School District 11 hiring fair this week hoping to alleviate teacher and staffing shortage

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - This week, District 11 is ramping up its efforts to alleviate the ongoing staffing shortage with school starting back up in just a couple of weeks.

School District 11 Chief Communications Officer Devra Ashby says the demand for teachers is high this time of year. But in the Colorado Springs area, they have a greater need for food and nutrition services employees as well as bus drivers in their transportation department.

"With a little bit more of a military type of town, we've noticed we get folks in who fill those positions throughout the year," said Ashby. "Whereas with teaching positions, we really need them at the beginning of the year. We have about 129 teaching vacancies right now, that's about 10% of our teacher workforce."

There are multiple hiring events Monday, August 1, and Tuesday, August 2, this week for a wide variety of positions at multiple locations. There are two hiring events on August 1 from 2-5 p.m. The event for Southeast Area schools is at Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy and the event for Central Area schools is at Mann Middle School. Tuesday, August 2 there are also two hiring events from 2-5 p.m. The event for West Area schools will be at Holmes Middle School and the event for the Northeast area will be at Doherty High School.

HR representatives from District 11 actively attend hiring fairs around the country to try to lure prospective teachers to Colorado Springs. School District Officials say the benefit plan and pay offered is unmatched compared to other areas.

These local hiring events this week are the District's last-ditch effort to hire with the school year starting back up in a couple of weeks on August 16.

"It is beneficial to have an open fair and on-the-spot hiring because they'll walk away with an offer and then they'll receive their $2,500 signing bonus once they begin employment with the District," said Ashby. "We've had a lot of success from these fairs before in the past."

Betty Gardner is a former Preschool teacher who attended a hiring event Monday. She says she wants to sign on as a teacher with District 11.

"My daughter has worked for District 11 for five years now and has had nothing but great things to say about it," said Gardner. "She's a bus driver and I would be more in the educational field. But I have really enjoyed all the people in District 11 with my interactions with them."

Anyone who is interested in any position with the District is encouraged to come to one of the events and bring their resume as well as some contacts so they can verify their credentials on the spot.

"We're shaping the future and I really would love to have a hand in that," said Gardner.

The teacher shortage has been an ongoing issue since before the pandemic began. School officials say they have been tracking data that shows fewer and fewer college students going into education. But Covid-19 just made the situation much worse with the isolation and closure of schools.

District 11 works proactively to recruit teachers at the college level.

"We have a good working relationship with all the higher education institutions here locally, USSC, Pike's Peak, Colorado College. We have worked with them on fast-tracking our student teacher placements and putting those people into the classrooms as soon as possible, as soon as they're ready. So we can capture them and steal them away as soon as they graduate. That has helped with some of the teacher shortage."

District 11 also has a plan to spark interest in a career in education with high school students.

"We have a grow your own type of program, it's a career in technical education program here in the District where students can earn college credits while they're still in high school. They can graduate and be ready to be teachers' aids upon graduation. So we put those early childhood education students into the classrooms, and we place them in internship programs. But they're not licensed teachers so we can't put them into the classroom until they have that license."

As a backup, District 11 plans on bringing on some long-term substitute teachers and reaching out to retired teachers in the area to help bridge the gap.

To apply to work at Colorado Springs School District 11, click here.