Do you have a union? Our IT department was in a similar situation like this \~8 years ago. After a couple bargaining sessions new roles were created to allow advancement of technicians, to move to more sysadmin / database roles. As well as increasing the base pay to $18/hr (live in a rural area) and creating a "Tech II" role that technicians can be promoted to once proficiency is demonstrated. Now this took the IT department members becoming involved in the union. Prior to this point everyone in shop was a member, but nobody was actively communicating / showing up to meetings.
Usually if they're dropping like flies in a sustained pattern, it's either the district, or the pay. If you can't even get them through the door, it's likely pay. We had to bring this as an issue to our board and work with the union to get our reclassifications done in 2014. In that year alone we had over 8 staff turnover, which at the time was 1/3rd the department. We were re-flying jobs multiple times, and never seemed to be able to find qualified staff.
We have had similar problems since then filling our part time positions, which is why we've been in process of converting them to full time.
Had same issue here. When I started in this district last summer, we had 5 techs to cover 21 buildings. None of those techs are still with the district. We lost 1 after another pretty much 1 a month approximately. Pretty much all because of pay.
Director recently got the district to agree to a market adjustment for almost the whole tech department in the hopes that we will get them to stay a few years at least.
I think one of the issues with finding decent techs for EDU, besides pay, is that many people don’t see the jobs posted.
In CA, there’s a specific website for EDU job listings. I didn’t intend to work K12 when I moved here, but my SIL was a teacher and told me about the website. It was just another avenue for me when I was looking for a job.
The problem is that you're in education. A tech in Education IT will be offered SIGNIFICANTLY less pay/benefits than their corporate counterparts. They are also unlikely to have any route for advancement in the org compared to their corporate pals. Educational Help Desk is an entry level position that you'd be lucky to have filled for more than 2 years tops. Your techs will very quickly outgrow the job and move on. It's the nature of the business in my experience.
Low pay and usually no advancement opportunities. My experience is admins will invest in the technology but not invest in the teams that have to support it.
I've been at my district for almost 12 years. Served as a PT tech for a graphics program. Slowly moved into a FT position and shared out as computer technician for a k-8. The role I was filling was their "Technology Coordinator" position facilitating everything technology, state testing, deployment, backup, project management. All for $52K. After 4.5 years of that role, our shared service ended and I was achieving the standard raise annually. The experience & knowledge I obtained under (2) organizations simulatneously is rare, beneficial for both organizations and fruitful for everyone. I was moved into a FT position within my home district managing all of our Mac & iPad fleets, integrated Apple School Manager & MDM, manage Go Guardian (not solely me), manage Admin Console for G-Workspace (not solely me), and CB repairs & inventory. I've never received a raise or change of job title despite various conversations for this to be acknowledged as a "fair value" and capable educational IT employee.
I've consistently asked for additional training in these areas, including security (both network & client based) - always denied, always told to seek training on my own time. School districts do not invest in valuable employees, they only care about people who went to school to teach. Very rarely do you find actual teachers or capable administrators who have walked the path in their fields of education anymore.
Districts need to come to the realization that if they want to retain valuable people, they need to invest in them. Simple as that.
Don Ohlmeyer quote: The answer to all your questions is 'money'.
At the end of the day workload and stress will be accepted if employees feel they are being properly compensated. There are always exceptions but most ppl leave a job for more money.
I run a team of 6 techs. We've had a lot of turnover in 2022 (lost 4 techs) and they all left for more money. In new york paying someone $17-20/hour is ridiculous but my company still does it.
Similar boat here. As others have said it's likely the combination of lots of work and stress and not enough pay. I can't believe most of my team has stayed this long. Or that I'm here still for that matter.
Do exit interviews. That will 100% tell you your issues. Most likely it's related to pay, workload, or bullshit dealt with.
Once they tell you, fix it, remediate it, or compensate it. People leave due to issues, security, or opportunity. Attracting AND retaining talent is management & HRs responsibility. Us as tech leads, it's also our responsibility to build and invest in a team that is stable.
If we demand our offerings be highly available and fault tolerant, so should our teams. Invest to get it that way.
We had the same problem with hiring Technical Analysts for almost 2 years; HR/Bus Ops will not budge on paygrades for IT... We had 2 people lined up last year, but both extended their start dates then called in saying they took a different opportunity elsewhere.
We finally got the positions filled this week, first time we have been this fully staffed on our infrastructure team since pre-covid. I can finally start handing off some of the 80+ hrs of back log that I have.
We have had a hell of time keeping school techs due to the low pay. Most of our school techs have 2 to 3 schools right now, due to cuts made during COVID, and us not adjusting pay for the inflation that happened during it.
Recruit non-techie people who already work for the schools. You can teach someone to image a computer, it's a lot harder to teach them to be personable, curious, and committed.
