Bay Area schools in a hiring frenzy just days before students return to class - Inside Bay Area:
Bay Area schools in a hiring frenzy just days before students return to class
As students start heading back to school -- some as early as this week -- many Bay Area school districts are scrambling to make sure classrooms are complete with one essential thing: a teacher.
"It has definitely been a challenge recruiting teachers," said Jorge Quintana, spokesman for San Jose Unified School District, whose schools had 12 teacher openings late last week, just days before the first day of class this Wednesday.
The hiring frenzy is on across the Golden State. The East Side Union High School District in San Jose, where school starts Tuesday, signed about three contracts a day last week. Oakland Unified has taken to social media and enlisted its teachers as informal recruiters. San Ramon Valley Unified's newspaper ad Aug. 2 blared "Now Hiring!" in 13 categories, and also called for substitutes -- a dire need everywhere -- starting in San Ramon at $110 a day.
A convergence of factors has driven up job openings and cut into applicant ranks. Baby-boomer teachers are retiring, others are moving out of the area or finding better jobs, and an infusion of state funds has opened up more jobs as districts reduce class sizes and restore positions. All this while credential programs are turning our far fewer teacher candidates.
"It's the perfect storm," said Chief Talent Officer Brigitte Marshall of Oakland Unified. And the full-force gale is yet to hit.
"Without other adjustments being made, it's going to progressively get worse in two to three years," said Josh Michaels, who manages EdJoin, the de facto electronic job posting bulletin board for K-12 jobs in California.
The site had more than 8,400 teaching jobs in California public school districts still listed as of Friday. In the past 12 months, it posted nearly 49,000 teaching jobs, Michaels said. That compares with almost 27,700 posted in the same period two years ago.
Still, officials in Bay Area districts insist a qualified teacher will greet students in every class on opening day.
Many school districts are still seeking applicants, including Pittsburg Unified, which had about 25 openings -- out of 542 teaching positions -- late last week, the most it's had in four years at this point.
