Olathe’s Future Educators program aims to change the school district for the better

A guaranteed job when you’re fresh out of college can be a strong incentive to graduate, and that’s what the Olathe School District is aiming to provide. The district’s new “Hire Our Own” program targets students in its 21st Century Future Educators Academy at Olathe East, with the hope of making them employees in four years.

“This has kind of been a goal, with the national teacher shortages, to try to encourage our students to go into education,” said Cathy Donovan, director of staffing and talent acquisition for the district.

The program is only open to students who are enrolled in the educators academy. The academy marks its second year with a graduating class in 2021. About 29 seniors were eligible to apply this year, and Donovan expected eight to 10 of them to apply. Shelley Staples, a facilitator for the academy, was more optimistic, hoping as many as 16 might go for it.

“It just offers you such job security,” Staples said. “Knowing you can return home and work in a successful school district; that is a relief.”

To qualify, students put together resumes, recommendations and anything else they would need for a job application and apply to teaching positions through the district’s website. They’ll have job interviews with principals, and if all goes well, they’ll sign offer letters the first week of May.

The offer means that if they complete a four-year degree with a 2.8 GPA and get a Kansas teaching license, along with an Olathe student-teaching experience, they will have a job waiting for them upon graduation. The district isn’t promising specific positions or schools.

Staples said similar programs often only make two positions available each year, but she felt strongly about making positions open for any returning student who qualified.

Students can attend any college they want as long as they do their student teaching in the Olathe district. If the district knows of a vacancy coming up at the time, such as a retirement, they may place a student in that school. This allows students to acclimate to the teaching experience so they will be ready to go the following year.

Staples said the district will treat the students as early hires.

The offer letter isn’t completely binding on the student’s side. If a student decides not to go into education or ends up wanting to work in another city, the individual needs only to send a professional notice to let the Olathe district know.

Donovan hopes to be able to provide mentoring for the students along the way as the program goes forward, but she doesn’t have funding for that part yet.

This program also aims to increase the diversity of the faculty to better match the student population in Olathe.

According to Donovan and Staples, many of the teacher shortages are in the areas of special education, math, science, family and consumer science, and industrial technology.

Once the first teachers come back to the district in four years, Staples wants their example to inspire more middle-schoolers to go into the educators academy.

The thought Donovan is aiming to develop in them is: “I have a teacher who did this homegrown program, went to Olathe schools, graduated from Olathe and returned. I could be that person,” Staples said.

“I could go to the Future Educators Academy and change the school district for the better.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Olathe’s Future Educators program aims to change the school district for the better."