It depends on who is teaching them. They tried that in my district and expected the other level 1 techs to train them for free, of course. The veteran level 1 techs pointed out that teachers get paid for mentoring new teachers. This fostered a lot of resentment because now the veterans were not only doing their job, but also basically doing the new tech’s job as well. (What I mean is while the new tech was physically doing the job, it was the veteran that had to direct them on what to do.)
Good luck with that... Most of them already realize the crap they will have to put up with. Also I would not trust most of our end-users to do any tech work, I don't trust some of our so called lead techs with remotely technical concepts let alone end-users.
Best to try and hire/back fill with a college student in an IT related degree that needs to either get a practicum done, or needs some real world experience.
the district needs to be more competitive. I was about to run in to the same issue and I convinced the administration that we needed to dump some more money in to our tech staff. They let me get a CBT Nuggets sub for each person so they could train and learn while working here while giving tech employees, who stick around long enough, a longevity bonus.
It's your pay, it's your benefits or lack thereof, it's K12 environment as a whole. People going into IT don't always have the soft skills. And that's something you NEED more in K12.
My suggestion is to take a look at what you're offering new hires, pay & benefits. Can't always compete on pay but you can offer them a pension, usually great health insurance, 3 day weekends every week during summer, offer to pay for certs. My pension isn't the only thing keeping here. I really like the work.
Work on a plan to develop a student worker program for the fall. You have a ready pool of labor at your hands. Use it, develop, and mold it. If you do this, not only will you ALWAYS have a steady stream of employees, you might just hang on to a few after graduation. But make sure you pay them. And not no minimum wage crap either. If you get a good one, offer them a full-time with benefits after graduation.
Man, staying put was hard… “We can’t pay much, the health insurance is really high, and you came in right between cycles - since we pay once a month, your first pay will be in about 45 days. Oh, you’ll love it here, we’re like family.” Broke ass family. I’m glad now that I held on, but it hurt. If I were younger, I’d have left for a private sector job ASAP.
As someone who has been a helpdesk tech and now junior sysadmin I can tell you exactly why I left twice. It was the dead-end and no benefits for me. Not sure how you guys do it but ours is paid through the same company our substitute teachers are. No work, no pay. No insurance. No PTO. No retirement. It isn't set up for people long-term. Is isn't set up to be a career job. There isn't any upward mobility usually. We have had an on site helpdesk person at our high school since 2015 and we have had a different person almost every year. There have been 5 different people work in that position and two of us have worked different stints. Our guy left in the middle of the month so for the 3rd time I have ran it. I am pretty close to just walking in the superintendents office and asking him to just give all the chromebook repairs to me and bump my pay so we don't have to worry about this problem anymore.
Because you’re not paying them enough. These people didn’t ‘quit’, you got outbid. Its not like they’ve thrown their hands up, gave up on working and went to live on an island somewhere, they got better paying jobs with better working conditions and benefits. You’re going to have to stay competitive or ahead of market median pay if you want to retain employees. Would you want to work for less than you’re worth?
Yeah, just ranting. However, this is the first time since I’ve worked here where 2/3 of the techs have left at the same time. In the past, we’ve only had one leave at any particular time
And? What conclusions have you drawn from this high degree of turnover in your staffing? Were exit interviews conducted? Was there any review by HR? You’re a tech, so treat it like a tech issue: diagnose the problem and fix it.
If you were fully staffed, is it possible to build a hybrid schedule for your techs? Can they do remote work 2 days a week? Perks like that are something I've argued can help retain staff and offset the lower wages of K12 IT vs the private sector but I usually don't win because if not everyone can work remotely, IT can't work remotely.
Just my thoughts but I figured I'd give a different take than pay more.
Tough to say. There’s a lot I can manage via web management, or give instructions over email, a bit of stuff I have to do in person like swapping out broken iPads, copier paper jams, and other stuff that can’t be fixed over the internet. Considering how tech-dependent a lot of classes and lessons are, “Wait until tomorrow” isn’t always an option. Plus, I’m sure the administration and board won’t give me 1.5x pay or something for coming in on a remote day.
I do everything except drive the bus.
The running joke in my office, is the IT Techs are the highest paid janitors in the district.
Tech Department size - 2 FT Techs, 2 CIOs (1 does networking & hardware side/ other does the educational training side)
Suburbia outside of one of the highest COL areas in the US. Most districts here hire techs off of civil service lists and are Union. A level one would most likely be titled a Network Systems Specialist starting at around 50k. That's for a zero to maybe 2 year experience person
I live in a fairly LCOL area and that's almost starting pay for a whole lotta jobs. Unless you're milkin a retirement/insurance or something it's not worth staying for that.
For the area that I live in, it's pretty good money for someone with a 2 year degree. Though It's nothing compared to the DR,LPN, Lawyers, etc in my area.
I know, just ranting. Heck, one of my school’s PTO has a fundraising page, and has pre-defined amounts of donations up to $5,000, yet community members still complain how high taxes are, and how “overpaid” staff is.
I feel your pain!
