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Job fair draws record crowd
If there is a nationwide teacher shortage as some have claimed, it wasn't apparent at the county's Teacher Recruitment Fair held Saturday at Liberty High School. “Teach Fauquier 2008” had the largest candidate participation in the job fair's nine-year history, with 321 prospective candidates registered and 266 in attendance.Job seekers came from as far as Arizona, with others making the trek from Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Closer to home, interested educators from Culpeper, Prince William, Loudoun and Rappahannock counties interviewed for possible employment. School system Human Resource Director Janelle Downes said that “Teach Fauquier 2008” was advertised on the FCPS Web site, most Virginia newspapers, The Washington Post, radio stations, universities and www.teachers.teachers.com .
Last year, 93 certified teachers left the local school system, 35 for retirement. Almost all of the remaining 58 went out-of-state or to unnamed school districts. Of those who joined other Virginia school districts, the largest number of teachers went to Prince William County.
Fauquier County will be opening two new schools in the fall of 2008, requiring a larger workforce. Currently, the school system has 36 vacancies for certified positions; last year at this same time, the number was 27.
Forty-five administrators conducting individual 30-minute interviews in which candidates were matched on grade level and type of instruction. Downes said the interviews paired up the “knowledge and abilities [of the candidates] with the needs of the school.”
Debra Bell, principal of Bradley Elementary School, said that she and other administrators were serving as an extension of the human resource office, making the application and interview process more efficient. The interviewers were able to recommend second interviews when they found a good candidate and job match.
Prior to the job recruitment fair, those with an interest in teaching here were required to fill out an employment application. The process required the provision of original academic transcripts, along with copies of teaching certificates, letters of reference and PRAXIS scores from teacher certification exams. Once the information was received, the human resources office assessed the materials to set up matched, scheduled interviews.
Downes said that the advantage of prospective teachers going to the job fair is that “they get interviewed on the spot where we can put a name and a face together.” This was especially appealing for one local woman who has been a long-term teacher substitute on the elementary school level. She will earn her certification in April, and is looking for a permanent position, preferably “in town,” she said.
Several others, however, were willing to commute.
One woman from Winchester was “getting back into being a teacher” and admitted that she was “shopping counties” for employment. Another woman, a Fauquier resident, is currently commuting to Culpeper. Although she is applying for a specific vacancy as a guidance counselor, she said that she is looking all over for employment. Fauquier County's teacher salaries are “a little better” than Culpeper's, she reported, but cited other counties as paying as much as $10,000 more for the same position.
A man from North Carolina who drove 300 miles to interview for an administrator position was also looking for more money. Having been a social studies teacher for 18 years, he said that Virginia paid teachers more than his home state. But money was not the only attractive factor which drew him to the job fair. With his online search, he found Fauquier schools to be “progressive and proactive toward education.” He added that it was “a place that recognizes where education should be.”
There didn't seem to be a single theme — compensation, benefits, or locale — that drove interest for employment, and there was a large assortment of candidates from which the school district could choose: local teachers and those from a distance, teachers with long tenures and former teachers returning to their careers. There were even those who had never before taught in a classroom. The candidate pool was enlarged significantly due to the recruitment efforts, and on Saturday, school administrators made employment offers to four candidates in attendance and will offer seven more jobs in the next few days.
Downes said that all candidates' information will be placed in the human resources candidate pool database. As needed, the HR office will send candidate information to a school principal for consideration. The principal then selects someone that fits the school's needs and recommends employment to the Human Resource office, which makes the final offer.
Teacher turnover is a national trend, and according to the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, the “national cost of public school teacher turnover could be over $7.3 billion a year.”
In a pilot study examining the “costs of recruiting, hiring, processing and training teachers,” research showed that 48 percent of all new teachers in the United States leave the profession within five years.
The Alliance for Excellent Education has estimated that nationally, 157,000 teachers, excluding retirees, leave the field of education each year. The organization also surmised that more than 232,000 teachers change schools, often looking for better working conditions and better support systems.
E-mail the reporter: afelts@timespapers.com.
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