Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

County schools rehire teachers

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: September 28, 2009

Newton - Catawba County Schools has hired some additional staff despite the economic climate.

Since May, the system has hired 63 employees, 43 of which were people previously employed by Catawba County Schools, said Pat Hensley, assistant superintendent of human resources for the school system.

Catawba County Schools has also hired 15 new employees.

The school system also has rehired 34 teacher assistants, Hensley said.

"The principals have been very faithful to go back to the list of who was let go when rehiring," she said.

Because money is still tight among the school system, teacher's assistants are being used creatively.
Hensley said there are some teacher's assistants who usually work with older assistants, who are working with kindergartners for the first time in several years.

Other adjustments throughout the school system are still being made, as well, based on the students' needs and how that impacts the number of teachers and teacher assistants at schools, as well as who is driving the buses.

"We're having to rearrange some, reassign some and move people in the system," Hensley said. "Every time we do that, it impacts transportation."

She said at one school, they had one teacher and a teacher assistant at a class, and they really needed two teachers. When making that adjustment, looking at who would drive the bus if the teacher assistant was moved also became a factor.

Some of the people who have been rehired are being paid with federal stabilization money, although Hensley said she wasn't sure how many people because adjustments are still being made.

"We had one kindergarten teacher who was hired as late as last Monday," she said.