CHCCS to hold career fair at Chapel Hill High School to help mitigate staff shortages

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is looking to fill dozens of vacant job positions before the next school year begins.

On Saturday, March 25, CHCCS will host a job fair at Chapel Hill High School from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

The fair is an opportunity for external applicants to interact with various department leaders and school leaders to learn about vacancies for the next school year. CHCCS's most "sought-after" positions include substitute teachers, teaching assistants, instructional technology personnel and bus drivers.

Ashauna Harris, the senior executive director of employee recruitment, learning and retention for CHCCS said there will also be opportunities for on-the-spot interviews and early contracts at the career fair. 

“We want to make sure that we showcase what we offer because we do believe that we have a very unique community, and we want people to be able to see that,” Harris said. “And this is our first face-to-face career fair since COVID, so we are super excited.”

She said the education field struggled after the pandemic and that it is more difficult to find applicants.

“It really is almost any position that a school district would offer, which runs the gamut,” Harris said. “And so we would like for everyone to be able to attend and that's why it's such a wide-reaching career fair.”

Tammie Eddins, the director of elementary humanities for CHCCS, said the fair is a place where candidates can learn about the culture of the district. 

“So, it's kind of the first look into our amazing and wonderful district,” Eddins said. “So it would be a place for beginning teachers and or new staff to just get to know and understand the feel of our district and our goals." 

André Stewart, the chief operations officer for CHCCS, said the director of transportation for CHCCS, Thaddeus Alston, will be there to recruit more bus drivers. Stewart said there has been a bus driver shortage in the district since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Individuals chose to take different paths after COVID hit and it's been felt nationwide, but especially in our schools and transportation,” Stewart said.

Stewart said that before the pandemic, CHCCS drove 74 bus routes with 64 bus drivers. After the pandemic, he said, CHCCS has had to condense and combine routes. 

Currently, CHCCS runs about 55 routes, but he said there have been as few as 38 bus drivers this semester. 

“This career fair is really important to us as we are building some momentum to add drivers to the fleet,” Stewart said. “It's important that we continue to add high-quality personnel to our transportation division to build up our numbers to ensure that we're not having to make double runs and triple runs for our students.”

Noa Stuchiner, the director of elementary math and science at CHCCS, said she found her first CHCCS job at a career fair 21 years ago.

“It was an amazing opportunity directly to meet the principal and a team of the school,” Stuchiner said. 

She said CHCCS needs more math teachers, and that typically, math and science positions are the most difficult to fill. 

“We need people who will allow students to explore, collaborate, share, talk about their mathematical practices and talk about the process of thinking and learning in the classroom,” Stuchiner said.

@ellaaluise

@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com