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Home - Local News Sports Obituaries Editorial Social Archives |
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Local News - April 2002 |
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Lincoln courts teacher prospects By ANDIE LEATHERMAN, LTN Staff Writer April 29, 2002 - Jessica Poole signed on with East Lincoln Middle School Saturday. The math teacher was among several teachers hired by Lincoln County Schools during a recruitment fair held at Lincolnton High School. Teachers, principals, senior administrators and school board members courted Poole and close to 200 other teachers during the morning long event. “It’s great. It’s the best job fair the county has seen,” said Walter Hart, associate superintendent of personnel. With teachers from the baby boomer generation retiring and the number of students expanding, schools across North Carolina are experiencing a teacher shortage. The state is expected to create 9,000 new teaching positions this year to accommodate growth. Approximately 3,000 new teachers will graduate from colleges across the state this spring. School officials estimate 1,000 will seek employment outside the state. “Everything is harder to fill this year than a couple years ago,” Hart said. “I don’t think it’s dissatisfaction with teaching, it’s demographics.” Poole sought out a teaching position in Lincoln County so she and husband Shane could return to his hometown. His job as an engineer has taken the couple across the southeast. Now they want to settle in Lincoln County. Poole first talked with East Middle Principal Diana Healy by phone. Saturday, Healy interviewed Poole and offered her the job. While Poole sought out Lincoln County because of family ties, others teachers are looking at systems across the entire region. When Hart and other administrators attend recruitment fairs across the northeast, they see familiar faces of colleagues from Newton-Conover, Mecklenburg, Salisbury and Cabarrus counties after the same teachers. “That’s why it’s so important we be able to pay a competitive supplement,” said Superintendent Jim Watson. Mitch Eisner, principal of Catawba Springs Elementary, saw eight teachers Saturday who he first met earlier this spring during recruiting trips to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Eisner considers himself lucky to have all the vacancies filled at his school, though he is still collecting résumés, just in case. Principals sometimes do not learn until summer that teachers are leaving. Not all students moving into Lincoln County over the summer will register now. If enough sign up for school during the first 10 days of the academic year, the state will fund another teaching position. For Eisner, competing with the sign-on bonuses offered by other systems can be difficult. Neighboring Mecklenburg County, which also had a teacher recruitment fair Saturday offers just such bonuses. Eisner tells potential hires about the community support they will receive in Lincoln County. Parents who volunteer in the classroom, industry and business partnerships with schools and local businesses that offer discounts to new teachers are all incentives Eisner and other administrators tout. Eisner also shares his own story. A New York native, he moved here 16-years-ago, seeking a good community to raise his own family. “These are the kinds of teachers I want for my children,” he said. Erin Selbe was one of the teachers Eisner met during the Ohio job fair. Selbe, who is certified to teach first- through eighth-grades, and her boyfriend, also an education graduate, have made two trips to Lincolnton. The lack of growth in the northeast is causing Selbe and her peers to look to the south for jobs in education. There was one job opening in a town 45 minutes from her home. Between 75 and 100 people applied for it. “There are no jobs there,” she said. Selbe is impressed with the administrators she has met. The community support and scenic beauty of Lake Norman also appeal to her. Sharon Boyles of Denver came to Saturday’s job fair to see if her accounting degree fit the criteria for lateral entry into teaching. The lateral entry program allows people with some college degrees to begin teaching while they complete education courses. Boyles has worked in banking for 22 years while harboring a secret desire to teach. “All my life I’ve thought about teaching,” she said. Boyles hopes the need for math teachers will be her gateway to the classroom. Secondary math and science teachers and special education instructors are the hardest to find, according to Hart. Watson said he was impressed with the turn out. “I appreciate the team effort it took to pull something like this off.”
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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