Job fairs to promote Catholic school employment opportunities

BY EMMALEE ITALIA  Contributing Editor

Aiming to assist Catholic schools with hiring new teachers and staff, the diocesan Department of Catholic Schools will host two job fairs in May for interested applicants.

The first job fair will be May 9, 4-7 p.m., in St. John Vianney High School, 540-A Line Rd., Holmdel. A second job fair will follow on May 11, 4-7 p.m., in Notre Dame High School, 601 Lawrence Rd., Lawrenceville. With 25 diocesan elementary schools and five high schools represented at both fairs, job openings are available for teachers, coaches and more.

“Our Catholic school principals, like all school leaders throughout the country, have struggled in recent years with the recruitment and retention of teachers,” said Bonnie Milecki, diocesan associate director for school development and operations. “It is one of the largest challenges facing education today.”

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Suggestions came organically from Catholic school leaders in the Diocese, she said, with requests for more tools and collaboration. A Recruitment and Retention Task Force of principals and the Department of Catholic Schools was formed, and three goals were developed: Catholic school job fairs, access to the Frontline Recruiting Platform and professional development to support teacher recruiting.

“We had not hosted a diocese-wide job fair, and that suggestion – although ambitious – was one we knew we needed to bring to life,” Milecki continued.

The other two goals will be delivered by the end of the current academic year. Candidates will be introduced to the Frontline Recruiting Platform at the job fairs where they will see all Catholic school job openings in one place. They will also be able to liaise with school leaders from any school.

The Department of Catholic Schools additionally wanted to advertise the positive aspects of the Catholic school environment and a feeling “like coming home,” to which Milecki said both current teachers and student alumni returning to work in Catholic schools have attested.

“[It] has major advantages,” she pointed out, including the opportunity to bring one’s faith to work. “Veteran educators come to us from other types of school environments and comment that … the school community makes it a pleasure to come to work every day … [They said] that Gospel values inform their teaching and influence the strong communities they build with their students,” she said.

The Diocese hopes that applicants will realize that Catholic schools “are small in the best way, and big in the best way,” Milecki continued. “[They] are a part of a much larger support network [which supports] continuing education funding and cutting-edge professional development.”

Other attractive aspects include the National Catholic Education Association’s report of a second straight year of Catholic school growth nationwide, and high job satisfaction rate, Milecki noted.

“We hope the job fairs will provide an opportunity for us to show the robust nature and growing success of Catholic schools … and we will benefit by bringing highly qualified, passionate educators into our schools.”

Registration is encouraged but not required at dioceseoftrenton.org/school-job-fairs.