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E-mail StoryDistricts still recruiting despite proposed education funding cut
| Sunday, Mar 16 2008 1:16 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Mar 17 2008 7:10 AM
Being a teacher without a job may not be the best situation to be in right now — not with state budget cuts looming and news of teacher layoffs crowding the headlines.
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Layoff watch
- The Fruitvale School District board March 11 voted unanimously to notify about 21 employees they may not have jobs next year. Staffing reductions have more to do with declining enrollment than the budget crisis, Superintendent Carl Olsen said.
- The Kern High School District decided March 10 to notify 38 teachers that they may not have jobs next year.
- The Bakersfield City School District announced March 10 it will not lay off teachers next year because it expects enough employees to retire or leave the district.
- The Rosedale Union School District on March 5 presented to its board an alternative plan for cutting $2.1 million from next year’s budget that would save 14 jobs. Rosedale earlier proposed eliminating 34 jobs and class size reduction programs for kindergarten and third grade.
Photos:
Valorie Brown, fills out job applications for teaching positions, Saturday, during the job fair for teachers looking for positions this fall.
So it wasn’t surprising to see hundreds of new and veteran teachers dressed in their classroom best at the annual Kern County Teacher Job Fair held Saturday at University Square in downtown Bakersfield.
“It’s kind of scary right now,” said Brandi Huggins, 34, who left teaching after eight-and-a-half years to pursue a passion working with autistic kids.
Unexpected circumstances and financial pressures are pushing Huggins back into teaching, she said, but the uncertainty of the job climate is unsettling.
“Teaching is what my degree is in,” she said. “So to find that there might not be enough jobs is a little scary.”
More than 30 Kern County school districts were represented at the half-day job fair, some from as far away as Ridgecrest and others as close as metro Bakersfield.
Tiny Blake Elementary School District in Woody was recruiting for a teacher/principal to educate its six students, while the 37,000-student Kern High School District was at the event trolling for math and English instructors.
Ironically, the huge high school district must continue to recruit for specific niches even as it considers eliminating as many as 90 teaching positions.
“We’re looking for math and English only,” said KHSD Personnel Director Cathie Thompson.
A proposed $4.4 billion education funding cut statewide has many districts considering layoffs. But teachers who specialize in math, science, special education and, in some cases, language arts are still in demand at many schools.
A large poster at the table for Shafter’s Richland School District advertised a $10,000 signing bonus for credentialed, single-subject teachers who specialize in math, science and language arts.
Assistant Principal Jason Hutchison said the district’s leadership, through forward-looking anticipation of fiscal downturns, has been able to avoid the big cuts and layoffs other districts have suffered.
“This has exceeded my expectations,” he said of the job fair and its resume-carrying applicants.
“Not only have we seen a lot of teacher candidates,” he added, “but they’ve been of really high quality.”
As 21-year-old Brandy Kofoed stood in line to speak with representatives of Standard School District, the experienced substitute teacher said she remains optimistic that she will find her first full-time position.
“There’s something to love about every school district,” she said.
And she’s hungry enough to go just about anywhere.