CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Students in Horry County go back to school in one week and next Wednesday will also be the first day of school for hundreds of new teachers.
A map used as a small exercise during a new teacher academy shows where many of the nearly 300 new teachers for Horry County Schools are from.
Some are from as far away as Spokane, Washington, or Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but many are much closer.
“We’re really seeing a lot coming from, of course, South Carolina and North Carolina, and even up into New Jersey and some of the Northern states,” said HCS spokesperson Lisa Bourcier. “It could be that they vacationed here as a child and really loved the area.”
At last week’s training session, 278 new teachers learned the policies and procedures for HCS. More than half the new hires have been teachers before.
More than a quarter of the newest teachers just graduated from Coastal Carolina University.
“A lot of those are recent graduates and a lot of them also came from other school districts as well, coming to Horry County,” said Bourcier. “So our recruitment efforts were very successful this year.”
At a board meeting on August 6, superintendent Dr. Rick Maxey said there were still about 33 open teaching positions across the district.
HCS says that’s not a surprising number and qualified replacements are ready to teach.
“We do have very successful retired teachers that are willing to come back on a long-term substitute basis for those classrooms if needed,” Bourcier said. “We also have instructional coaches that will fill in.”
HCS also says more hired teachers are expected to be approved at next Monday’s school board meeting, just two days before school begins on August 22.
