Oklahoma City Public Schools Looking To Hire Dozens Of Teachers

Oklahoma City Public Schools is trying to rent dozens of classroom lecturers and quite a few different positions inside the district. 

OKCPS held a job honest Tuesday afternoon at the Clara Luper Center for Educational Services. 

“The district is looking to hire 77 certified positions, including 44 classroom teachers,” mentioned Amber Muse, director of staffing at OKCPS.  

The district has an enrollment of greater than 33,000 college students. 

“We have increased our student population so a lot of the additional positions that we’re looking for is because we have so many kids actually come back to the district,” mentioned Muse. “Because of, you know, the return from COVID and things like that, our classroom sizes are actually smaller, which is why we’re looking for teachers. That way, we can keep our student population smaller in the classrooms with things going on. Also, with the semester coming to an end, people retire, people change career paths or get promoted.” 

Filling instructing positions is a precedence throughout Oklahoma. According to an annual survey by the Oklahoma State School Board Association (OSSBA), there were 1,019 teaching vacancies when this school year began. That was the very best quantity within the survey’s nine-year historical past. 

“As of this week, we’re now at 4,100 emergency teacher certificates. That’s a record,” mentioned Shawn Hime, government director, of the OSSBA. 

Himes mentioned the OSSBA is working with districts to seek out options to deal with the instructor scarcity, similar to sharing finest practices on recruitment and retention. 

“Some school districts have mortgage incentives with local banks. They have free day care for teachers’ children. They have free memberships or low-cost memberships to local fitness clubs,” Himes defined. 

Meanwhile, OKCPS is providing quite a lot of its personal incentives to draw candidates. 

“Our starting pay, currently right now, is one of the highest. It’s $42,000,” mentioned Muse. “In addition to that, we pay 7% into instructor’s retirement, the $615.90 per month for health benefits. But additionally, now we have a number of skilled improvement that we pay for.” 

People who couldn’t attend Tuesday’s job honest can apply for positions on-line by clicking here. As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been 249 licensed and non-certified positions listed.