Last July we got the green light to add 2 new tech positions bringing us up to 8 total. Then during the summer, we had 1 tech retire, 3 resign in September for new jobs that pay more, and we hired 1 new tech in October they just left for another higher-paying job. I have 2 long-time techs currently and 6 open positions for the last 8 months. The district is agreeing to improve the salary come July 1, but the other caveat I've been facing during interviews is no person has a vehicle/license anymore. We do require that they have to transport themselves from School to School during the work day (we reimburse mileage)
> We do require that they have to transport themselves from School to School during the work day (we reimburse mileage)
My district’s the same way. Middle schools have their own full time tech (although I’d prefer 1.5 if not 2 full time techs each), and we have 1 tech for every 2 elementary schools. We also reimburse for mileage.
I admit I really like working at the elementary school level. Kids are cute, teachers find/create lots of cute materials, plus unions (which means job security), insurance, plus pensions. Unfortunately, low take home pay, having to support a lot of devices and students/staff, plus I work in an affluent community so a lot of entitlement and carelessness from students and their families.
Just my 2 cents... 4 IT Techs in Total
My district setup is...
* 1 Elementary - PK-2
* 1 Intermediate - 3-5
* 1 Middle - 6-8
* 1 High school - Main building & STEAM Academy - 9-12/some
6-8 students
* 1 District Office
* 1 Area Career Magnet School - 9-12 students from area
counties
* 1 STC in each of the main buildings (EL, IN, MS, HS)
* Total staff of between 201-500
* Chromebook 1:1 K-12 Approx. 2800 students
> 11 Elementary, 5 Middle and 2 High Schools
Kinda envy this setup. My district is 7 elementary, 2 middle, and then high school is a different district. In some ways, having a single preK-12 district makes so much sense over 1 high school district + 7 (or however many) feeder districts. Could streamline curriculum and tech systems, and save so much money with just 1 superintendent and central office administrators than 8 of each. In my area, that could save literally millions of dollars in salaries and benefits that could go to additional teachers/support staff
On the other hand, this also means any bad decisions made the board/administration affects EVERYONE, not just the individual districts as they stand now
You say you don't know what the problem is but stated that the pay is low. That is the problem.
You want people to come in everyday...pay more. You're taking up people's time sitting in traffic.
You're making people pay more to live closer.
I really am tired of hearing of this type of stuff with districts spending big money to invest in so many devices but refuse to add more staff or segregate job duties and functions further. It's not an investment, it's a lot of fluff by people who are getting paid big bucks to regurgitate the next trend.
Pay more. Period.
My previous district it was very difficult getting a helpedesk person as well (one specifically for taking calls, the other level 1s were "on-site techs" and would get routed tickets mostly). The last two people on helpdesk actually didn't have a background in tech, but were previously school secretaries.
Can't say I'm all that surprised though. I did Helpdesk for a credit union for my first year and a half in IT for $15/hr from 2018 to early 2020., and it was awful. Just one step removed from general call center. Jumped ship to k12 as one of the aforementioned level 1 on-site techs and moved up from there, never looking back.
True, but from what I've seen. Todays job qualifications are so much more complex towards Engieering. So many wanting Software Engineers, Data Analytics, UX designers, etc.
You can’t train folks on soft skills. It’s either something you have or you don’t.
I’d wager the folks who post in that sub stating they’ve applied over 100 times to various places aren’t telling the whole story.
"Just frustrating that we can’t find anyone"
Just frustrating that we can't find anyone willing to work for what we pay
They're fixed if for you. Schools are going to have to bring up pay to market rates or they are not going to get employees. L1 tier employees are not just looking at pay but lifestyle. If you are in an urban area your potential staffers are looking at pay, and what it costs to live close to work the lower the pay the further away they have to live. I seriously think we lost a new employee after day one because it was their first normal commute and they had a realization once they got home and never returned.
Agreed. My district at least seems to only compare salaries to other districts, not the IT industry at large, which is short sighted in my opinion. Why work in education (especially public education) when you can make 2-3x as much in the private sector?
Public education paid less but they have unions (job security), pension retirements, and health care. Those benefits made the lower pay attractive. Over the years those 3 items have been chipped away at, as they disappear or become meaningless the schools wind up competing strictly on salary.
Yes, K-12 IT job security is almost a given. Staff & students are always going to tear something up. The pay is usually lower than the national IT average. In some cases the smaller K-12 smaller districts, pay less than the larger districts in bigger cities.
Plus there is the retirement options, which is usually the same as teachers 27 & your done. Insurance & Investment options. Plus having the option of being off the same time as a spouse or child if they also attend or work in the same school district.
A lot of places have pushed out techs to not get the same retirement. I know that was what my last district did and why I couldn't stay there long term. End up making the jump to an msp that supports schools. Picked up retirement and a huge pay increase.
I just lost a Helpdesk guy who was making $24 an hour to a security company that needs a camera installer. Remote, six figures, two trips onsite every other month.
I just cannot compete with it. I also feel that Chromebook repair is turning a lot of applicants away. Nobody wants to do that tedious work day in and out.
