ATLANTA — Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) will see a lot of new faces this fall.
The school district took its recruiting efforts to Puerto Rico to help serve many of its students who speak Spanish as a first language.
The diversity recruiter for the district, Rodriguez Johnson, took a plane to Puerto Rico to start those recruitment efforts.
"It’s so important for students to be able to recognize and see themselves," he said. "I know, as a (former) classroom teacher, all the students that looked like me, we automatically had a connection. They gravitated towards me. It was so affirming for me to be there for them."
He wants other students and teachers to feel this connection.
Gwinnett County Schools data shows the student demographic is mostly Hispanic at 34%, followed by African American at 33%, then White at 18%, 11% are Asian, and 4% fall under the "other" category.
While the Hispanic student demographic in the district rises, officials want staff to be a reflection of that, too.
"From our research, every county that hires international candidates, their retention rates are extremely high so we expect to see the same results from our candidates that we’re bringing from Puerto Rico," Johnson said.
He spoke to many graduates from these universities on the island:
They are planning on going to a fourth university, too.
As of this week, Johnson says he has recruited more than half a dozen teachers, with more currently being interviewed.
"We're not just hiring for classroom positions," he said. "We have individuals that are paraprofessionals, candidates that are going to join our custodial team, our cafeteria staff."
He says many of the candidates were attracted to the districts' incentive package. They are offering candidates a $4,000 incentive for being bilingual, and another $4,000 as part of their Title I incentives.
As the Georgia Cyber Academy explains, Title I is "a program that provides federal funds through the Georgia Department of Education to local educational agencies (LEAs) and public schools with high numbers or percentages of children in poverty to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards."
All of this is on top of their salary and other benefits.
"They really shared a lot with us," he said. "The first thing is their pension - the system has collapsed so many of them were concerned about their retirement so we were able to share that we have a vested program that has decades of success."
Johnson says their goal is to hire 50 educators from Puerto Rico this school year, and that they'll help every step of the way.
"We’re helping support them in their transition," he said. "Once we know what school they’re working at, we work with them to find housing. They’re being placed at schools that have high Hispanic populations, so they’ll have a strong network. We’re building affinity groups from the district so when they get here they feel connected and supported because many of them wanted to know where they can go hang out, where they can eat culturally-relevant food."
In the last three academic years, the number of Latino educators hired in the district has more than doubled.
The district shared this data:
2020-2021 school year: 89 Latino educators hired
2021-2022: 180 Latino educators hired
2022-2023: 197 Latino educators hired
Johnson says their efforts are just getting started.
“To have individuals that represent the students in the classroom, that's what I'm excited about," Johnson said.
