Fort Worth resident Lisa Rodriguez has longed to become a community outreach specialist so she can help families and children who only speak Spanish navigate the school year.
That’s why she joined hundreds of candidates looking for a position with Fort Worth ISD at a recent job fair at the Teaching and Learning Center.
“It’s a lifelong passion to serve the community,” Rodriguez said.
Fort Worth ISD had about 200 teacher vacancies, said Yassmin Lee, Fort Worth ISD executive director for hiring. Over 1,700 people attended the job fair for those vacancies and other positions in the district.
The district offered sign-on incentives, such as a $500 bonus for former Fort Worth ISD students and a $5,000 bonus for being bilingual. The hired teachers were background checked and trained that day, Lee said.
Fort Worth ISD has been working for about six months on streamlining the hiring processes and plans, Lee said. Hired staff should have been ready for the school year by July, Lee said.
“It’s a very big, aggressive goal for the district,” Lee said.
The district has seen an increase in attendance at its job fair from 400 attendees to 1,700 in the past two years because people saw that the district was serious about hiring on the spot, Lee said.
Clarissa Esquivel, a Fort Worth resident, usually finds job postings online, so she was nervous about attending the fair. Esquivel wanted to be an administrative clerk at Daggett Montessori because her children go there.
“I love Fort Worth ISD. They’re doing great, so I just want to be a part of it,” Esquivel said.
Stephanie Hughes went to a similar FWISD job fair 25 years ago looking for employment. Now, as principal of Lily B. Clayton Elementary School, she was at the fair looking to hire someone for their fifth-grade science teacher opening.
“It does seem a little bit overwhelming to candidates, but it works because now I’ve been in the district for 25 years,” Hughes said.
Juan Salinas II is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at juan.salinas@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.