According to Superintendent Monifa McKnight, a major part of their success comes from being able to recruit teachers from all over the county. She went on to say:
“The recruitment efforts that we found to be very successful this year, is actually rebranding how we recruit. Going out to the community and meeting our community members where they are, so we could very well have a pop-up shop at a shopping center.”
The county’s previous recruitment policy was based on advertising the availability of a post and then waiting for recruits to come to them. Taking a more active approach and going directly to them has helped fill the vacant positions. McKnight also said that the county has been getting retired teachers to fill up roles on what they are calling a permanent substitute program. Promotional Pens are sometimes given to schools as donations.
County Executive Marc Elrich believes that recent pay rises have also helped convince more people to take on teaching positions in Gaithersburg.
The one area that the county is still struggling to fill is for special education teachers. The Montgomery County Education Association ratified a plan that hopes to convince teachers who have the qualifications for both general education and special education to make the switch to special education classes.
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