Teachers crowd educator job fair

COLUMBIA — Hundreds of people packed into South Carolina's annual teachers' job fair Monday as laid-off teachers, recent college graduates and others trying to relocate from across the nation competed for limited classroom openings.

Organizers called the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement's 21st annual job fair the most crowded in memory. In all, the event drew about 1,300 teacher-hopefuls, including nearly 700 who had pre-registered in hopes of setting up an interview in advance, said Mychal Frost, the center's spokesman.

They were vying for a shrinking number of positions as districts struggling with budget cuts have laid off teachers and halted hiring. "When I first pulled up, I was shocked," said Brandon Galbraith, 22, as he waited for district booths to open in an elbow-to-elbow crowd. The Beaufort native graduated last month from Winthrop University with a degree to teach social studies, a field with few openings.

Teachers of special education, math and science had much better odds, with nearly half the available jobs being in those traditionally hard-to-fill areas.

As of last week, there were 300 teacher jobs listed statewide. Fewer were available Monday, with just 40 percent of the state's 85 school districts attending. Some of those had no openings, but officials said they were there to collect resumes for future prospects. Districts had plenty of candidates to pick from, collecting stacks of resumes several inches thick. That compares with 75 percent of districts attending last year, with 900 openings.

Slim prospects may have discouraged some from making the drive. More than 2,000 people from 43 states had signed up in advance — nearly double those pre-registering last year. A third of those showed up.

Charleston County and Dorchester 4 school districts attended the job fair but neither Berkeley County nor Dorchester 2 did.

Recruiters from Charleston County, the second biggest school district in the state, collected resumes from teachers of all backgrounds but interviewed those who teach their hardest-to-fill positions: math, science, special education and Spanish.

The district already offered contracts to those who teach these subjects, but it still has openings in those areas that it needs to fill, said Bill Briggman, director of the district's teacher employment office.

The district will close five schools next year, and about 100 first-year teachers in Charleston don't know whether they'll have jobs. Officials hope to rehire those teachers, and Briggman said his goal was to begin working with them next week.