Columbia, SC (WLTX) As students and parents get ready for the new school year, teachers and their districts have to get ready as well.
At the Lexington County School District No. 2, they're looking to hire five more teachers.
“Most of our openings are in special ed[ucation] and foreign language, which are two of the areas the South Carolina Department of Education deems as critical needs areas, and those are ours as well,” said Dawn Kujawa, the district’s public information officer.
At the end of the last school year they knew they needed to hire 145 people, mostly teachers, and now with just a few weeks to go, they're down to five.
Usual year-to-year turnover, combined with the state-wide teacher and employee retention incentive program ending, caused a higher number than usual of teachers leaving this summer, Kujawa told WLTX.
The TERI program used to allow retired educators to keep working.
So, Kujawa said they had to create new incentives and try some new recruitment strategies.
“$2,500 hiring bonus for those critical needs areas I was talking about, special ed and foreign language being two of those areas. We expanded our recruitment efforts. We normally, and still do rely most on South Carolina colleges and South Carolina locations for our hiring, but we also attended several out of state fairs,” Kujawa said Monday at the district office.
Lexington Two officials visited hiring fairs in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan this year in an effort to attract teachers to the Palmetto State.
Usually, Kujawa said they only go to one or to hiring fairs in neighboring states like Georgia.
Lexington Two isn’t alone in trying new things and looking to hire.
Richland Two told WLTX it had 38 positions to fill.
“The impact of TERI has been significant for Richland Two with the end of TERI impacting 38 teachers. Richland Two stepped our recruitment efforts well before the end of TERI. The district hosted monthly recruitment fairs in addition to some alternative certification information sessions, and we have attended fairs in North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Richland Two has hired 26 international teachers for this school year,” said Richland Two spokeswoman Libby Roof.
Lexington Five also has four full-time and one part-time positions open.
Hannah Rohrer is entering her fifth year of teaching and is a new teacher mentor. She said the current situation is not ideal but can benefit teachers looking for work.
“When I hear that there's not a lot of people that are looking to get into this field I find it devastating because it's so rewarding, but I did know I was going to be set, which is something that's nice cause you do get to choose where you want to go, where it's not just finding a job,” Rohrer said.
Lexington Three and Lexington Four said they had no teaching openings for this school year.