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School districts trying to fill more than just teacher positions


School districts trying to fill more than just teacher positions, SOURCE: ABC 33/40 News{p}{/p}
School districts trying to fill more than just teacher positions, SOURCE: ABC 33/40 News

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Along with looking for teachers, Alabama school districts are in need of support staff--from child nutrition specialists and custodians to bus drivers and classroom aides. Nurses and special education teachers are also highly sought after.

Hundreds of positions for support staff are posted with the Alabama Department of Education.

Those positions include:

  • 112 child nutrition specialists
  • 214 custodians
  • 97 nurses
  • 324 special education teachers

School districts are trying to fill these positions before the upcoming school year.

Tuscaloosa City Schools held a job fair Thursday to fill over 100 positions. The district has 59 teaching positions open, and 46 classified jobs available. Classified jobs include bus aides, teaching aides, nutrition assistants, custodians, and nurses.

SEE MORE: Now hiring: School bus driver shares love for job amid shortage

"The support staff of the school is the nucleus of it," said Jeff Cameron, Assistant Principal at North Ridge Middle School.

North Ridge Middle is looking for a custodian. District-wide there are five open positions.

Deron Cameron, the Executive Director of Human Resources and Operations told ABC 33/40 there are opportunities to try out the position.

"We do run a work for hire with our Kelly Education Services. We contract our substitutes through there. If you want to be sub with Kelly and be custodian, to say hey let me just try it out. That's another great avenue to explore."

The district has seven open positions for child nutrition program assistants.

Dr. Darlene Atkins, principal at West Lawn Middle School, said they are on the market for one of those assistants.

''Sometimes we downplay their importance or significance, but when you think in terms of lunch ladies, they matter. We can't have school without them," said Dr. Atkins.

Although there are positions open, Director Cameron said they've been able to close some of the gaps.

"Typically it's double digits--15 to 17. We've decreased that since January," he explained.

Then there are bus drivers.

Shelby County Schools have 14 openings right now for bus drivers. Jefferson County is hiring several bus aids in addition to 18 bus drivers.

According to Ron Schappacher, the Director of Transportation for Tuscaloosa City Schools, there are 15 open positions. There are also several bus aide positions available.

"Since COVID it seems there's been more come about and less people in the workforce. It's been a little more difficult," said Schappacher. Although difficult, there are signs more people are interested--especially after the district started offering a $1,000 signing bonus for bus drivers.

The school district will also reimburse drivers for getting their CDL and background checks. Bus drivers also get full benefits.

Another vital position that can be hard to fill--school nurses.

"We always need nurses coming out and taking care of our children and their needs," said Director Cameron.

The school district has three school nurse positions and a nurse coordinator position open.

"It is difficult to find school nurses, but if you have an associate's degree, an LPN, or a bachelor's degree, we'd love to have you," said Cameron. "They help children with medication or during a medical emergency with a student or staff member. They are the person who knows the procedures and tells me what I need to do."

The district is prepared to cover the open positions to ensure every school has a nurse at any given time.

"We have school nurses and we have nurses who are over different schools. When a school nurse happens to be out, that nurse supervisor will fill in at that position. So we are never without a school nurse on a particular day at a school," explained Cameron.

Special education teachers and aides are also highly sought after throughout the district.

There are nine special education positions open, with 11 special education aides also needed.

"We term special education teachers and aides, especially special education teachers, hard to fill positions," said Cameron. "We are finding that we need to open up more and more special education teacher openings just because of the needs of our students."

The district realizes it must be highly competitive because there's a smaller pool of qualified candidates.

"They can go anywhere they want to," he said. "It's always been difficult. It's been difficult for us the past three or four years."

To help answer the need, the district has added a $5,000 signing bonus as a recruiting tactic.

"We pay that in August, the month after they get hired with that sign-on bonus. We thought that was one more way to attract candidates to the city school," said Cameron.

Cameron said, although the job fair was Thursday, anyone interested in the available position can find them online and reach out to the Human Resources department.

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