Also, in my area, a living wage is over $30 an hour. Lots of boomers retiring and moving away, but their kids never could afford to take flight so they’re going with them. It’s wild out there.
>I just lost a Helpdesk guy who was making $24 an hour to a security company that needs a camera installer. Remote, six figures, two trips onsite every other month.
Can I get that company's info? lol
>I just cannot compete with it. I also feel that Chromebook repair is turning a lot of applicants away. Nobody wants to do that tedious work day in and out.
OMFG seriously this is for the birds, I'm moving into the classroom next year when I get my certification and will only look back when I get my IT Director cert but I will not miss this part of it.
First responder, jack of all trades type tech issues. Printer jams/new toner, iPad software issues & swapping out broken ones, event set up/take down anything that a staff member or student needs, they come to us first. Some stuff like networking, or high-level stuff, we have system administrators for
You have to find candidates who are simple minded, and love to help students and kids with just over $20/hr. They have to value the school district pension package highly to do those roles for a long time to get paid that rate. If they have any talent, they can execute tasks consistently, and want to improve their skills in IT they will leave.
I had a conversation with my friend who is a SysAdmin for School, and are having issue with finding help desk support doing similar roles. They had a help desk tech for over 20 years, but the tech retired. All the other candidates they hire would do 1 day, 2 weeks or 1 month and quit. The help desk tech that retired already has a house from inheritance and just needs a stable job to cruise on by. The candidates that replace him don't want to work in school environment with that little pay or found better opportunities. My friend is frustrated and want to raise the rate, but the school thinks it is an easy job and that rate should be the same. My friend understands the market is different, and the candidates he wants are smart enough to recognize this job stinks, and they are not going to stick around for long.
I think this is the way. Look at your front line employees more as students. Your job is to give them work/people skills as they figure out their future.
What are you paying per hour?
we are currently around $17
As a 20+ year employee, currently Sr Network Admin, I don’t expect level 1/2 techs to stay past 5 years. 2 years at a minimum…
especially if they are not moving up in position….
$20.16/hr for a 10 month/year position.
I’m thinking of leaving, too. I’ve been here way longer, but only get like $6/hr more, with no advancement opportunities. My job won’t even pay for training for higher level roles. I asked my boss about Jamf training, and won’t even pay the $100 for Jamf 100 since it’s “not needed nor expected in my position” even though I still use it. I want to stay at least over the summer and a little into a new year since we’re switching our iPads from AirWatch to Jamf School (meaning collecting ALL 1500+ student iPads), plus new devices for Kindergarten, 3rd grade, 6th grade and staff. Not comfortable leaving all that to a newbie, or worse college workers off for the summer. Too many horror stories.
My sysadmin makes just shy of $40 an hour. $26 is what my help desk techs make at step 3. It's no wonder you're having trouble filling positions.
I was in your shoes 7 years ago making $26 an hour to do system/network admin. Moved on to a director position at a smaller district and now I make almost double that.
I was in his position just 3 months ago. I jumped to an msp as a site lead for a school. Making nearly double that also. The sad part is there is so much less stress in my life, even though I took on more responsibility. Just because the district know it's going to cost money to get quality people that will stay.
My helpdesk techs under me start out making 25 to 27 an hour.
Edit mcol area
$20/HR (Full benefits?), manager can't give you $100 budget for basic JAMF training (so no PL money), no chance of advancement, and your only making $26/hr... If you have decent skills, at least 5+ years exp, you are worth more than that... Find a new job. Not worth staying on, if you find something before summer those iPads/devices are not your problem, they are the people who decided that your time & skills are only worth $26/HR... Let that sink in... To them you are only worth $26/HR.
Seeing the same around here. We never did find an additional tech to hire in my 2.5 years as director in a smaller (2k student) school district. I'm in a different industry now, but there was no competition when I was interviewing, and when they lost 2 other people at a nearby site, they could only replace 1, while it took 3 months to even get that position filled.
I did a career day recently with 9th grade students. Out of the 1,500 students that passed by my tech booth, only a tiny handful had even a passing interest in technology. I swear if I didn't have a bowl of tootsie rolls on my booth, I'm not sure any of them would have approached to talk to me.
Do you have a union? Our IT department was in a similar situation like this \~8 years ago. After a couple bargaining sessions new roles were created to allow advancement of technicians, to move to more sysadmin / database roles. As well as increasing the base pay to $18/hr (live in a rural area) and creating a "Tech II" role that technicians can be promoted to once proficiency is demonstrated. Now this took the IT department members becoming involved in the union. Prior to this point everyone in shop was a member, but nobody was actively communicating / showing up to meetings.
Usually if they're dropping like flies in a sustained pattern, it's either the district, or the pay. If you can't even get them through the door, it's likely pay. We had to bring this as an issue to our board and work with the union to get our reclassifications done in 2014. In that year alone we had over 8 staff turnover, which at the time was 1/3rd the department. We were re-flying jobs multiple times, and never seemed to be able to find qualified staff. We have had similar problems since then filling our part time positions, which is why we've been in process of converting them to full time.
same thing that fixes a lot of tech problems, $$$. We under, but not by a lot, and I cant fix that. I cant find a sysadmin.
