Year after year, the Bibb School County District puts a lot of focus on recruiting new teachers and keeping them working in the district.
Ariana Young and Kasey Thom are two of the student-teachers who recently accepted full-time positions with the district.
"I made my way down to Georgia by actually playing lacrosse at Mercer for a little while and then I was blessed enough to get my student teaching, my year long student teaching at Springdale in my last year of my teacher Ed program," Thom said.
"Not everyone gets to work in the district that they grew up in, and Bibb County...I've seen it go through its ups and downs but right now, with Dr. Jones, he is very proactive to make sure that even with what's going on in our pandemic that we are kept at peace," Young said.
Assistant superintendent Mack Bullard says partnering with local universities' education degree programs for student teachers and offering internships helps with recruiting.
"We have brought many student teachers into our school systems to work in our classrooms and a lot of those student teachers, once they get into our classrooms and get into those schools, they want to stay," Bullard said.
They've also had success with turning current employees into teachers.
Parapros, nutrition assistants and clerks who have bachelor degrees in other fields can go through an alternative teacher preparation program to become certified teachers, which often triples their salaries.
"We ended the school year last year with about an 87% retention rate. It's been in that range for the last few years. We've been keeping up with it. Last year was a high for us, we want to get it into the 90s. That's really where our goal is, to get it to the 90s," Bullard said.
In the past, Bullard says they've offered an extra $1,000 to the salaries for hard to fill teaching positions. Also, their two-year mentor induction program helps attract new teachers.
The district is going through a virtual training this week with 211 new teachers.
Bullard says they're still looking to fill about 28 positions throughout August.