Story provided by Stillwater Public Schools
In anticipation of the upcoming school year, Stillwater Public Schools is hosting a Support Staff Hiring Event on July 13 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the Board of Education meeting room of the SPS Administration Building, 314 S. Lewis Street.
“The goal of this event,” says Director of Human Resources Bo Gamble, “is to have individuals interested in support positions with the district come in and meet hiring supervisors, submit an application, complete an onsite interview, and potentially be offered a position.” Gamble says the district will have hiring managers and representatives from schools and district departments available to meet with potential candidates and hire them on the spot.
The event will be focused on support positions that don’t require a teaching certificate. “We’ll be looking primarily for bus drivers, maintenance, teacher assistants, monitors, after-school care, and custodians,” he says. “Behind the scenes or interacting directly with children, we’ve got something for a wide variety of work styles and skill sets to help support our kids.” Gamble would also be happy to visit with any certified teachers or those considering certification to discuss a few remaining open teaching positions.
While the schedule of the school day and year means these positions aren’t right for some, Gamble says the positions have a lot of advantages.
“As a public school district, we may not always be able to compete with for-profit employers in terms of hourly pay, but we do offer paid leave and paid health insurance for anyone employed full-time,” says Gamble. Full-time means different things for different positions, Gamble says. “It varies from between six to eight hour per day and 175 to 260 days worked, depending on the contract. A bus driver or teacher assistant could work as little as six hours each day for 175 days of the year. So for 1,050 hours of work, about half the average 2,000 hour work year, an employee can have their health insurance paid. They also have the option to opt into Oklahoma’s retirement program.”
For those support employees looking for more hours, Gamble says they have options. “Some drivers will serve as noon monitors in a school or run additional routes, activity buses for trips, or, during summer school, a lot of employees, child nutrition and teacher assistants in particular, will work to generate additional salary for themselves.”
“They say it takes a village to raise a child,” says Superintendent Uwe Gordon. “And it takes a whole community to educate, feed, transport, and clean up after one too. I appreciate the staff involved in hosting this event, and I hope members of our community will stop by to see what we have to offer.”
“I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve encountered people in this district who got a job with SPS just to get any job in a tight job market, planning to leave as soon as they found something better,” says Gordon, “but they ended up loving it and staying for years.”
“Schools are very special places, and working in one, or on a bus, interacting with kids every day, literally changing and even saving lives. Few things compare to that. And, in my opinion, nothing compares to doing that in Stillwater, Oklahoma.”
More information about the hiring event Support Staff Hiring Event, including currently available positions, is available at www.stillwaterschools.com/jobs.