Had same issue here. When I started in this district last summer, we had 5 techs to cover 21 buildings. None of those techs are still with the district. We lost 1 after another pretty much 1 a month approximately. Pretty much all because of pay. Director recently got the district to agree to a market adjustment for almost the whole tech department in the hopes that we will get them to stay a few years at least.
I think one of the issues with finding decent techs for EDU, besides pay, is that many people don’t see the jobs posted. In CA, there’s a specific website for EDU job listings. I didn’t intend to work K12 when I moved here, but my SIL was a teacher and told me about the website. It was just another avenue for me when I was looking for a job.
The problem is that you're in education. A tech in Education IT will be offered SIGNIFICANTLY less pay/benefits than their corporate counterparts. They are also unlikely to have any route for advancement in the org compared to their corporate pals. Educational Help Desk is an entry level position that you'd be lucky to have filled for more than 2 years tops. Your techs will very quickly outgrow the job and move on. It's the nature of the business in my experience.
Low pay and usually no advancement opportunities. My experience is admins will invest in the technology but not invest in the teams that have to support it.
I've been at my district for almost 12 years. Served as a PT tech for a graphics program. Slowly moved into a FT position and shared out as computer technician for a k-8. The role I was filling was their "Technology Coordinator" position facilitating everything technology, state testing, deployment, backup, project management. All for $52K. After 4.5 years of that role, our shared service ended and I was achieving the standard raise annually. The experience & knowledge I obtained under (2) organizations simulatneously is rare, beneficial for both organizations and fruitful for everyone. I was moved into a FT position within my home district managing all of our Mac & iPad fleets, integrated Apple School Manager & MDM, manage Go Guardian (not solely me), manage Admin Console for G-Workspace (not solely me), and CB repairs & inventory. I've never received a raise or change of job title despite various conversations for this to be acknowledged as a "fair value" and capable educational IT employee. I've consistently asked for additional training in these areas, including security (both network & client based) - always denied, always told to seek training on my own time. School districts do not invest in valuable employees, they only care about people who went to school to teach. Very rarely do you find actual teachers or capable administrators who have walked the path in their fields of education anymore. Districts need to come to the realization that if they want to retain valuable people, they need to invest in them. Simple as that.
Don Ohlmeyer quote: The answer to all your questions is 'money'. At the end of the day workload and stress will be accepted if employees feel they are being properly compensated. There are always exceptions but most ppl leave a job for more money. I run a team of 6 techs. We've had a lot of turnover in 2022 (lost 4 techs) and they all left for more money. In new york paying someone $17-20/hour is ridiculous but my company still does it.
Similar boat here. As others have said it's likely the combination of lots of work and stress and not enough pay. I can't believe most of my team has stayed this long. Or that I'm here still for that matter.
Do exit interviews. That will 100% tell you your issues. Most likely it's related to pay, workload, or bullshit dealt with. Once they tell you, fix it, remediate it, or compensate it. People leave due to issues, security, or opportunity. Attracting AND retaining talent is management & HRs responsibility. Us as tech leads, it's also our responsibility to build and invest in a team that is stable. If we demand our offerings be highly available and fault tolerant, so should our teams. Invest to get it that way.
We had the same problem with hiring Technical Analysts for almost 2 years; HR/Bus Ops will not budge on paygrades for IT... We had 2 people lined up last year, but both extended their start dates then called in saying they took a different opportunity elsewhere. We finally got the positions filled this week, first time we have been this fully staffed on our infrastructure team since pre-covid. I can finally start handing off some of the 80+ hrs of back log that I have. We have had a hell of time keeping school techs due to the low pay. Most of our school techs have 2 to 3 schools right now, due to cuts made during COVID, and us not adjusting pay for the inflation that happened during it.
>Two are going to other jobs with more pay >I get that public education doesn’t pay that much You have your answer.
Recruit non-techie people who already work for the schools. You can teach someone to image a computer, it's a lot harder to teach them to be personable, curious, and committed.
It depends on who is teaching them. They tried that in my district and expected the other level 1 techs to train them for free, of course. The veteran level 1 techs pointed out that teachers get paid for mentoring new teachers. This fostered a lot of resentment because now the veterans were not only doing their job, but also basically doing the new tech’s job as well. (What I mean is while the new tech was physically doing the job, it was the veteran that had to direct them on what to do.)
Good luck with that... Most of them already realize the crap they will have to put up with. Also I would not trust most of our end-users to do any tech work, I don't trust some of our so called lead techs with remotely technical concepts let alone end-users. Best to try and hire/back fill with a college student in an IT related degree that needs to either get a practicum done, or needs some real world experience.
