In the final days before the start of another school year, some Johnson County schools are scrambling to fill various vacancies.
Late resignations coupled with teachers and administrators making last-minute decisions to relocate with their families are annual occurrences at schools, and job candidates are limited as many educators already have jobs by the time July rolls around.
At Edinburgh Community Schools, administrators had to move a teacher to a new subject area, name a new elementary school principal and find a new special education director before today, when students started classes.
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Edinburgh administrators made those hires late last week after selecting candidates who weren’t hired from other candidate pools. The exception was Jason Schoettmer, who previously taught at Edinburgh Elementary School and wanted to return to the school, Superintendent Doug Arnold said.
After three years as an assistant principal at Edinburgh High School, he was named the elementary school’s new principal.
“It’s his dream job, quite honestly. He’s a quality individual, hard-working, accountable and cares a lot about kids. You put those things together and you have a winning combination,” Arnold said.
Edinburgh schools also replaced a middle school English teacher who will teach Spanish at Edinburgh High School. The Spanish teacher resigned, making the transfer necessary. In addition, the district named Matt Day, who had previous experience as a middle school principal in Alexandria and Jasper, its new special education director and dean of students.
While top administrators interview administrative candidates like Day, school principals interview their building’s teaching candidates and make a recommendation to the superintendent. Final approval comes from the district’s school board, which during regular board meetings will approve a personnel report, detailing resignations, terminations, position transfers and new hires.
When people vacate their positions right before a school year starts, the hiring process is often condensed, as was the case at Indian Creek Schools, where a hiring process that usually takes an entire work week needed to be shortened to one or two days due to time constraints, Assistant Superintendent Andy Cline said.
“We do our due diligence with the administrators and the committee when they review applicants’ information, then schedule interviews and have second interviews before they make final decisions,” Cline said.
“We make background checks. We can normally work over the course of four to five days, but toward the end of the school year it may be a 24- to 48-hour turnover. (Last week), we interviewed candidates for positions and the building administrators narrowed down the candidates and began immediately doing reference and background checks.”
When Cline was a high school principal at another school outside the district, he remembers working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. trying to fill all the vacant positions and get his preferred candidates to accept the job offer in as little as one day, he said.
Indian Creek was able to fill all its vacancies, as was Greenwood Community Schools, which just filled a high school Spanish and fifth-grade teaching position at Southwest Elementary School, Superintendent Kent DeKoninck said.
“When looking at last-minute hires, hopefully you have strong contacts with other districts, or have applicants who are qualified but didn’t get a position,” DeKoninck said. “A lot of times, if there’s a strong relationship with colleagues in other districts, that will help you out. Sometimes you get lucky and a candidate has moved to the area because of spouse relocation or family. They show up in July and need a job.”
Franklin Community Schools is still finalizing its new hires for the new school year. Franklin students don’t return to the classroom until Aug. 7, later than any other school district in Johnson County. An elementary school teaching position and a high school special education position are the last two jobs that need to be filled, Superintendent David Clendening said.
“The applicant pool is probably not as big as it would be in March,” Clendening said. “We would have the same structures. We would look at previous applicants we interviewed but didn’t get that job or anyone that applied recently.”
Franklin administrators use the Frontline Education internet resource to closely monitor new applications as they come in, he said.
Clark-Pleasant Community Schools had to fill last-minute vacancies in middle school math and high school business. The process of filling those positions takes a week to 10 days because of background checks, new teacher orientation and interviews, Assistant Superintendent John Schilawski said.
Clark-Pleasant hired the high school business teacher, but is still in the process of finding the middle school math teacher. In the meantime, a certified math teacher will teach middle school math until the district can fill that position permanently, he said.
Center Grove Community Schools, which starts back on Aug. 6, still needs to fill four full-time teaching positions and a special education position, according to its website. Center Grove’s human resources department is working with each school’s administrators to fill those vacancies, spokesperson Stacy Conrad said.
Those vacancies were caused by a combination of resignations, transfers and new positions that were added because of enrollment growth, Assistant Superintendent Jason Taylor said.
The most difficult positions to fill have been middle school Spanish and special education, he said. Both require specialized individuals, narrowing the list of potential candidates. For example, Spanish teachers often want to teach higher level Spanish in high school, rather than introductory Spanish in middle school, he said.
If the positions remain unfilled when school starts on Tuesday, Center Grove schools will use substitute teachers until it fills them, Taylor said.
“We don’t want to make it a rushed decision,” Taylor said.
“We’re looking for an employee to be here for years, not just someone to be here one year. It takes time (to find) a good quality candidate.”
