San Saba is fortunate to attract highly qualified and talented teachers. I am often asked by those outside of education how we recruit teachers to come to our beautiful, rural community. Many times, the larger metropolitan school districts do have an advantage over us in that they offer signing bonuses in most content areas as well as higher salaries. Fortunately, people still enjoy the quality of life found in the smaller districts and communities like they find here in San Saba.

Many of the new staff members that come to work in San Saba ISD come to us through contacts we have in the educational world. It is truly a small network as when we begin searching for qualified staff. The World Wide Web has become a tool to use in promoting our school district and attracting staff. Sites offered through the Education Service Center 15 (www.netxv.net), the Texas Association of School Administrators (www.tasanet.org), and individual administrator, teacher and coaching organizations have job posting sites that allow our district to reach many people. Additionally, we post our openings on our own website as well.

Another tool that we use includes job fairs at regional universities. Currently, we attend teacher job fairs at Tarleton State University and Angelo State University. In high recruiting years we travel to additional teacher job fairs in Abilene, Waco and College Station. This not only allows us to search out quality candidates, it allows us to promote and highlight the good things that we have to offer in our community and school district. It also allows us to keep current on what other districts are offering in benefits and programs for staff.

San Saba ISD works hard on teacher retention as stability promotes educational growth in our students. Benefits such as merit pay for District TAKS performance, sick pools, flex accounts, free meals, incentive for not missing days, stipends for masters and doctorate degrees, assisting teachers with additional certification as well as other benefits help us to retain our staff. Having the great kids that we have to teach also helps us with teacher retention.

Please remember that our website is the key to keeping up-to-date on school happenings. Please visit www.san-saba.net to view events and find information you need to know about SSISD.

If you have any questions about this article or any other question about school happenings please contact me at 325/372-3144.