GREENSBORO, N.C. — Guilford County Schools still has dozens of positions to fill. They're holding an 'on-the-spot' hiring fair, Wednesday. The district said they are in need of teaching assistants.
With the need for more staff, the Guilford County School Board met Tuesday and discussed approving class size waivers.
The waivers allow the school to have a maximum of two more students in a classroom than the maximum capacity set by the state.
Most recently, seven elementary schools experienced an unanticipated increase in students.
Guilford County Chief of Schools, Marshall Matson, said approving the waivers is a normal process and it helps with the current teacher vacancies the district and other schools nationwide are facing.
"We have to stay under a certain cap and when we just go a little bit above that cap, we have a workaround so that we don't have to hire more teachers for one student or two students more in the classroom," said Matson. "It was [pretty] standard operating procedure to get a waiver before we invest in another teacher and break up classes."
Matson said the district will later determine if another position is needed.
If you go to Guilford County Schools job listings, that's where you'll see dozens of open positions.
Some that stand out are the 45 openings for Maintenance/Operation/Facility workers, 63 openings for Nutrition and Food Services, dozens of needs for specified licensed teachers, and one that tops the list is Teacher Assistants and Classroom Support jobs. The website shows roughly 70 open positions.
When WFMY News asked about the vacancies for Teacher Assistants, the district said about 43 openings. It's why Guilford County Schools Recruitment Director, Alan Hooker, said they are holding an 'on-the-spot' hiring fair tomorrow afternoon.
"It helps to cut down on the ratio of adults that's working with kids and would really help teachers sometimes if they need to do a special pull out or if they need to get students over to another section or do another element of learning or reiterate other things, teachers assistants help with that," said Hooker.
There are two hiring events on Wednesday, November 16th. The first one is from noon to 2 p.m. and the second is from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. It's in the GCS Board Room at 712 N. Eugene Street, Greensboro.
The district is looking for candidates to join its teaching assistant staff.
GCS is holding a job fair for people interested in careers in education. People can learn about the district's pay and benefits. They will also have the opportunity to interview for teaching assistant positions and be hired on the spot.
Applicants are encouraged to bring a copy of their transcript showing 48 semester hours of completed higher education courses or evidence of the Workkeys exam plus six semester hours.
Interested applicants who don't have the items above or need to take the Workkeys test are still encouraged to attend.