Hillsborough schools continue out-of-state teacher recruiting

TAMPA - The competition for teaching positions was fierce at a recruiting fair over the summer at Tampa's Jefferson High School.

"Some people got there at 4:45 in the morning and I got here right on time at 7 o'clock and there were already about 400 people here," Bree Beitelschies told investigative reporter Doug Smith.

There were so many teachers looking for work and not nearly enough spots in the classroom. Stephanine Krantz says its hard not to get discouraged.

"Your resume is up against 300 other resumes at almost every school," she said.

With such an abundant supply of candidates, why is the Hillsborough County School District sending staff on out-of-state teacher recruiting trips up north?

"It's important to us to find the best qualified applicant to put in front of our children," explained Dr. James Goode, who is in charge of teacher recruiting for Hillsborough County Schools. "And I think traveling out of state gives us a wider pool of people to choose from."

Over the past 10 months, the district has spent more than $18,000 traveling to states like Michigan, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Pennsylvania looking for teachers.

"What is going on?" wondered Pat Santeramo, the president of the Broward Teachers Union in South Florida. "It's just absolutely crazy."

Santeramo has openly criticized his district for going out of state to find teachers and had the same harsh words for Hillsborough County. "They have a responsibility to spend the money wisely and they are not doing it."

Many school districts around Florida have stopped leaving the state because money is tight. Andrea Zahn, director of communications for Pinellas County Schools, told FOX 13 in an email, "Our district has not scheduled an out-of-state recruiting trip in two years due to the budget situation."

But Hillsborough went twice in two months to the state of Massachusetts -- first to Harvard on February 25 at a cost of $2,637, and then two months later to a recruiting consortium at Northeastern University in Boston on April 23.

Four people went on the second trip and stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel. The total cost was $3,786.

"The first trip to Harvard honestly did not provide us good College of Education applicants," Dr. Goode told Doug Smith. "The second trip at Northeastern absolutely did."

The only other school district in the state to travel to Northeastern was Palm Beach, and a spokesperson told Doug the district is currently re-evaluating whether to continue the practice of out of state recruiting.

Could this be spent more wisely, Doug asked Dr. Goode.

"I think you need to compare apples to apples," he replied. "The monies that you're quoting there are not even half of a teacher's salary. I think if we get 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 good teachers, it's money well spent."

"We are looking for the best and the brightest, and in those critical shortage areas, sometimes it's difficult to find," offered Mark West, the principal at Bloomingdale High School and a recruiter for Hillsborough County. He defined critical shortage areas as math, science, and reading.

"Do we really need to go out of state to recruit these people and potentially take away jobs?" Doug Smith asked him.

"I think, in some areas, the answer is yes," he replied.

West was one of five recruiters to travel to Purdue University for a teacher recruiting trip back in May at a total cost of $3,497. He characterized the trip as successful.

"We don't technically hire up there and say, 'Come down and you have a job.' We go up and basically advocate for Hillsborough County."

West was looking for a physics teacher but didn't find one, and doesn't know if any prospective teachers he met at Purdue were hired by Hillsborough County.

Is this really necessary?

"I think it is," Goode insisted. "You're going to cut yourself off from a valuable supply of teachers that have double majors. Colleges of education in Florida don't normally put out that kind of a product."

Dr. Goode says the district spent just half of the money budgeted for out-of-state recruiting and the trips produced positive results. He says the district has hired 620 new teachers so far this year and 121 are from outside Florida and came from areas and colleges where Hillsborough County recruiters had visited.