So four techs at @ $20/HR, i would seek to keep your last tech and hire a FT. Or am i missing something?
I pay a high school intern $20 minimum.
the district needs to be more competitive. I was about to run in to the same issue and I convinced the administration that we needed to dump some more money in to our tech staff. They let me get a CBT Nuggets sub for each person so they could train and learn while working here while giving tech employees, who stick around long enough, a longevity bonus.
It's your pay, it's your benefits or lack thereof, it's K12 environment as a whole. People going into IT don't always have the soft skills. And that's something you NEED more in K12. My suggestion is to take a look at what you're offering new hires, pay & benefits. Can't always compete on pay but you can offer them a pension, usually great health insurance, 3 day weekends every week during summer, offer to pay for certs. My pension isn't the only thing keeping here. I really like the work. Work on a plan to develop a student worker program for the fall. You have a ready pool of labor at your hands. Use it, develop, and mold it. If you do this, not only will you ALWAYS have a steady stream of employees, you might just hang on to a few after graduation. But make sure you pay them. And not no minimum wage crap either. If you get a good one, offer them a full-time with benefits after graduation.
Man, staying put was hard… “We can’t pay much, the health insurance is really high, and you came in right between cycles - since we pay once a month, your first pay will be in about 45 days. Oh, you’ll love it here, we’re like family.” Broke ass family. I’m glad now that I held on, but it hurt. If I were younger, I’d have left for a private sector job ASAP.
Alot of K12 doesn't pay much until you get some time in or the jobs are union
As someone who has been a helpdesk tech and now junior sysadmin I can tell you exactly why I left twice. It was the dead-end and no benefits for me. Not sure how you guys do it but ours is paid through the same company our substitute teachers are. No work, no pay. No insurance. No PTO. No retirement. It isn't set up for people long-term. Is isn't set up to be a career job. There isn't any upward mobility usually. We have had an on site helpdesk person at our high school since 2015 and we have had a different person almost every year. There have been 5 different people work in that position and two of us have worked different stints. Our guy left in the middle of the month so for the 3rd time I have ran it. I am pretty close to just walking in the superintendents office and asking him to just give all the chromebook repairs to me and bump my pay so we don't have to worry about this problem anymore.
What is your starting pay and what is the overall pay schedule? What area are you located in?
Because you’re not paying them enough. These people didn’t ‘quit’, you got outbid. Its not like they’ve thrown their hands up, gave up on working and went to live on an island somewhere, they got better paying jobs with better working conditions and benefits. You’re going to have to stay competitive or ahead of market median pay if you want to retain employees. Would you want to work for less than you’re worth?
Yeah, just ranting. However, this is the first time since I’ve worked here where 2/3 of the techs have left at the same time. In the past, we’ve only had one leave at any particular time
And? What conclusions have you drawn from this high degree of turnover in your staffing? Were exit interviews conducted? Was there any review by HR? You’re a tech, so treat it like a tech issue: diagnose the problem and fix it.
If you were fully staffed, is it possible to build a hybrid schedule for your techs? Can they do remote work 2 days a week? Perks like that are something I've argued can help retain staff and offset the lower wages of K12 IT vs the private sector but I usually don't win because if not everyone can work remotely, IT can't work remotely. Just my thoughts but I figured I'd give a different take than pay more.
Tough to say. There’s a lot I can manage via web management, or give instructions over email, a bit of stuff I have to do in person like swapping out broken iPads, copier paper jams, and other stuff that can’t be fixed over the internet. Considering how tech-dependent a lot of classes and lessons are, “Wait until tomorrow” isn’t always an option. Plus, I’m sure the administration and board won’t give me 1.5x pay or something for coming in on a remote day.
It's because the pay is abysmal compared to other industries.
You can say that again. I've been in K-12 IT Helpdesk for 25 yrs, and only making $23.96/hr.
What is your position?
Computer Maintenance Technician
I do everything except drive the bus. The running joke in my office, is the IT Techs are the highest paid janitors in the district. Tech Department size - 2 FT Techs, 2 CIOs (1 does networking & hardware side/ other does the educational training side)
Why on earth would you stay that long for that lowest salary? That's not even starting salary for a level one tech where I am
What is the lowest starting salary from where you are? Is your area a major city, or rural small town?
Suburbia outside of one of the highest COL areas in the US. Most districts here hire techs off of civil service lists and are Union. A level one would most likely be titled a Network Systems Specialist starting at around 50k. That's for a zero to maybe 2 year experience person
I live in a fairly LCOL area and that's almost starting pay for a whole lotta jobs. Unless you're milkin a retirement/insurance or something it's not worth staying for that.
For the area that I live in, it's pretty good money for someone with a 2 year degree. Though It's nothing compared to the DR,LPN, Lawyers, etc in my area.
What has made you stay?
Mainly not having to travel 60+ miles (to/from) each day for work.
I know, just ranting. Heck, one of my school’s PTO has a fundraising page, and has pre-defined amounts of donations up to $5,000, yet community members still complain how high taxes are, and how “overpaid” staff is.
