Recruitment efforts for Henry County Schools have been successful in spite of issues created by COVID-19, according to a report presented at the Board of Education’s April 20 meeting.

After a large in-person job fair had to be scrapped due to the coronavirus response, officials in the human resources department staged a virtual job fair from which 475 applications for certified positions had been received as of April 15. During the past few weeks of schools closures, principals and other supervisors have made 158 certified new hire recommendations for the upcoming school year. That leaves 78 certified vacancies which the staff continues to work daily to fill.

There were 140 such vacancies at this time last year. The virtual job fair was featured in an article printed by Industry Dive, a national online publication that reports on various industries.