Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. is working to fill 10 teacher vacancies before the Aug. 8 start of school.
The district has hired about 60 new teachers this school year, but still has some positions to fill, including several elementary school and special education openings, said Teresa Heiny, BCSC assistant superintendent for human resources.
Heiny said she is optimistic that all of the openings could be filled by the start of school, but noted that the district might have to rely on substitute teachers or retired teachers to step in temporarily.
“Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of folks apply,” Heiny said, referring to the elementary school teacher openings. “The administrators work hard to get them filled.”
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BCSC has a pool of about 250 substitute teachers, many who have prior substitute teaching experience with the school corporation.
Some of those individuals are serving as substitute teachers in the hopes of finding a full-time position at BCSC, Heiny said.
Substitute teachers also develop working relationships with teachers, which Heiny said benefits the district. A teacher can recommend a particular substitute for his or her classroom to step in, she said.
BCSC Superintendent Jim Roberts said the district is in good shape to start the school year, but said he’s a little leery of saying that too confidently.
Two last-minute teacher resignations resulting from individuals accepting positions at different school districts have added to the challenge, he said.
Special education teaching positions have become harder to fill since there aren’t as many candidates with the needed training, Heiny said.
The district may have to contract with outside companies to provide necessary services such as speech pathologists and occupational therapists for special-needs students, Roberts said. That is not uncommon, he said.
“We have to get creative sometimes,” Roberts said.
A majority of the district’s new teachers this year are right out of college. The others are coming to BCSC with teaching experience from other school districts, Heiny said.
BCSC typically likes to leave a position posting up for five days, but Heiny said the district is speeding up the hiring process if a building administrator finds a good candidate for a teaching position.
School administrators often work with one another to find candidates for positions that need to be filled, she said.
“It’s a pretty collaborative process,” she said.
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For information about staff openings at Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., visit bcsc.k12.in.us.
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