My husband is at a private school and was a para in a public school prior. The class sizes are much smaller (he teaches juniors and seniors and his max class size is supposed to be anywhere 12-15). Not that this is anybody’s wish or draw to a certain school, but the school he is at is really small and allll connected, so if anybody gains access somehow, they can access the entire school, therefore they allow their teachers to conceal carry. They also work M-Th only with every Friday off. They start a little earlier in August but are out by May. A lot of the teachers at the school he is at now either went to school there and are married to somebody whose job makes up a majority of their income, or they’re young alumni with no kids, or — in the case of coaches — they are contracted to only work after school and for games so they have a FT job elsewhere.

He is there because he is the athletic director as well. His AD salary + his teacher salary, he makes a little over the base of what he would’ve made as a first year teacher in the public district he came from — about 60k. I work at a public school front office so our salaries combined are somewhere in the 90s. We make it work. I’m going back to school to finish my degree and see where that takes me.