300 Applicants Attend Teacher Recruiting Fair

Intent on fighting a teacher shortage, nearly two dozen Stanislaus County school districts have organized a nationwide recruitment drive that has brought hundreds of applicants from across the country this weekend.

The county Department of Education received calls from nearly 300 teachers who planned to attend and resumes from 350 more who could not come in person.

“This place has been like a travel agency,” said Byron Gavrilis, the department’s personnel administrator. “It was like a contest out there on who was going to get the call from the longest distance.”

Instructors from New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, Hawaii, Canada and nearly all other Western states committed themselves to coming.

Signs of early success prompted officials from dozens of other districts to try to get in on the employment fair, but they were disappointed.

“Some got angry when I said no,” Gavrilis said. “So we hurt some feelings.”

Administrators with authority to hire were interviewing applicants Saturday, hoping to fill about 200 vacancies expected this fall.

First-year teachers were on hand to give the job applicants their impressions of their districts, and Chamber of Commerce officials described the area as a clean, inexpensive, family oriented place to relocate.

The county office placed $1,600 worth of newspaper advertising in cities such as Buffalo, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit to get the program going. Gavrilis targeted cities with recent layoffs or word of recent teacher unrest.

The county had to deal with a glut of teachers a few years ago as enrollment declined, but the situation changed rapidly.