Hundreds attend San Bernardino City Unified job fair - San Bernardino County Sun
SAN BERNARDINO >> On a gray and drizzly Saturday morning, the parking lot of Indian Springs High School was packed.
Inside, hundreds of adults filled the school's multipurpose room and gymnasium, looking to fill an estimated 200 job openings across San Bernardino City Unified.
"We have a teacher shortage across the nation," said Perry Wiseman, the district's assistant superintendent of human resources. "We've been working to make sure we have enough employees on July 1," the formal start of the 2016-17 school year, although classes don't begin until Aug. 1.
The district has about 200 openings currently, leading officials to hold their first job fair in about a decade.
"We're looking to offer 30 to 40 contracts today" to teachers, Wiseman said, especially for special education, math and science teachers.
San Bernardino County's unemployment rate was 5.6 percent in March, according to the State of California's Employment Development Department, but the city of San Bernardino had a 7.2 percent unemployment rate that same month, with about 6,000 people unemployed. The district employees a little under 8,000 people, including about 2,700 teachers, according to Wiseman.
Given that most San Bernardino City Unified employees live and work in the city, "we're having an impact on unemployment in the city," he said.
Although Indian Springs is San Bernardino City Unified's newest and shiniest high school, there's no disguising the poverty of the surrounding neighborhood. There are dozens of school districts in the Inland Empire and San Bernardino City Unified officials know they're competing against more affluent districts with probably easier jobs.
Instead of running away from that reality, though, officials said Saturday that they're leaning into it.
"We're the eighth largest district in the state, and we want to hire the best and the brightest," said Sandra Rodriguez, employee relations director with the district. "We want people who are servant-leaders, who want to make a difference in the community."
Marcus Funchess, principal of Mildred Dalton Henry Elementary School, and one of more than a dozen principals interviewing on Saturday, agreed.
"One of our mantras is 'making home happen,'" he said. "We're looking for like-minded people, who can see what San Bernardino can become."
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One of those walking out with a job offer Saturday was Redlands resident Yvonne Kokesch, who received her special education teaching credential from Cal State San Bernardino last year.
Having grown up in San Bernardino, getting a special education teaching job in the district is like "coming home," she said.
Kokesch currently works in Redlands Unified, as a special education paraprofessional, and has no doubt in her mind about her career path.
"My first day in the classroom, it was like the angels singing — I had arrived," she said.
She finds out what San Bernardino school she'll call home as a certificate-wielding special education teacher later this year.
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