Urban school districts are collaborating to help solve major issuesāfinding new sources of effective teachers and education-related support staff while providing opportunities for veterans and spouses to continue to serve in their own communities.
Substitutes in classrooms; lack of candidates for other school district support staff jobs — bus drivers, IT, diesel mechanics, security, instructional aide, food service positions; sequestration and draw downs are unexpectedly forcing many with their spouses to leave the military to look for opportunities to work and to continue to serve, joining those who have left voluntarily each year. These are major issues affecting the well-being and the future of our country, said George Ann Rice, spokesperson for Troops to Education.
The week following Veterans Day, 12 large school districts (Anchorage, Dallas, Dayton, Clark County County-Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Jefferson County-Louisville, Miami, Milwaukee, New York City, Washoe County-Reno, San Diego, Tulsa), which are all members of the Council of Great City Schools, are going to become part of the solution, as is Killeen ISD, which includes Fort Hood, Tex. Ā Eight others (Baltimore, East Rouge, Minneapolis, Orange County-Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Portland, San Francisco) are helping with the planning and will be joining in the next joint effort during the week of Memorial Day.
Each will offer a āVeterans and Spouses Career Fairā for veterans, active duty that is completing their commitment within a year, and their spouses.Ā Those with college degrees will be shown how they can enter the classroom as fully contracted teachers within a few short months.Ā Those without college degrees will be shown the wonderful support positions available in each participating district. The districts have been collaborating since March 2016, sharing outreach ideas, career fair setups and logistics, marketing materials and thoughts on how to work with their universities and community colleges to better meet the needs of those from the military and military spouses coming into the field education.
In the near future, other large school districts as well as rural districts will be joining this unique collaboration, totally focused upon finding solutions.
Contact for additional information is: Dr. George Ann Rice [email protected]
702-556-2149 or Dr. Deborah. [email protected]
*The FY 17 NDAA has provisions to change Troops to Teachers to a more inclusive and robust Troops to Education, which would be a public/private partnership including spouses and education-related support staff positions as well as Ā vigorous recruiting, tracking, mentoring, andĀ developing.
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