Everybody wants a teacher

Broward educators get postcards from Palm Beach

School districts have been looking in new places to find teachers, and in Palm Beach County, that includes poaching from Broward County schools.

Broward teachers received postcards in the mail this year telling them “Palm Beach County provides the HIGHEST teacher salary in South Florida,” as well as affordable health insurance and opportunities for career growth.

As school districts try to cut the number of vacant positions, they’ve also started recruiting earlier, in more places and are encouraging substitutes and aides to get certified.

“We’re trying to think differently about how to attract teachers. The traditional ways don't work,” said Gonzalo La Cava, chief human resources officer for Palm Beach County schools.

The efforts seem to beworking; fewer South Florida students are attending classes without a permanent teacher. Palm Beach County has 156 vacancies, down from 250 last year. Broward County has about 150 vacancies, down from 180 a year ago. Miami-Dade County officials say they have about 85 vacancies, compared to149 a year ago.

Local districts have become concerned in recent years as more teachers have left the profession, while fewer students are graduating with education degrees.

Palm Beach County started

recruiting for this year’s teachers in November, several months earlier than in the past, La Cava said. Many education majors were offered contracts months before they graduated. And he said the district got a “huge return” by mailing postcards to teachers both in Broward and Martin Counties, encouraging them to work in Palm Beach County.

“We got a lot of phone calls from people in Broward County,” La Cava said.

Whether that translated into many actual hires is less clear. A review of district records shows at least 38 Broward teachers moved to Palm Beach County this school year, slightly more than in 2016. But several teachers said they moved solely for family reasons. Only four teachers moved from Palm Beach to Broward.

Denise Hilton had worked in Broward County for 28 years and had no plans to leave Embassy Creek Elementary in Cooper City until her husband got a job transfer to Palm Beach County. So they moved from Hollywood to Wellington, and she now teaches at nearby Panther Run Elementary.

“But at the end of the year luncheon at Embassy Creek, all the teachers were asking if I gave their names to Palm Beach County,” Hilton said. “They had all received postcards that they were holding up. There were about 30 or 40 of them.”

Sue Rockelman, who oversees teacher recruiting in Broward County, said she doesn't think Palm Beach County persuaded many teachers. She said resignations were about the same last year as past years.

“For our teachers who have already settled here and made a commitment with their kids, they're not going to leave because they got a postcard,” she said.“We have competitive salaries and a better benefit package, so it wasn't a concern.”

Rockelman said the district tried some new recruiting approaches and is actually ahead of where it was last year in staffing. Instead of holding job fairs in stuffy conference centers, they went out to schools to attract prospective teachers who lived in the neighborhoods and wanted to see first-hand what happens in classrooms, she said.

The district has been posting on social media to attract job seekers with college degrees but no background in education. The district and local colleges have programs to help them get certified. She said the district also got an invitation from the Consulate of Spain to travel to the country to recruit teachers. Rockelman said 11 were hired with visas that will allow them to stay three years.

The school district received a grant this year to help teacher’s aides at some high-poverty schools receive teaching degrees from Bro ward College, which officials hope eventually will help fill teacher vacancies.

Miami-Dade school officials say their aggressive recruiting efforts have led to the lowest number of vacancies in recent history at this time of year. They’ve been attending more job fairs and increased their social media presence

“We continue to strengthen partnerships with our local colleges and universities, working with both their education majors, aswell as targeting non-education majors to promote teaching as a career option," the district said.