American International School of Vilnius
American International School of Vilnius
Can anyone shed some light about the school and living in Lithuania in general? Would appreciate any and all perspectives. Thanks.
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Traveller1
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:18 pm
I used to teach there 2 Directors back and it was brilliant. It depends if you like small cities with lots of history. In my time there the heart of the city had been restored and there were some little cobbled streets, in summer there were pavement cafes and little restaurants. I believe it has become more expensive but it would still be cheaper than western Europe.
It's a good travel hub to Eastern or Western Europe. We loved to drive up to Talinn (about 500kms) for Fall or Spring Break.
I really enjoyed my time at AISV (4 years) under Bill Rose but I've heard that the current Director is a bit of a micro manager. However it's
probably still a more positive teaching environment than the US at the moment.
If you're young and single you may find it too limited for you.
It's a good travel hub to Eastern or Western Europe. We loved to drive up to Talinn (about 500kms) for Fall or Spring Break.
I really enjoyed my time at AISV (4 years) under Bill Rose but I've heard that the current Director is a bit of a micro manager. However it's
probably still a more positive teaching environment than the US at the moment.
If you're young and single you may find it too limited for you.
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radishflower
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:58 pm
- Location: USA
AIS of Vilnius pay
The pay that Search Assoc. lists for this school seems ludicrously low ($23K for an MA + 8 years??). Is this doable? Am I missing something? Even if it is cheap to live in Vilnius, 23,000 doesn't seem like it would pay for much of anything. Thoughts?
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Traveller1
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:18 pm
Some thoughts for what they're worth:
While I was there the number of foreign kids was dropping, so they brought in a two tier school fee structure, with local families having to pay about a quarter of the foreign families. They changed the salary scale at the same time. However, even on the old scale you won't get rich there or be able to save bags of money.
I think we were saving about 1200 US a month on one salary (2 people), about 2200 to 2400 US a month. 2001 to 2005. Also, the dollar collapsed at that time and our salaries lost about 25% of their value.
I think you'll find it useful to compare their package to the salary at the Int'l School of Estonia. I think the AISV package is comparable to the packages of other international schools in the region. Schools in Scandinavia and Western Europe pay much more but I don't think a single person would be much better off in the end.
To give perspective here, around 2003, the Primary Principal salary at the International School of Havana was 2500 USD. I know it's a different part of the world but in my experience there seem to be many smaller international schools that pay between 2000 and 2400 USD. I would think AISV would fall into the same category.
While I was there the number of foreign kids was dropping, so they brought in a two tier school fee structure, with local families having to pay about a quarter of the foreign families. They changed the salary scale at the same time. However, even on the old scale you won't get rich there or be able to save bags of money.
I think we were saving about 1200 US a month on one salary (2 people), about 2200 to 2400 US a month. 2001 to 2005. Also, the dollar collapsed at that time and our salaries lost about 25% of their value.
I think you'll find it useful to compare their package to the salary at the Int'l School of Estonia. I think the AISV package is comparable to the packages of other international schools in the region. Schools in Scandinavia and Western Europe pay much more but I don't think a single person would be much better off in the end.
To give perspective here, around 2003, the Primary Principal salary at the International School of Havana was 2500 USD. I know it's a different part of the world but in my experience there seem to be many smaller international schools that pay between 2000 and 2400 USD. I would think AISV would fall into the same category.
Reply
The salary is about accurate, you cant really save and you either have to be a homebody or live payday to payday. Its a just a small IS with a small enrollment and endowment. Its an interesting city though, and you have to go because you want to experience that part of the world. The workload is very relaxed, so its not like your slave labor.
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Traveller1
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:18 pm
Clearly pg is talking about the other international school of vilnius, where ever that may be. He has no idea about the one in Vilnius. Hey pg, what's this 'endowment' you're talking about?
What is interesting, given the low package, is that they don't appear to have a high staff turnover. They don't advertise on TIE or CIS, and I don't have access to the ISS job vacancies, but their website only ever seems to say that all their vacancies are filled.
What is interesting, given the low package, is that they don't appear to have a high staff turnover. They don't advertise on TIE or CIS, and I don't have access to the ISS job vacancies, but their website only ever seems to say that all their vacancies are filled.
Reply
Since the vast majority of ISs are non profits (even if only for tax purposes) basically anything outside of tuition and fees is a donation and goes into the schools endowment. So if an organization or government entity funds a school that money moves into its endowment. Most schools just refer to their capitalization and revenue as there endowment, though technically its just the general operations fund, it sounds "better".