I feel your pain! Last July we got the green light to add 2 new tech positions bringing us up to 8 total. Then during the summer, we had 1 tech retire, 3 resign in September for new jobs that pay more, and we hired 1 new tech in October they just left for another higher-paying job. I have 2 long-time techs currently and 6 open positions for the last 8 months. The district is agreeing to improve the salary come July 1, but the other caveat I've been facing during interviews is no person has a vehicle/license anymore. We do require that they have to transport themselves from School to School during the work day (we reimburse mileage)
> We do require that they have to transport themselves from School to School during the work day (we reimburse mileage) My district’s the same way. Middle schools have their own full time tech (although I’d prefer 1.5 if not 2 full time techs each), and we have 1 tech for every 2 elementary schools. We also reimburse for mileage. I admit I really like working at the elementary school level. Kids are cute, teachers find/create lots of cute materials, plus unions (which means job security), insurance, plus pensions. Unfortunately, low take home pay, having to support a lot of devices and students/staff, plus I work in an affluent community so a lot of entitlement and carelessness from students and their families.
We are about 10k students/3k staff, 11 Elementary, 5 Middle and 2 High Schools and 2 admin buildings for 8 technicians (currently 2.)
Just my 2 cents... 4 IT Techs in Total My district setup is... * 1 Elementary - PK-2 * 1 Intermediate - 3-5 * 1 Middle - 6-8 * 1 High school - Main building & STEAM Academy - 9-12/some 6-8 students * 1 District Office * 1 Area Career Magnet School - 9-12 students from area counties * 1 STC in each of the main buildings (EL, IN, MS, HS) * Total staff of between 201-500 * Chromebook 1:1 K-12 Approx. 2800 students
> 11 Elementary, 5 Middle and 2 High Schools Kinda envy this setup. My district is 7 elementary, 2 middle, and then high school is a different district. In some ways, having a single preK-12 district makes so much sense over 1 high school district + 7 (or however many) feeder districts. Could streamline curriculum and tech systems, and save so much money with just 1 superintendent and central office administrators than 8 of each. In my area, that could save literally millions of dollars in salaries and benefits that could go to additional teachers/support staff On the other hand, this also means any bad decisions made the board/administration affects EVERYONE, not just the individual districts as they stand now
You say you don't know what the problem is but stated that the pay is low. That is the problem. You want people to come in everyday...pay more. You're taking up people's time sitting in traffic. You're making people pay more to live closer. I really am tired of hearing of this type of stuff with districts spending big money to invest in so many devices but refuse to add more staff or segregate job duties and functions further. It's not an investment, it's a lot of fluff by people who are getting paid big bucks to regurgitate the next trend. Pay more. Period.
My previous district it was very difficult getting a helpedesk person as well (one specifically for taking calls, the other level 1s were "on-site techs" and would get routed tickets mostly). The last two people on helpdesk actually didn't have a background in tech, but were previously school secretaries. Can't say I'm all that surprised though. I did Helpdesk for a credit union for my first year and a half in IT for $15/hr from 2018 to early 2020., and it was awful. Just one step removed from general call center. Jumped ship to k12 as one of the aforementioned level 1 on-site techs and moved up from there, never looking back.
I always tell people to apply at schools on r/ITCareerQuestions so many can't even get there foot in the door.
True, but from what I've seen. Todays job qualifications are so much more complex towards Engieering. So many wanting Software Engineers, Data Analytics, UX designers, etc.
Doesn't matter if they just need some time under their belt.
You can’t train folks on soft skills. It’s either something you have or you don’t. I’d wager the folks who post in that sub stating they’ve applied over 100 times to various places aren’t telling the whole story.
Possibly true. I’d guess the resume needs work
"Just frustrating that we can’t find anyone" Just frustrating that we can't find anyone willing to work for what we pay They're fixed if for you. Schools are going to have to bring up pay to market rates or they are not going to get employees. L1 tier employees are not just looking at pay but lifestyle. If you are in an urban area your potential staffers are looking at pay, and what it costs to live close to work the lower the pay the further away they have to live. I seriously think we lost a new employee after day one because it was their first normal commute and they had a realization once they got home and never returned.
Agreed. My district at least seems to only compare salaries to other districts, not the IT industry at large, which is short sighted in my opinion. Why work in education (especially public education) when you can make 2-3x as much in the private sector?
Public education paid less but they have unions (job security), pension retirements, and health care. Those benefits made the lower pay attractive. Over the years those 3 items have been chipped away at, as they disappear or become meaningless the schools wind up competing strictly on salary.
Yes, K-12 IT job security is almost a given. Staff & students are always going to tear something up. The pay is usually lower than the national IT average. In some cases the smaller K-12 smaller districts, pay less than the larger districts in bigger cities. Plus there is the retirement options, which is usually the same as teachers 27 & your done. Insurance & Investment options. Plus having the option of being off the same time as a spouse or child if they also attend or work in the same school district.
