Story by Natalie Fitts

Photos by Allison Fitts

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With the 2011-2012 school year coming to a close in less than two months, the STA administration is currently working on plans for the staff of the 2012-2013 school year, according to academic principal Barbara McCormick.
Currently three teachers–math teachers Jeanella Clark and Barbara Harris and choir director Michelle McIntire–are leaving after this semester, according to McCormick. Social studies teacher Richard Shrock is switching from full-time to part-time.

The administration has already hired two math teachers to fill Clark’s and Harris’s positions. They are also looking to hire an additional teacher for the math department to “maintain teacher capacity” for future classes.

“As our [enrollment in] younger grades continues to climb up, and those numbers sustain, the teachers teaching the junior and senior classes either are going to have bigger classes, or I’m going to have to look at hiring additional staff,” McCormick said.

However, McCormick adds that hiring a new staff member does not just happen when the student body increases.

“Sometimes [we hire additional teachers] when we add a new program that we don’t currently have,” McCormick said. “Sometimes we have new courses and new classes that can’t be taught by current faculty.”

According to McCormick, the recruitment of new teachers is an ongoing process, and does not just occur when a teacher or staff members leaves the STA community. She finds potential applicants through a variety of services, including the STA website, word of mouth, past applications that remain on file and MoREAP, a free service for Missouri schools looking to hire.

“I do a lot of recruitment all the time,” McCormick said. “I go to Rockhurst, [where] they do the Spotlight Teaching Interviews, and I sit through them all. I look at our student teachers that we have here on campus at different times. I go to Avila to do their recruitment fair. There’s an array of places [we can hire people]. Sometimes people just send their applications because they visit our website and say, ‘If you have an opening, I’m interested.’ So I put those on file.”

According to McCormick, the time the hiring process takes depends on the amount and quality of applications she receives.

“When we have a very large pool of quality candidates, we can usually hire someone in about four weeks,” McCormick said. “If we need a bigger candidate pool, it could take three months.”

McCormick involves as many people in the hiring process as possible.

“When you’re hiring teaching staff, which is what I get involved in, it will involve administration–Ms. Hoecker, Ms. Bone, and myself,” McCormick said. “Then I’ll often involve a department member if I can. It depends on how we’re able to coordinate those interviews [on whether teachers are involved in the process or not].”

McCormick said that no matter what, hiring is not just a one-person decision.

“Even though I’m more the lead on finding [new teachers] and getting them interviewed, it’s still a collaborative decision,” McCormick said. “I meet with Ms. Hoecker and Ms. Bone about whether we want to hire [someone] or not. A lot goes into hiring someone. It’s not just one person saying, ‘Oh, I hired someone.’”

According to McCormick, the administration and teachers involved take many factors into account when hiring a new teacher.

“We definitely look if they have the qualifications in their content area,” McCormick said. “Then we look at whether [they] have teaching credentials, which are required by the state. We review transcripts. We look at letters of recommendation. Then, we have a conversation face-to-face with them. So there’s a lot of elements rolled into the review of someone that would be a good fit for St. Teresa’s.”

Teachers leaving after this year
Michelle McItire: choir director
Jeanella Clark: algebra II, geometry, and statistics teacher
Barbara Harris: algebra I, algebra II, and pre-calculus teacher
Dr. Joe Grantham: accelerated algebra I teacher
Richard Shrock: government and history teacher*

*going part-time