Are you interested in teaching in Buffalo schools? Can you start right away? Can you fill out an application today and potentially be available for an interview tomorrow? Buffalo Public Schools are in a hiring mood.
Like most school districts, Buffalo has openings during the school year, as jobs open up or because more teachers are needed as the year continues. This year, that includes special education and bilingual teachers, especially needed to work with those displaced from Puerto Rico because of the continuing effects of hurricane damage last year.
"A growing diverse population of different languages, so we're also hiring a lot of ENL teachers, English as a new language teachers," said Associate Superintendent for Human Resources Jamie Warren. "We also are hiring foreign language teachers. With our influx of students from Puerto Rico, bilingual educators are very important, hence the trip that I took to Puerto Rico in 2017 and we're looking forward to going again this year."
The district is taking email applications Friday and will do actual interviews Saturday, based upon those applications. Warren said the process is ready.
"To interview by tenure area in our identified vacancies," Warren said. "So the goal is to try to fill our vacancies that have existed for a couple weeks. As a large urban district, we do have a dynamic staffing, where employees may separate for the leaves of absence, retirement or to accept employment out of state, and that creates vacancies and we're looking for top talent."
Warren said the district also will be hiring for next school this spring, when the talent pool is larger, rather than waiting until school starts. She suggested that anyone with teacher training but are doing something else or underemployed because there have not been any openings, there are now.
"We have a lot of competition. There are other school districts who are recruiting who are locally. There's our charter schools and there are Buffalo Public Schools," Warren said, "but we think we're the best place to work. We're very excited about our New Education Bargain. We're excited about all of the training that's available, the support that's available for new teachers. So we think this is a great place to work. So if you're a barista right now and you want to be a teacher, come apply."
Warren said the number of openings vary daily, but there are about three dozen currently. For Puerto Rican teachers who have re-located here, she said there is a reciprocity deal so those teachers can be certified almost immediately.
