SCS board to vote on teacher hiring process

Shelby County School Board members are expected to vote next week on whether to continue to use an outside organization to hire and retain its teachers.

The district currently uses TNTP, formerly The New Teacher Project, a national organization that works with districts to place new teachers in schools.  The contract, worth about $1.75 million, is up for renewal.

Through the partnership, administrators said it only takes an average of 12 days to fill teacher vacancies.  Before, it could take as much as 110 days to replace a teacher.

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said that teachers are placed in schools that they want to be in.

“Research supports that is important in retaining teachers,” he said.

Board chairman Kevin Woods asked Hopson if Shelby County Schools would be making an effort to make teacher recruitment an in-house effort instead of using TNTP.

“We’ve essentially outsourced teacher recruitment and there are plans to bring that back in-house,” said Hopson.

He said  Shelby County Schools recently hired a director of human capital and plans to have an entire team that’s focused on the issue.

Hopson said he’s building a team that will focus on the issue.