teaching assistant

day teacher

teacher

administrative assistant

special education teacher

Prince William County Public Schools

PWCS uses a site based management model which can be good or bad depending on the administrator at your building. I have been fortunate in 10 years at PWCS to have excellent principals who I enjoyed working for. Unfortunately, there are principals and assistant principals who consider their job a step towards higher level administration and will make your life miserable so be careful about doing your research before accepting an offer. Incompetent admin are promoted to cushy high paying jobs at central office. The school system is very much “flavor of the year” when it comes to addressing major issues like lack of equity, special education, gifted education, and other groups with special needs. Don’t expect any help from district level admin for anything; they are still sitting at home as of this review and are nearly impossible to reach. Area associate superintendents are absolutely useless; they show up at the schools once or twice a year and the culture is one of fear that they might pop into your classroom rather than one of excitement to share what you are doing with high level admin. Promotions to administrative positions are mostly based on ability to interview, so if you are good at tooting your own horn, post your face all over Twitter in front of smiling students, and memorize buzzwords you are good to go. If you quietly work hard, credit your students and other staff, and truly care about kids you will go unnoticed. The pay in this district is dismal and mid career teachers are not valued. At 10 years in, you can make $10-12k more by crossing county lines. Teachers have to beg for step increases every year. They love to flash the last few steps which are the highest in VA when you ask about the low pay for most of your career. Good luck ever getting to those steps with the pay freezes. The last five year plan I saw only funded step increases every other year.

PWCS are more parent oriented than teacher oriented. This cause less respect for teachers and their position. Students realize that their parents can call and complain and the students wins. By this I mean if a teacher decides she/he is not going to redo a test or accept really late homework then the parent calls and complains the teacher now has to reteach and give the test again and has to take the late homework no matter how late it is. This does not take in account that the teacher has already done. it does not matter that he/she had already given the test twice and had after school tutoring to help students pass the test which the student did not do. Or has asked for the homework numerous times. None of this is taken into account when a parent complains nor is the teacher asked what he/she has already done to help the student. 

My allowing parents and students to get their way and not backing up the teachers you have a lot of behavior problems and disrespect for the adults in the building. Instead of a teacher/principal rule the school is student and parent ruled which is not a good learning environment. Students play around and disrupt the class because they know that their is nothing a teacher can do. It takes lots of write ups and interventions before anything happens. By this I mean it takes pretty much the whole year to get a student who is a constant behavior problem before they are sent to another school that deals with those types of behaviors because we do not want to upset the parents and have to show we tried everything and more than once too.

I love working with the students and I will try to get them to do what they need to do but because it is student based I have to make more fun than learning sometimes. If I try to do just learning which sometimes is required in math and the student does not want to do the work they will play and be disruptive. This makes it even harder to teach. This is why I have always offered after school tutoring for those who wanted to learn and understand better.

The days start early with the bus inspection to be sure everything is working properly.  The bus needs to be properly functional in order safely transport the students that are picked up in the morning from their various designated spot and transported to school.  During the trip behavior of the students is the responsibility of the driver.  The students can not be transported safely if they are not in seats and behaving in a reasonably civilized fashion.  The safety of the students is supposed to be as important as efficiency.  The schedule for picking up and dropping off students is highly important, even when traffic is really bad.  The younger students are what make the job so rewarding.  
There is a break after all the students are dropped at school.  This time is used for personal things such as naps.  This time is also used for field trips and bus repairs.
The afternoon starts like the morning but the inspection of the bus is easier and faster with the sun up.  The students are loaded at the schools and returned to their designated stops.  Here time can be a problem do to various forms of construction impeding the way.  The good thing is that the day normally ends about the time the early commuters are getting into the area.  There are after hour trips and other school event that use the buses.
The various trips and other extra time things are very helpful since the pay is good the average weekly hours is only around 30 frequently a little short. 30 is all that is needed to be eligible for benefits, but if you don't make 30 hours with the regular routes then you need to do something to make up the time.

I can't speak for the western side of the county, but schools within the eastern districts are filled with many unhappy teachers. As I speak with other teachers at professional development sessions, it seems that most teachers are fighting to have / maintain a lunch and planning period. The growing ESOL population puts a strain on schools' budgets. The county is struggling to sustain the growing student population, and teachers are suffering. If you have two or more endorsements, you will be spread so thin, your head will spin. I have now taught in two schools in the county and have found this to be the case with both. Also, central office could not care less if many teachers from a school complain about an administrator (and their treatment of teachers). They only care about students' scores. The union is useless, and there are few cited cases of them assisting teachers when bullied or otherwise mistreated by an administrator. There is a HUGE amount of duplication of effort. Central office needs to organize groups of teachers to unpack standards, create VGLA assessments, etc., instead of requiring teachers to use their personal time (outside of contract hours) to complete such tasks (on a weekly or monthly basis). There is absolutely no respect for contract hours, regarding school-based meetings and professional development requirements. This county needs to take much better care of its teachers, and consider it an investment that will pay off for their students. Happy teachers result in happy students and parents!

