System has 38 teacher position vacancies to fill

Forays to Detroit, other Midwest cities getting results

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

‘‘We hired a middle school math teacher today,” said Katie O’Malley-Simpson, spokeswoman for the Charles County Board of Education on Monday.

As of Monday, there were 89 new high and middle school teachers hired, 20 elementary teachers and 38 special education teachers for all levels in the Charles County school system.

With the first day of school Aug. 25, there are 38 vacancies, including two ROTC teachers, in Charles County public schools. In the 2007-08 school year, there were 2,006 teaching positions in the public schools. O’Malley-Simpson said the total for the upcoming school year has not been calculated.

As an additional way to find and recruit teachers, the schools have been recruiting out of state.

‘‘Cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit are laying teachers off, and it is hard for teachers to find jobs in those cities,” O’Malley-Simpson said.

‘‘We have been having mini-job fairs in these cities, so we can interview applicants on the spot.”

An advertisement is placed in the city’s local paper prior to the interviewer visiting the city.

The interviews are arranged by phone, and then the face-to-face interview occurs in the teacher’s home city.

‘‘We have several candidates from Detroit that have expressed interest,” O’Malley-Simpson said.

A Charles County representative will be in Detroit this weekend to recruit teachers.

The county will provide an allowance for the teachers to use for gasoline if they want to come look at the Charles County schools, and also provides a housing guide to assist teachers with finding somewhere to live if they decide to accept a teaching position.

‘‘We have a book of affordable rentals in the community, which are offered by people in the community for potential teachers,” O’Malley-Simpson said.

There aren’t as many job openings this year as in past years, according to O’Malley-Simpson.

‘‘When the economy is slow, maybe some people will put off retirement,” O’Malley-Simpson said.

If the school system is unable to fill a position, then they will start to search for a long-term substitute teacher.

‘‘Because of No Child Left Behind requirements, we need highly qualified teachers to fill our positions,” O’Malley-Simpson said.

‘‘If we do use a long-term substitute, they must be trained in the area they wish to teach. Someone that wants to teach math must have a math degree from college. Even if we have a long-term substitute, we will continue to search for a full-time, highly qualified teacher.”

The substitute teachers have the department chair in each high school and also an instructional leadership team to assist them with developing teaching plans.

‘‘These people are available to help and work closely with long-term substitutes,” O’Malley-Simpson said.

There are also plans to attend college and university job fairs in the fall to search for teachers.

‘‘If we hire a December graduate, then perhaps in January we can fill an opening,” O’Malley-Simpson said. ‘‘Sometimes if we find someone to fill a position, we offer them an open contract in Charles County. This will guarantee them employment, but will not specify which school they will teach at.”

‘‘Military spouses also make excellent teachers,” O’Malley-Simpson said. ‘‘We live in an area that is convenient for many military families.”

‘‘Our ultimate goal is to find highly qualified teachers,” O’Malley-Simpson said. ‘‘We will be having a new teacher orientation to Charles County next week. We want to keep teachers and make them feel comfortable. We want them to feel Charles County is their home.”