Tulsa Public Schools Looks To Fill About 400 Positions; Offers Signing Bonus

Tulsa Public Schools is doing everything it can to hire teachers before the start of the new school year. The district said it needs to fill about 400 spots.

"As a long-time principal, I always saw my first and foremost job was to fill the classrooms, with the best quality teachers, to hire the best coaches, to find the kindest, most energetic counselors," said lead recruiter Nikki Dennis.

The district is offering an incentive this month to get people to join the district.

Certified teachers will get a $4,000 signing bonus, plus up to $2,000 for a subject or area that's tough to fill.

Uncertified teachers can get $2,000 plus another $2,000 for hard to fill positions.

"Anybody that wants to teach math, science, early-childhood, pre-k, people who are working directly with large groups of kids, like a P.E. coach, or small groups of kids like a special education teacher, anybody that's a classroom teacher," Dennis said.

She said as they see more people leave the profession, they've had to change the way they think about recruiting people.

She said TPS is a great place to work because of the many opportunities and jobs available.

"People on my staff before have been early childhood teachers are now teaching high school. They've been high school teachers that go early childhood, so there's just a lot of freedom and flexibility," she said.

Dennis hopes the incentive will encourage people to join TPS, and they'll have a full staff this fall.

"It gives me great joy to connect someone with a job they would really like and makes a difference as well," she said.

Dennis said the incentive is available during the month of June.