North Texas school districts are in a hiring blitz as in-person teaching approaches
Aided by federal dollars, North Texas school districts are racing to hire teachers and staff as they prepare for in-person instruction in the fall.
This efforts are a part of a national trend within the education sector.
As employment across the U.S. increases, the month of June saw about 155,000 net jobs gained in public and private local education. School districts are hiring teachers, bus drivers and other staff in preparation for the fall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This employment growth was second only to food and drinking services during the month of June.
Many of these available jobs are coming from new positions created by federal relief funds or positions vacated by people leaving education, said Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association — which serves all Tarrant County school districts, Denton ISD, Weatherford ISD, Plano ISD and more.
Poole said June and July is a time when the most teachers and staff retire or resign, resulting in positions opening. The difficulty of the COVID pandemic has accelerated many of those departures.
“Last year really took it out of teachers and staff,” Poole said. “A lot of people are questioning if they want to continue in education.”
School districts are also creating additional positions as they utilize federal relief funds intended to address COVID-19’s impact.
Fort Worth ISD is looking to hire at least 190 teachers, assistants or support staff as the district tries to reduce class sizes, increase wraparound services and help students who fell behind during the past school year. Most of these positions are being funded by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief federal fund.
Poole said the combination of departures and newly created positions will contribute to a greater shortage of educators than before.
“We are in competition with the whole United States, the state of Texas, but also the Metroplex,” said Karen Molinar, Fort Worth ISD deputy superintendent, during a June 22 board meeting. “... We also want to hire quality and not just quantity.”
Poole said that North Texas is one of the most competitive areas in the state for bringing in teachers, and districts are trying to get creative with their incentives to bring them in, like Fort Worth ISD recently increasing salaries and Irving ISD offering a $1,000 bonus for new hires.
But despite this, he expects the upcoming year to still be a difficult one for educators, and hopes districts provide the pay and support that teachers need as they attempt to make up for the pandemic.
