Johnston County School officials are working to fill a number of vacancies before the start of the traditional calendar school year on August 29th.
Brian Vetrano, Chief Personnel Officer for Johnston County Schools, updated the school board on the hiring process Tuesday.
A total of 207 certified employees have been hired for the 2016-17 school years. An additional 131 transfers have been approved. This includes teachers and support staff moving to another school or another department. Another 86 internal transfers have also been approved. This includes teachers changing positions with a school or changing the grade level they teach.
Forty-six new classified employees have been hired. Another 60 transfers were approved.
Overall, 253 new hires have been made.
As of Tuesday, Vetrano said 69 positions were still vacant but officials were working to fill those positions as soon as possible. The number of overall vacancies is down this year.
Two year round schools recently opened. West Smithfield Elementary opened with no vacancies and South Smithfield opened with only one, Vetrano told school board members.
In the event of teaching vacancies at the start of school August 29th, principals will work with retired teachers on the substitute list to make sure qualified individuals are in those classrooms on day one.
School Board Chairman Larry Strickland asked Vetrano if a recent one percent increase in teacher supplements was helping maintain employees. Vetrano replied that he has seen a recent increase in resignations from teachers going to work with Wake County Schools after they recently lifted a hiring freeze. He added that while JCS may never match Wake County, they were positioning themselves to compete with other surrounding counties.
