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A month into the school year, Metro Schools is trying to fill hundreds of vacancies

Hillsboro High School Nashville
Courtesy Metro Nashville Public Schools
About 200 job seekers attended a hiring event at Hillsboro High.
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A month into the school year, Nashville’s public school system still has hundreds of job openings. A weekend recruiting event sought to immediately fill some of those vacancies.

The teacher shortage has been simmering for quite some time, and it’s not hard to see why. Educators have to contend with COVID, changing laws about what can be taught in school, increased police presence, and low pay.

Metro Schools is trying to court candidates by at least addressing that last issue — offering better pay than most. That was enough to draw at least 200 job seekers to a hiring event at Hillsboro High School on Saturday.

The district says that at least a quarter of the attendees were recommended for hire right away. That includes about 20 for certified jobs like teacher or counselor, and nearly 40 for support staff positions.

Representatives from more than 35 schools participated in the event to try and find candidates.

Paige Pfleger, Criminal Justice Reporter

Paige Pfleger covers criminal justice for WPLN News. She has investigated guns and juvenile justice as a fellow with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, and her investigation into domestic violence and firearms dispossession won a regional Edward R. Murrow award and was a finalist for an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and a Livingston Award. She previously covered criminal justice and addiction in Ohio and was named the state's reporter of the year by the Associated Press. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, Marketplace, and PRI's The World, and she has worked in the newsrooms of The Tennessean, Michigan Radio, WHYY, Vox and NPR headquarters in DC.

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