Maya McFadden Photos
Ahmad Ward, Morgan Brown, Mike Nice, Latoya Smith at job fair.
Aspiring teachers learned of opportunities in New Haven classrooms, as New Haven’s schools seek to fill 100 vacant classroom positions by teaming up with local colleges and universities to help more educators gain teacher certification.
Hundreds of non-certified educators attended a New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) recruitment fair held this past Thursday evening at Hillhouse High School’s Floyd Little Athletic Center as part of that effort.
Dozens of those non-certified teachers are currently working towards getting their master’s and/or teaching certification over the next year through the district’s newly established certification partnerships.
Maya McFadden Photo
Superintendent Iline Tracey.
Elm City Montessori School job openings.
Superintendent Iline Tracey welcomed hundreds of New Haveners to the fair, reminding them of the district’s vision to “make New Haven Public Schools one of the best districts in the nation” by proving opportunities to students.
Currently the district is staffed with 4,000 employees and has classroom vacancies throughout its 40 schools, reflecting a nationwide labor shortage.
Click here to see open positions for NHPS.
Lisa Mack and Kanicka Ingram-Mann.
Event organizers Kanicka Ingram-Mann and Lisa Mack of the district’s Human Resources & Labor Relations departments put together the fair to get the word out to New Haveners that NHPS is an “employer of choice.”
In addition to joining several other job fairs around the state the district’s recruitment efforts also include offering current paraprofessionals and non-certified educators with opportunities to get their master’s degree and certified. The programs were funded with the district’s pandemic-relief funds. The district is partnering with Quinnipiac University, SCSU, and Relay Graduate School of Education, to offer certification programs for current staff and those interested in joining the teaching profession and offer scholarship opportunities.
The partnerships also offer Alternate Route to Certification (ARC) and Alternate Route to Certification for Teachers of English Learners (ARCTEL). A future partner for 2022 – 2023 is Grand Canyon University.
District departments like the Office of Youth, Family & Community, the Office of Early Childhood, and Office of Special Education also set up booths at the fair to advertise position openings for speech pathologists, counselors, behavioral specialists, and truancy officers.
Chief of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Gemma Joseph Lumpkin joined the fair to also show potential educators for the future that the district has supports in place for its educators with student families and after school programs.
This coming June a cohort of 40 non-certified staff will graduate from the SCSU Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program.
New Haven native Mike Nice has been a substitute teacher for the past five years. He is now looking to get his teacher certification to become an educator and eventually a college professor.
He attended the fair Thursday to find a small school where he could fit in and learn about a fast-track certification program offered through the district.
“I still have loans to pay. I need a program that’s cheap or free,” he said.
For the past two years Nice has been a permanent gym teacher for kindergarteners at Mary T. Murphy Elementary School and Mary R. Tisko Elementary School in Branford. Next year the schools have informed Nice that an extra gym teacher is no longer needed.
He previously worked at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School as an uncertified teacher of TV production.
Nice has already received his master’s degree from Sacred Heart University.
“I’d love to be an adjunct professor, but if I have to do high schools first. I will,” he said.
After browsing at the fair, Nice said he’s interested in teaching at a small high school like Co-op or High School in the Community (HSC).
“I went to Hyde, so I really prefer small environments,” he said.
Nice learned about TV production as a seventh and eighth grader at East Rock Community Magnet School.
Other visitors like Loreen Lawrence said she visited the Thursday fair to finally get in contact with NHPS principals after attempting to reach them through calls and emails.
Lawrence talked with school administrators about introducing a youth program for teens about substance and drug abuse led by the Community Placemaking Engagement Network (CPEN).
“Our teens have to know how to help themselves and others,” Lawrence said.
Augusta Lewis Troup School first-grade teacher Ahmad Ward (pictured) attended the fair with his fiancée, who is considering a career change. Ward recently received his Durational Shortage Area Permit (DSAP). He has been teaching at Troup for the past year while a part of a SCSU certification program that he will finish in December.
Ward, a New Haven native, loves teaching and giving back to his community, he said. “In the classroom I can connect with the students on a personal level and truly make a difference.”
Ward said he hopes to stay at Troup for years to come because of the students and the mentorship he receives from Principal Eugene Foreman. “I plan on being a Troup lifer,” he said.
“Men of color are needed and wanted in any public school system,” he said.
Latoya Smith has been a pre‑K Head Start teacher for the past 14 years. She has been teaching at John Martinez for the past four years.
She attended the fair to see what schools had openings for first and second-grade teachers, which she hopes to become after completing her SCSU certification program this May.
She hopes to advance to either first or second grade to help students who have dealt with learning loss at critical ages and haven’t been in the classroom to gain interpersonal skills as a result of the pandemic.
“This is my calling, and my job is to teach these kids the joy of learning,” she said.
Smith recalled her fourth-grade teacher instilling a love for learning and reading in her as a child. To this day one of her favorite books is James and the Giant Peach.
Two years ago Morgan Brown (pictured) was a law school student at Quinnipiac University seeking a work-study job. She took the first offer, as a fourth-grade teacher for NHPS.
Soon after securing the job, she decided teaching is her passion. She dropped law school to get her elementary teaching certification.
“I never thought I’d be here, but I just love being in the classroom and seeing kids have that light bulb moment,” she said.
At the fair Thursday she searched for her first official job in the classroom as she nears her master’s graduation in two weeks. Currently she is a school building sub intern in Branford and Hamden.
Tarin Evans and Melody Ramos.
Elm City Communities’ Melody Ramos and Tarin Evans tabled at the fair in search of interested educators for its Teacher in Residence Program. The program offers a NHPS educator with free housing at McConaughy Terrace in exchange for afterschool programming specific to the neighborhood and community involvement.
(Click here to register.)
Wow. Let’s hire unqualified, non certified, inexperienced teachers to learn at the expense of our children. This would never happen in the suburbs. Parents would file lawsuits the first time their child had a “student teacher” or “substitute” for multiple years. In NHPS we have students that have had teachers learning on the job for multiple years. Shameful. Special education services are not being provided Parents should be consulting lawyers.
Hartford and every other city in CT is providing staff with multiple pandemic loyalty bonuses. NHPS staff are underpaid and under appreciated. This is why nobody is sticking around. My partner has received multiple offers with signing bonuses. A friend who is teaching in Hartford is recruiting NHPS teachers with $$$$$. Teachers have bills to pay. A teacher in NHPS is 3-4 years($10-15k) behind on the pay scale. When did central office take a pay freeze? There is money. Would NHPS rather give it back to the feds or incentive teaching in NHPS.