At a time when many businesses in the region and state are announcing layoffs and closures, the Kent School District is in the opposite boat, unable to permanently fill about 30 professional positions within the district.
Around Kent, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists, special-education teachers and other positions are in short supply. The district also is looking for school nurses and math and science teachers.
Though many of the openings are filled through agency hires, the district is looking to put permanent employees into those jobs as soon as possible and is hosting a job fair March 3 in hopes of meeting the right candidates for the jobs.
“We have positions this year and we are looking to hire for the fall,” said Recruitment and Diversity Supervisor Victoria Moreland.
The use of agency hires has been a bone of contention between the district and the Kent Education Association, which represents teachers, for some time.
The union in the past has said the district’s not permanently filling those positions violates their contract and prevents those hires from paying union dues, since workers in those positions work for the agency, not the district.
Filling those positions on a permanent basis has been a union request for some time.
“That’s our goal too,” Moreland said. “When you fill a position with a permanent employee, they have a vested interest in the district.”
Moreland said the biggest problem facing the district is that there is a small pool of professionals certified in those jobs, with every district in the state competing for their attention.
“There’s only so many speech pathologists out there,” she said, adding “And even now in these tough economic times you don’t have many nurses being laid off.
“There’s a supply and demand issue right now,” she said.
Moreland said the district would prefer to pay a permanent hire directly rather than pay an agency because it would save them money, as well as provide more consistency to the students being served by the people in those positions.
“When you find people that want to work here and make that commitment,” Moreland said, “they’re getting to know the community and families.”
Moreland said the district’s biggest need is in speech pathologists. The district presently has 14 agency hires in those positions, though Moreland admits that being able to fill even five of those slots would be a good start.
“That would be wonderful,” she said.
The district hosted a job fair last year, which included classified positions as well as certificated personnel. Moreland said approximately 200 applied for positions and several hires were made. This year, however, due to the district’s budget crisis, few if any hires are expected.
“Of anyone comes in we’ll talk to them, we just don’t have any positions,” Moreland said.
The job fair also will include sessions on interview tips and other job-search related topics.
If you go
The Kent School District job fair is set for 3-7 p.m. March 3 at the District Administration Center, 12033 S.E. 256th St., Kent. For more information, call 253-373-7534 (certificated positions) or 253-373-7206 (classified positions).
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