professional and personal level. I've gained good in-classroom experiences, learned the balance of parent communication and involvement, collaborating on a team, etc. 

I would say that the hardest part of the job was having such high expectations placed on teachers without any clear support or ways to assist the teachers to meet those goals. Often times teachers will receive poor observations due to these expectations of teacher performance- but if guidance and support were given, many of those 'areas of improvement' would be, in fact, improved.

The most enjoyable part of the job was, of course, the families and children you get to interact with for the year. I enjoyed creating fun and engaging lesson plans and seeing the learning going on in the classroom. There's nothing better than having a student or a parent express to you how much their child enjoys your class or that this year they've made a 180 degree turn from the previous year. Those are the things that make the 'hardest part of the job' seem better and get you through the year.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Having the same days off as my kids in school.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Expectations were not clear, important subjects were skipped in training and never mentioned again, I was repeatedly set up to fail, and then my supervisor  was offended that I refused to accept a reprimand when I was absolutely not given enough information to do my job.  I also offered to spearhead solutions and I offered to speak on the subject of “How To Set Up Your Sub For Success” but management refused to acknowledge the problem so my solutions were ignored and I was labeled as a troublemaker.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
OK for full time, very difficult for those of us who chose to be substitutes, and the environment for me as a non-contracted sub was downright hostile.  They try to make an inclusive culture but decision makers aren’t willing to listen.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I drove different buses at different schools with different students on unfamiliar roads and routes, but I was happy to help and contribute.   I regularly did not get enough information on either the bus, the route, or a student/group of students to be successful, and other people (drivers, leads, or managers) had the information, they just didn’t pass it along.

   Having driven a school bus part time in other districts I applied in Loudoun County upon retirement from a full time position in a professional field. While some of the training was redundent owing to past experience it is still good and generally well presented. The hours were largely what they were expected to be. What was NOT as expected was the total lack of integrity and ethics at the supervisory level in the transportation department once one completed their training. General guidelines were provided but found to change on a regular basis at the whim of a supervisor. Any suggestions for possible changes to improve the way things were done or provide a savings in the operation were often met with outright hostility. Supervisors were more interested in stabbing drivers in the back than they were in working with them. There is no support for drivers when it is needed most. This is clearly demonstrated by the constant turnover in personnel and almost year round advertising seeking new drivers. The Transportation Dept. of LCPS is clearly one of the worst places in the area in which one could work and in terms of supervisory guidance, integrity and ethics is the WORST place I havce ever worked.

I have been a substitute teacher at Loudoun County Public Schools for 2 years now. This job showed me a lot about the teaching career and the grades I do not enjoy versus the ones I do enjoy. 
I also learned what schools were good to sub at and which ones are not. The kids were never a problem, it was more the front office people who had no regard for you and were not very helpful. 
Teachers need to be reminded to leave lesson plans that are clear and take up the day versus just a few hours.
I found that the teachers who left wonderful lesson plans with clear set rules for students had the classrooms with the best behaved kids in them.
I am coming to the problem now that while looking for a full time job I can not get the central office to fill out a reference form despite multiple emails. I subbed at many different schools so I never developed a super close relationship with anyone principal. 
My advice to individuals looking to sub is to stick at one school that way when it comes time for you to possibly look for a full time job, opprtunites don't pass you by because your most current employer can't respond to an email.

A typical day at work requires full concentration, patience, and you have to be in charge of the students. 

I learned that you have to be their friend but also learn that you're the boss of them, and if anything bad happens you are in trouble. 

I liked going to work whenever I wanted to because they can call me and I can either accept or decline the job. 

The hardest part about working is the different students I had to work with. I would say working as a teacher with a full classroom can be challenging because you have to be in charge and you have a lot of responsibility. Also working with special ed students, they require a lot from you and if you aren't willing to put in the effort I would say it isn't a job for you. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was having a good time with the kids while getting paid. How easy is that? I'm very good with kids and they love my fun-loving personality. I would say that this job is easy because I have experience with children, I'm not a mother but I have dealt with a lot of things that anyone my age would never had to deal with and I'm proud of that.

A typical day for me was getting up early to drive for students to school and then again in the afternoon to take them home. Giving me time to do personal stuff in between my runs and after.

I learned patience and respect towards students and staff over the course of my time there.

Management fell apart after Director of Transportation past away and Superintendent left after 40 plus years.  Young and not old school staff came aboard to run the school system.Current long time employees treated like unprofessionally from leadership

Most of my coworkers loved driving the school bus. Lack of sub drivers took a toll on us for trying to take personal leave and be sick.

The hardest part of the job was being around impatient drivers and/or bad weather conditions.

The most rewarding part of the job was seeing my students every work day.  When you were off they missed you. Learning to respect my student I attained excellent student management skills and customer service with their parents.  Always punctual to stops unless a situation cam about.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 4 salaries reported	$70,632 per year
Special education teacher 1 salary reported	$47,975 per year
Teaching assistant 3 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Monitor 72 salaries reported	$17.79 per hour
Substitute teacher 4 salaries reported	$20.48 per hour

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