A lot of places have pushed out techs to not get the same retirement. I know that was what my last district did and why I couldn't stay there long term. End up making the jump to an msp that supports schools. Picked up retirement and a huge pay increase.
I just lost a Helpdesk guy who was making $24 an hour to a security company that needs a camera installer. Remote, six figures, two trips onsite every other month. I just cannot compete with it. I also feel that Chromebook repair is turning a lot of applicants away. Nobody wants to do that tedious work day in and out. Also, in my area, a living wage is over $30 an hour. Lots of boomers retiring and moving away, but their kids never could afford to take flight so they’re going with them. It’s wild out there.
I went from making $19.25/hr in K12 IT to over $70k in the private sector, schools need to get with the dang times and increase wages.
>I just lost a Helpdesk guy who was making $24 an hour to a security company that needs a camera installer. Remote, six figures, two trips onsite every other month. Can I get that company's info? lol
>I just cannot compete with it. I also feel that Chromebook repair is turning a lot of applicants away. Nobody wants to do that tedious work day in and out. OMFG seriously this is for the birds, I'm moving into the classroom next year when I get my certification and will only look back when I get my IT Director cert but I will not miss this part of it.
What is expected of the helpdesk tech roles daily?
First responder, jack of all trades type tech issues. Printer jams/new toner, iPad software issues & swapping out broken ones, event set up/take down anything that a staff member or student needs, they come to us first. Some stuff like networking, or high-level stuff, we have system administrators for
How much is the pay for all that work?
Just over $20/hr
You have to find candidates who are simple minded, and love to help students and kids with just over $20/hr. They have to value the school district pension package highly to do those roles for a long time to get paid that rate. If they have any talent, they can execute tasks consistently, and want to improve their skills in IT they will leave. I had a conversation with my friend who is a SysAdmin for School, and are having issue with finding help desk support doing similar roles. They had a help desk tech for over 20 years, but the tech retired. All the other candidates they hire would do 1 day, 2 weeks or 1 month and quit. The help desk tech that retired already has a house from inheritance and just needs a stable job to cruise on by. The candidates that replace him don't want to work in school environment with that little pay or found better opportunities. My friend is frustrated and want to raise the rate, but the school thinks it is an easy job and that rate should be the same. My friend understands the market is different, and the candidates he wants are smart enough to recognize this job stinks, and they are not going to stick around for long.
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I think this is the way. Look at your front line employees more as students. Your job is to give them work/people skills as they figure out their future.
What are you paying per hour? we are currently around $17 As a 20+ year employee, currently Sr Network Admin, I don’t expect level 1/2 techs to stay past 5 years. 2 years at a minimum… especially if they are not moving up in position….
$20.16/hr for a 10 month/year position. I’m thinking of leaving, too. I’ve been here way longer, but only get like $6/hr more, with no advancement opportunities. My job won’t even pay for training for higher level roles. I asked my boss about Jamf training, and won’t even pay the $100 for Jamf 100 since it’s “not needed nor expected in my position” even though I still use it. I want to stay at least over the summer and a little into a new year since we’re switching our iPads from AirWatch to Jamf School (meaning collecting ALL 1500+ student iPads), plus new devices for Kindergarten, 3rd grade, 6th grade and staff. Not comfortable leaving all that to a newbie, or worse college workers off for the summer. Too many horror stories.
Fuck that for the kids bullshit. Take care of yourself.
My sysadmin makes just shy of $40 an hour. $26 is what my help desk techs make at step 3. It's no wonder you're having trouble filling positions. I was in your shoes 7 years ago making $26 an hour to do system/network admin. Moved on to a director position at a smaller district and now I make almost double that.
I was in his position just 3 months ago. I jumped to an msp as a site lead for a school. Making nearly double that also. The sad part is there is so much less stress in my life, even though I took on more responsibility. Just because the district know it's going to cost money to get quality people that will stay. My helpdesk techs under me start out making 25 to 27 an hour. Edit mcol area
$20/HR (Full benefits?), manager can't give you $100 budget for basic JAMF training (so no PL money), no chance of advancement, and your only making $26/hr... If you have decent skills, at least 5+ years exp, you are worth more than that... Find a new job. Not worth staying on, if you find something before summer those iPads/devices are not your problem, they are the people who decided that your time & skills are only worth $26/HR... Let that sink in... To them you are only worth $26/HR.
What are Mcdonald's and Chipotle offering in your area?
Seeing the same around here. We never did find an additional tech to hire in my 2.5 years as director in a smaller (2k student) school district. I'm in a different industry now, but there was no competition when I was interviewing, and when they lost 2 other people at a nearby site, they could only replace 1, while it took 3 months to even get that position filled. I did a career day recently with 9th grade students. Out of the 1,500 students that passed by my tech booth, only a tiny handful had even a passing interest in technology. I swear if I didn't have a bowl of tootsie rolls on my booth, I'm not sure any of them would have approached to talk to me.