Gwinnett County Public Schools is hiring 530 new teachers as it prepares for the coming school year and an additional 1,700 students.
The system, the state's largest, hired 800 teachers for the previous school year. But in the current economy the news is positive enough that the system has "thousands" of applications, said Jorge Quintana, school system spokesman.
The school system has already filled 359 of the 530 jobs, including some through an annual spring job fair that concentrates on recruitment of teachers in math, science and special needs, Quintana said.
Teachers with qualifications in those three fields are still being encouraged to apply, he said. "Those are still areas we need to fill."
Enrollment is expected to increase by 1.1 percent to 162,459 for 2011-12. That's up 1,700 students, compared with an increase of 1,600 last fall. But that's far less than a few years ago, when the school system was adding 7,000 students a year, Quintana said.
"Growth has definitely slowed since the change in the housing market in 2007," he said.
While the school district, which has about 11,000 teachers, beefed up its staff, it also let the contracts of some certified employees terminate without inviting them back to teach.
In 2010-11, Gwinnett school officials said Tuesday, 98 people were recommended for nonrenewal, 32 percent less than last year.
Of the teachers not renewed in 2011, about 57 were nontenured. Nontenured teachers within the first three years of their employment have few options to dispute their dismissals in Georgia. A nontenured teacher can be released without a statement of cause.
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