Vermilion Parish School System halfway done hiring for 150 teacher/support personnel positions

It is that time of the school year when the hiring begins for the Vermilion Parish Public School system.
While teachers and students are counting down the days before the school year ends, there are those in the central office who kicked into the hiring mode.
Assistant Superintendent Paul Hebert, who is retiring in January, and his staff is busy trying to find people to fill 160 open positions. The positions range from teachers, secretaries, principals, assistant principals, lunchroom operators, and janitors.
The good news is that as of Thursday, Hebert had 75 out of the 150 positions filled.
“That is a lot of positions open,” said Hebert. “It is more than we have had in the past.”
A majority of the empty positions were one-year-only employees, so their jobs had to be reopened at the end of the school year. Also, for those who filled in teaching slots that were not certified, those teaching positions are opened back up.
Over the next month, the hiring will continue, added Hebert.
Hebert said in other school districts, the district has the choice to reopen the position or not if the district was satisfied with the person who filled the job this past school year.
Also, other school districts have job fairs to try and recruit teachers. However, vermilion Parish never has job fairs, and Hebert said there is a reason.
Vermilion Parish is one of the few parishes with a union for educators. The union known as the Vermilion Association of Educators (VAE) has guidelines the school district must follow when hiring personnel.
Because of the VAE guidelines, Hebert said Vermilion could not hire teachers at a job fair like other school districts. Instead, the VAE guidelines state that Vermilion has to advertise the job opening for a week and then interview those who applied.
“It hurts us because it delays the process,” Hebert said. “We can not hire them on the spot.”
He gave the example of trying to recruit new UL graduates who recently graduated in education. A school district other than Vermilion can promise recent college graduates a job on the spot, but Vermilion can not. Hebert said all they can do is do their best to try and encourage the new graduate to apply to Vermilion Parish.
Hebert is confident that by the start of school in August, most of the jobs will be filled.