ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Hundreds of people showed up Saturday at St. Augustine High School with the goal of becoming teachers in Florida's top-rated school district.
The St. Johns County teacher recruitment fair attracted crowds of educators from as far away as California and the Carolinas.
St. Johns County is growing rapidly and school officials are in need of teachers as they can hardly keep up with the need for new schools, especially in the popular Nocatee community.
Cathy Hutchins, deputy superintendent for human resources, said a lot of the new jobs in Nocatee have already gone to existing St. Johns County teachers.
"Right now, we are going through the internal process allowing teachers to transfer into those new schools," Hutchins said. "However, in May we’ll be advertising externally, so yes, we’ll be looking for teachers to fill those new schools and fill vacancies for new teachers coming to the district."
St. Johns County schools are staffed at about 95 percent, which is good for a district, but officials said that number drops at the end of the year when a lot of teachers retire.
Megean Wantz was among the hopeful crowd Saturday angling for a job in St. Johns County. She came from North Carolina this weekend for a shot at getting a job at a high school she’s never seen before.
“It’s like speed dating for a job," Wantz said. "It’s very quick."
Many of the teachers vying for jobs, including Wantz, also have children they want to attend the top-rated schools in Florida.