By Damon Norris
It’s not a secret that teacher recruitment and retention has been an issue at schools across Arizona for the last few years.
While there has been much debate on the reason for the teacher shortage, the truth is, it’s complicated. As a former charter school business leader and now in my role at the Association, I’ve witnessed this crisis firsthand — fielding phone calls, exchanging emails and in meetings with school officials. They are concerned and want to work together to find solutions for this problem.
While many of Arizona’s brightest minds are working to help solve the teacher shortage, the Association has also thrown its hat into the ring. We’ve launched the Arizona Charter Career Center to connect schools with prospective employees. This free benefit for our charter members provides a central place for schools to post jobs, as it feeds to and from job boards like Zip Recruiter and Indeed.com. Prospective employees can apply through their Facebook profile, resume or custom resumes. We also included a resume database within our Career Center for school leaders to search for new candidates.
But we know a job board isn’t enough.
So, we have also partnered with Educational Services Inc (ESI), a recruiting company that attends hundreds of jobs fairs across the nation. Our partnership with ESI will help take the pain and stress out of finding new teachers. ESI is an Arizona-based employee staffing firm that specializes in the recruitment and placement of teachers, administrators and classified staff within educational organizations. By partnering with ESI, schools can save thousands of dollars on travel and job fair expenses and still have access to a large, quality pool of potential candidates.
I hear from teachers and schools almost daily, looking to find the best fit. We believe the new Arizona Charter Career Center will make that connection and help our schools find the quality teachers that students deserve.
Damon Norris is Arizona Charter Schools Association Director of Member and Business Services. Contact him here.
