Teaching in Walnut Creek area (Concord, Martinez: school districts, compensation, live in)

[davedude]

My wife and I may be moving from TX to Walnut Creek (area) in the next few weeks. I will be working in SF and plan to take the BART. My wife is a special-education-certified, English/Spanish bilingual, experienced (and wonderful ) elementary school teacher. Her ideal job would be regular ed 2nd or 3rd grade within a 20-min. drive (no BART for her--she couldn't handle the motion when we were there). So that probably means, to our knowledge, one of these school districts: Walnut Creek, Mt. Diablo, Lafayette, or Sam Ramon Valley.

Questions for any teachers or friends/parents/children/pets of teachers in the area:

1) How hard is it to get a job there? Is a regular ed. job virtually impossible to find? I assume special ed and bilinguals are more in demand? We know she will have to become certified in CA, but assuming that can be done before August... (or can it? any out-of-staters out there?)

2) Any tips on landing a job? We are aware of the Edjoin website and how to find posted positions, but if it is anything like when we were moving to Austin, TX, she would be a lot better off trying to email schools directly with her resume and/or going to a job fair (she got 4 offers that way in teacher-overrun Austin...)

3) Any school districts I'm leaving out that wouldn't be a tough drive from Walnut Creek? Any school districts listed that should be avoided? She teaches in the ghetto here, so she's not opposed to "rough" school districts (if there are any around there). We are not really concerned about the parent/student point of view--more so with an employee's view...since high-performing schools can sometimes treat their teachers poorly and vice-versa.

Any info on school districts and teaching in Walnut Creek or CA in general would be greatly appreciated!

-Dave(dude)

[N CA]

SRVUSD just lost their bid at a parcel tax, so I'm not sure of the status of their budget.

Walnut Creek, Orinda, and Lafayette school districts are fine places to teach. Their compensation is good, so they're probably fairly competitive. Walnut Creek has a larger than average percentage of special ed kids. Parents are difficult in these communities. Entitlement issues with both parents and kids.

Mt. Diablo has tons of openings because their teachers don't receive a medical benefits package which results in a less-competitive compensation package. Probably more openings and easier to be hired in Mt. Diablo. Lots of economic and racial strife and prejudice in Mt. Diablo as communities run the economic and racial gamut: the nearly all-white Northgate folks don't want the Concord (Hispanic Monument Corridor) children contaminating their children. The PTA president even called some of the NHS parents 'bullying.' One must assume that these kids are coming up through the Northgate feeder elementary schools, so that's what you'll deal with in the Walnut Creek elementary schools.

The Mt. Diablo lower-performing schools tend to have parents that really appreciate their faculty and administration, so that's an option if a rewarding, albeit not well-paying position, is desired.

Check the Mt. Diablo website to see their budget status. They had to cut tons of faculty positions (even special ed), but they may have reinstated some of those when they received the May Revise (budget).

[N CA]

Don't forget to look at Martinez Unified I don't know that it would be 20 minutes, but it's easy to get to with good schools. The Martinez community seems to be pretty good, and not elitist (with the exception of the folks who have a Lafayette zip code and attend Martinez Unified).

I live in Mt. Diablo, but I really wish that I had moved to Martinez.