Double the Teachers, One Third the Jobs

CERRA South Carolina, which stands for the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement, held its 21st annual job fair Monday at the State Fairgrounds. Just 40 percent of the state's school districts attended, and some of those posted no openings. Last year, 64 districts offered jobs, while this year 35 districts offered jobs at the Expo.

Attendees stood in long lines in the hopes of setting up an interview. Only 300 teaching jobs are listed statewide. That is one third the number that were available last year.

One of those job seekers was Deborah Converse, who has been teaching for 34 years as a Special Education teacher. She says it is a job that suits her perfectly.

"I can't think of doing anything else, I absolutely love it. I can see that I'm making a change in the lives of these children," she said.

"I've already gotten one offer today, I still have a few more interviews to go and there is one county that seemed very interested."

Converse traveled to Columbia from Maui, Hawaii, which took her 36 hours with airport delays and travel. She carried an energy drink and made rounds to various interviews. She said the job was worth the trip.

"Many states either have a hiring freeze, I was ready to take a job in California and that froze."

She said South Carolina was one of the only states still hiring.

"I would be going back to Florida, my home state originally, but they are not hiring."

With record-breaking attendance, double last year's, Mychal Frost of CERRA said Converse was one of many who went the distance looking for work from other parts of the country.

"Our preregistration shows that we have registrations from 43 states and over 2000 candidates," he said.

"The majority of the jobs as always we're finding are available in the math, science and special ed. Of those 300 available, about 60 percent are for those three categories."

Converse said, she was hopeful.

"There are openings in South Carolina so a lot of opportunity," she said.

In the last four years, 860 teachers have found jobs through the Expo. The exact data from this year's Expo will come out this fall.

Some job seekers said positions listed as open were filled before they reached a particular district's booth.