The Paterson school district has hired 115 teachers in the 11 weeks since authorizing $7,500 signing bonuses to new hires, officials said.
However, the number of teaching vacancies in New Jersey’s 3rd-largest city has risen from 135 on Sept. 14 — the night the school board approved the bonus plan — to 146 as of Dec. 1.
In announcing the hires last week, the K-12 district said the current number of teaching vacancies “would have been nearly 80 percent higher without the pre-employment agreements.”
“The evidence is clear that the pre-employment agreements have been effective in recruiting qualified teachers to Paterson Public Schools and helping us limit the number of our vacancies,” Paterson Schools Superintendent Eileen F. Shafer said.
“It has always been our goal to recruit teachers to Paterson Public Schools. We are reaching that goal with the help of our incentive program,” Shafer said.
The president of the Paterson teachers’ union, John McEntee, did not respond to a request for comment.
Bonuses for new or returning public school teachers are among the strategies being used by some school districts across the nation in combatting staffing shortages that were worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A survey by Education Week in February found that bonuses mostly ranged between $1,000 and $5,000 and were subsidized by pandemic-related federal relief funds. Paterson is funding the bonuses via its allotment from federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding.
On Nov. 23, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser joined city school officials announcing a tentative contract agreement that included a 4% retention bonus.
In New Mexico, the school district in Taos announced in July a $10,000 “recruitment incentive” and, as of Friday, stated on its website that 17 teaching positions remained open. The bonus is being paid in 4 equal payments upon the conclusion of each semester.
In Michigan, the Jackson school district announced bonuses of up to $10,000 in March, to be paid in three yearly installments.
Paterson is at least the second large school district in New Jersey to implement bonuses for new teachers this year. The Newark school district announced in June that new hires in “critical areas” — mathematics, science, special education, bilingual education, and English as a second language — will be eligible for $4,000 signing bonuses.
Newark, the state’s largest district, also began offering $1,000 bonuses to any district employee that refers a teachers who ends up getting hired.
Paterson school officials said previously that teachers must stay on the job for at least two years, as a condition of the $7,500 bonus.
“The most important job we have in this business of education is putting certified teachers in front of our students in our classrooms. This effective recruiting strategy is doing exactly that,” Shafer said.
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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
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