District focuses on local crop to find teachers

By Joe Parrino, NEW ERA STAFF WRITER

Teacher recruitment efforts will concentrate on homegrown candidates and better classroom managers, public schools sources say.

It is hoped this change in tactics will improve the district’s chances of keeping the teachers it hires.

Don Ahart, personnel director for Christian County Public Schools, told the Board of Education last Thursday that annual turnover among teachers is about 12 percent.

Ahart also said the minority numbers on the teaching force, about 10 percent, were too low.

“We recognize that minority representation needs to be more,” Ahart said. “Has it improved? Yes, but not enough.” As of December 2006, minorities made up about 41 percent of the student population. Black students account for 34 percent, Hispanics 3 percent, Asians 0.8 percent and others 3 percent.

The recruitment plan was built around the idea that teachers with Christian County roots were more likely to be committed to the district.

“The reality is that we have to do a better job on identifying potential teachers in our area,” said district recruiter Ruth Lynch.