SCHOOLS hesitate to hire in midst of outbreak.

The novel coronavirus has forced local school districts to change their approach to hiring for the next academic year.

Interviews typically conducted in person are being done by videoconference. And some districts are holding off hiring for certain positions because of uncertainty created by covid-19.

Dena Ross, chief operating officer for the Bentonville School District, said the district is delaying adding some positions. It is hiring only to replace employees who are leaving and the basic personnel needed to open Grimsley Junior High School this fall.

They are postponing the hiring of a teacher for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the high school level and a science instructional specialist at the elementary level “until we determine whether or not that’s a fiscally wise decision,” Ross said.

The Fayetteville School District is running on a similar approach, said Greg Mones, director of human resources.

“There are a few positions, required by the standards for accreditation, which are in the process of being filled,” Mones wrote in an email. “Other than these few specific positions, Fayetteville Public Schools is pausing all hiring until we can identify the specific impact that the covid-19 pandemic will have on the district.”

The state guarantees school districts will receive a certain amount of money each year per student they have enrolled. That amount this school year is $6,899. It’s scheduled to go up to $7,018 per student next school year, a 1.7% increase.

Uncertainty stems from not knowing how much property tax revenue the schools will get because of the economic downturn, said Roger Hill, assistant superintendent with the Rogers School District.

Certain teacher positions are necessary to meet state standards on class sizes. Other positions Rogers had considered might not make it into next year’s budget.

“What we originally thought we were going to do and what we’re planning on now are two different things,” Hill said.

Jake Haak, Rogers’ chief financial officer, expressed optimism about the district’s finances.

The district normally bases its annual budget on the anticipation

of collecting 90% of assessed taxes, even though the collection rate hasn’t sunk that low since the recession of 2008. Haak said he believes the district will be able to continue using a 90% rate in its budget, as long as the economy’s decline doesn’t exceed that of the last recession.

INTERVIEWS ONLINE

When districts are hiring, they are relying largely on videoconferencing.

Jared Cleveland, the Springdale School District’s deputy superintendent, hired 170 people last year and conducted more interviews than that, he said. This year, those interviews have moved from in-person to the Zoom videoconferencing app.

Cleveland said he’s done video interviews with candidates from outside the state or country but is more comfortable talking to candidates in person.

“It’s something about meeting someone, having a cup of coffee with them, just that personal aspect of it,” he said.

Teachers have to be able to relate to others, a quality that might be easier to identify in person rather than in an online interview, he said. But Cleveland isn’t worried about this year’s hiring process.

“My confidence isn’t shaken at all,” he said. “We are blessed to have wonderful candidates.”

Springdale, the state’s largest school district with more than 22,000 students, typically hires about 150 employees a year, Cleveland said. He expects to hire an additional 20 or so employees beyond that to fill space opening at the Tyson

School of Innovation. A second phase of construction is scheduled for completion later this year.

Predicting enrollment changes for the next school year during the spring is difficult even in a typical year, but there’s less certainty when all families have been forced into some form of virtual education, he said.

“You don’t know if parents will say, ‘This online thing is pretty good,’” he said. “I hope we have more students next year. But if you hire on a hope, you can sure get in trouble financially.”

Arkansas has two public, virtual charter schools that are free and open to students from across the state. The state also permits anyone who wants to home-school their children to do so.

Reba Holmes, superintendent of the Prairie Grove School District, said administrators recently interviewed a person for an assistant basketball coach position through the Google Meet application.

“Although it’s not a handshake and a hello, everything else is the same,” Holmes said. “We’re trying to keep everything that we can rolling as usual.”

STILL JOBS OUT THERE

Julianna Tidwell is about to graduate from the University of Arkansas with a master’s degree in teaching, concentrating on secondary English language arts. She is checking job application portals at school districts, requesting letters of recommendation and preparing her portfolio.

Tidwell, 23, said there is definitely a feeling of uncertainty, but she still sees schools pushing out advertisements for jobs, which raises her confidence.

She has been working with a mentor teacher at Springdale High School since January. Her work has extended into the in-person instruction. Tidwell updated Google Classroom and made tutorials showing students how to send in assignments, she said.

“I do want to become wellversed in a lot of those technologies so I can think how I would structure my lessons and my teaching if I have to teach virtually,” she said.

Spring is the time of the year for teacher job fairs, where school districts find some of their candidates. Bentonville had plans to attend three job fairs — two in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma — that were canceled, Ross said.

“Those face-to-face interactions are generally great opportunities for us to meet recent or upcoming grads, and we’re disappointed to miss those. So far, we are still receiving a good number of applications,” she said.

Jody Wiggins, superintendent of the Siloam Springs School District, said his district usually attends six to eight job fairs that have been canceled this year, but he’s not worried.

“We don’t normally have a hard time getting applicants, except for a few specific types of jobs,” he said. “We don’t usually hire a large percentage of our new hires from those job fairs.”

Dave Perozek can be reached at dperozek@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWADaveP.