Gwinnett County Public Schools’ human resources team is targeting a new location to find teachers — particularly multilingual teachers to serve the district’s ever-growing population of students who need extra support learning English.
The district sent two staff members — Beaver Ridge Elementary School Principal Martina Luna-Liranzo and Diversity Recruiter Rod Johnson — to Puerto Rico this month to meet with administrators at teacher colleges in hopes of drawing graduates to Gwinnett, the state’s largest school district.
Gwinnett’s students come from more than 190 countries and speak nearly 100 languages. However, about 63% of Gwinnett’s multilingual learners were born in the U.S. Nearly one-quarter of students in Gwinnett are considered multilingual learners, and Spanish is the primary language spoken at home for 78% of them.
In the first phase of the project, the district is focusing on bringing these teachers to the Berkmar, Meadowcreek and Norcross clusters, all of which have a high proportion of students who speak Spanish as a first language.
J.W. Mozley, executive director of human resources, said the key recruitment areas are bilingual elementary school, dual-language immersion, world languages and special education teachers. Georgia needs more teachers in subjects such as math, special education, and various world language, according to state and federal research.
Board Chair Tarece Johnson lauded Gwinnett’s effort. She voted against a budget because she felt it didn’t provide enough resources for English learners and their teachers.
“We have a large population of multilingual learners, and there is a gap related to meeting their needs,” Johnson said. “The intentional recruitment to get teachers who can get to those needs — I want to uplift and thank you all for that.”
While the district has been able to hire enough new teachers to be fully staffed each school year, a study found that Gwinnett struggles with turnover, seeing higher rates than the state and national average. The issue is particularly concerning among new hires.
Cathy Hardin, Gwinnett’s chief human resources officer, said the district plans to host a hiring event in September that will include principals and recruitment staff. She hopes to see teachers from Puerto Rico placed in Gwinnett schools by January for the second semester of the school year.
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