Anne Arundel County school officials are trying a new tack in an effort to attract highly sought-after teachers and aides during the midyear recruiting doldrums: a job fair that nobody has to attend.
Through Jan. 30, school officials are accepting applications for a "virtual job fair" on the district's Web site in hopes of hiring more special education teachers and speech, physical and occupational therapists. The postings can be found at www.aacps.org/html/teach/virtjobfair.asp.
Virtual job fairs are intended to mimic the market-like atmosphere of their live counterparts with online applications, job listings and interviews via videoconferencing.
Although the county Web site does not include real-time interaction, it does have job descriptions, contact information for key people and online applications.
The appeal has been a success in recruiting applicants for typically difficult-to-fill positions, said Florie Bozzella, director of human resources for the Anne Arundel County public schools. The school system has received 29 applications at a time of year when teachers are under contract and are not interested in applying, she said.
"It's a very creative way to use an existing resource to promote key jobs that are in high demand," she said.
Since implementing an online application process three years ago, the school system has conducted annual surveys of hundreds of new teachers to determine how well the process is working. Last fall, about half of the approximately 600 new teachers responded, and half said they learned about their initial job opening from the system's Web site, Bozzella said.
"So I thought, `Let's try to use the Web to do some of the work we do,'" she said.
Special-education teachers and aides are always in high demand, but next year there will be an even bigger push to recruit them.
Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell is seeking $3 million in the next fiscal year to expand a special education program that he says has been understaffed for years. The money would pay for 44 special-education teachers, aides, and occupational and physical therapists.
Maxwell says he is hoping the investment in special education will pay dividends in the system's progress under No Child Left Behind. Academic performance among special-needs children has been a problem at many Arundel schools, including Annapolis High, which faces sanctions if it doesn't improve its reading scores among special-education students, minorities and low-income students.