I came here from another school system in hopes of finding a place to stay long-term. It's not happening! This system has a lack of leadership, lack of focus, lack of technology, and lack of broad vision. I am astounded that I came to what was supposedly THE BEST school in the county, and found a chaotic mish-mash of policies, lack of technology, lack of training, lack of continuity, etc. Each school here sets their own policies, even down to the pacing guides and scope and sequence of some classes. This means student coming from other schools in the same district might have been learning a completely different thing! There is no technology that allows for effective communication between home and school. The parent portal is awful on the parent end, and the gradebook is awful on the teacher end. Teachers can't even send digital progress reports to parents!! I am stunned. 
Further, I saw teachers with decades of solid experience that were hounded by parents who didn't want the rules to apply to their sweet little ones. The louder they complained, the more the admin came down on those teachers, even though they were doing the right things, educationally speaking. These students are NOT being prepared for life in the real world. Seniors are leaving without knowing how to use computers, or that attendance is expected. Tardies have no consequences, so students are late whenever they want... Teachers who try to hold the line and enforce the written expectations are pressured to back off. 
Bottom line: I'm moving out of this county so that my own kids can have better, and so that I can have a teaching position where I can expect good behavior and high expectations. It's not at PWCS.

As an IT tech support specialist, I am stationed at a school in the county, and I am responsible for everything IT related in that school. I answer to the principal of that school, but I have a supervisor at the main county building that assigns the large tasks that need to be completed throughout the school year. The most enjoyable aspect of my job is the freedom, and by that I mean I do not have a supervisor breathing down my neck all day. I check the ticket queue throughout the day, work on tasks that need to be completed, and proactively engage with admin staff and teachers to ensure everything is operating at an acceptable level. I would say the hardest aspect of my job is the time frame right before school starts in September. Many of the teachers return at the same time, and every classroom needs something different specific to that teacher. Iv'e learned a great deal of information related to my position, than I learned at my previous tech support job of 7 years. This is mainly due to the amount of responsibility given to me, and the number of pc's, laptops, IP phones, and network equipment in the school. The pay is comparable to other IT tech support positions in the area, but the insurance is quite expensive. In comparison, I paid half of what I pay a month here at my previous job, and I had better coverage there. I know that I could go to the private sector and make more money, but the job stability with the County is simply unmatched, and worth the slight difference in pay.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Not much to say about the best part except the department staff I worked with

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
All of the professional development required regardless if you did the very same PD the year before; the demands of the administration top down; the attitudes of the students post COVID shut down; the unrealistic bar set to "return to normal" operations after COVID shut down; the lack of administrative support for staff; the lack of listening to teachers from the State Department, County Bd of Supervisors; School Board, Superintendent (new); and school admin

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The environment is very difficult to work in and the culture of the school system is very demanding without much care for staff support

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work from the time I wake up (if I get any sleep) to the time I go to bed (way after I should to get a good night's sleep) in order to get any work done at all to make deadlines. It is very demanding even though I had 33 years experience in the SpEd department and could manage my time very well. I would have been great if I could just focus on teaching or if I could have just focused on SpEd paperwork, but doing both full time jobs was very demanding. $1,000 stipend isn't enough.

I am a substitute teacher, teaching for the Prince William County Eastern school district. I am still attending a local university while teaching. I work part time and the pay is quite decent.
Substitute teaching for Prince William is based on a full day and half day pay. $39 for half day and $79 for a full day. I have experience in Kindergarten to high school levels of instruction.

This job is perfect for college students and I wish I would have done it back when I first started college. The only requirements are 30 hours of college credit e.g. a year into college will be enough for you to teach.

The great things about this job is it is flexible and easy. You can call in whenever you want to work. If you need to study for a test for whichever day, you do not need to go to work. You work only when you want to. Another convenient thing is you can work half a day after your classes are over.

School is generally over at 3pm or 4pm leaving plenty of time to study afterwards. If you work consecutively everyday, you will earn an extra $5 for a half day or $10 for a full day making it $45, $85 respectively.

Substitute teaching is a easy and satisfying job, if one was to describe what it feels like. I would say it is like summer camp; simply follow the teacher’s guidelines and supervise the students until class is over.

Overworked and underpaid is the motto here. PWCS has the lowest pay scale in the DC-VA metro area. A lot of teachers cannot afford to live and work in the same county. The headquarters office does nothing to reduce stress and workload, instead, they continually push more and more professional development. At the start of the 2023 school year staff was required to participate in 12 new PD offerings. Which would probably be fine if you got more than a pittance of continuing ed credits for it all. Principals and teachers are pushed to take on more and more responsibilities -- more duties, more classes, more committees, more readings, more meetings, etc.  Not one single thing is done to help relieve the workload in any way. More is added, nothing is ever taken away. Each summer there are nearly 1,000 open positions because people are anxious to leave. Many leave DURING the school year. The new superintendent is causing a great deal of turnover at the headquarters as well. With regard to promotions, in-county staff is often passed over in favor of outsiders...who often end up leaving when they become familiar with the culture. There is a serious fear of retaliation within the county as well. New ideas or criticisms are not taken well.

There is no "typical" day when working at schools.  Each day offers something new.  I always enjoyed working with students.  Just a smile makes their day!  From elementary to high school students they read your face, and they know immediately if you care.  This is also true of co-workers.  

While I did not always agree with decisions made by management, I respected their position, and proceeded as requested.

The hardest part of a secretarial position is  dealing with students and staff is when there is tragedy or critical illness.  

I believe the most enjoyable part of my jobs are when I meet parents, students, or staff  in the community, and they greet me with enthusiasm.   It may be several years, but they don't forget.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teaching assistant 459 salaries reported	$22.60 per hour
Day teacher 32 salaries reported	$26.83 per hour
Teacher 47 salaries reported	$240 per day
Administrative assistant 59 salaries reported	$27.32 per hour
Special education teacher 53 salaries reported	$26.13 per hour

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