BY KYLE LUNDBERG
When the Hemet Unified School District’s board room filled with more than 300 jobseekers Monday, May 5, it reminded Superintendent Barry Kayrell of how the district looked many years ago. The district used to be aggressive in hiring teachers, often hosting local and out-ofstate job fairs to attract educators. But economic hardship, budget cuts and ballooning class sizes changed that. Now, with additional money from California’s new Local Control Funding Formula, Hemet Unified is planning to reduce class sizes, opening positions for at least 50 more teachers for the 2014-15 school year. All the district’s schools were represented at Monday’s job fair, hiring for a variety of positions. Administrators and teachers from each campus interviewed candidates, who waited in separate lines for each school, with the goal of working the room and talking to as many schools as possible. LaFaye Platter, the district’s deputy superintendent of human resources, said the fair acts as an open door to potential educators, signaling that the district has the jobs they’re looking for. She said those who aren’t hired at a particular school will be put into a general hiring pool across the district, and also will be offered a spot in the district’s substitute teaching system. A few people received tentative on-the-spot job offers during the job fair. Veronica Guzman, 25, was offered a position teaching English at Hemet High School. She’s finishing her credential program at UC Riverside and has been student teaching at Palm Middle School in Moreno Valley. She said she attended an awards ceremony at Hemet High and made some contacts there who encouraged her to apply for the job fair. She was one of the first applicants to arrive. She said the fair’s atmosphere was relaxed in the beginning, but quickly grew chaotic. “I felt comfortable at first,” she said, “but a little intimidated later on, knowing that so many people would be applying for the same positions.” Heather Schott, a special education teacher at Dartmouth Middle School, was on her school’s interview board. She said the fair was a unique way to meet candidates face-to-face. “It’s amazing because we’re meeting way more people and learning a lot more about their skills,” she said. “To hear about all their backgrounds is amazing.” The fair was so crowded, some job seekers waited in long lines to talk to one or two schools, and did not have time to work the room as intended. At the end of the fair, the district apologized that it was not able to interview everyone, and said it will give preference for any unfilled or additional openings to those who attended the fair and hold valid California teaching credentials. Contact Kyle Lundberg at 951-368-9083 or [email protected]