VIRGINIA BEACH – Keeping a large school district staffed with teachers can be a very demanding task.
Take for example the fact that in the Virginia Beach City Public Schools, 188 teachers retired after the 2017-2018 school year, which put the district to work finding replacements.
“We participate in teacher and career fairs throughout Virginia and surrounding areas, including North Carolina, Maryland, and Washington D.C.,” said Lauren Nolasco, interim director of communications for VBCPS. “In addition to these fairs, we attend local military transition/military dependent fairs, as well as out of state events in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio.”
For the past six years the school also sponsored its own career expo. On average some 1,200 people have attended the expos, seeking jobs in instructional and non-instructional positions.
Nolasco said they also host information sessions for student teachers from colleges and universities across Virginia and also hire from their pool of substitute teachers.
The district also maintains a comprehensive presence on the web, using a wide range of marketing efforts, including social media, search engine marketing, job advertisements, and job search engines.
As of July 26, VBCPS had hired 590 new teachers to fill its open positions, but still has openings in technology education, Spanish immersion, math, and special education – which Nolasco said are traditionally the most difficult positions to fill.
While teacher salaries in Virginia are typically well under the national average, VBCPS salaries are usually higher than the state’s average.
According to data from the National Education Association, the average pay for teachers in Virginia’s 132 school districts during 2017 was $51,049 – ranking it No. 35 of the 50 states. New York was tops at $81,902, while the U.S. average was $59,660.
Nolasco said that as of July 31, the average salary for a VBCPS teacher was $55,358. She said the district hadn’t yet received numbers from the state for 2018-2019.
Recent bills passed by Virginia lawmakers are intended to make finding teachers a little easier for the state’s school districts.
House Bill 1125 aims to make it simpler for in-state teachers to renew their teaching licenses and also for out-of-state teachers to get Virginia teaching licenses.
Senate Bill 103 requires the Virginia Board of Education to provide a one-year license to active duty military spouses who have a teaching license from another state.
Nolasco said both bills should help VBCPS find teachers, but they are still waiting for the changes to be made official by the DOE through their Virginia License Renewal Manual and in the Virginia Administrative Code.
