Dorchester School District Two hosted a recruitment fair for all positions on Saturday, Jan. 20, at Fort Dorchester High School.
The fair allowed candidates to ask questions, find jobs and learn more about working for DD2. The 2023-24 DD2 Teacher of the Year Schoneke Summerhill offered many reasons one may want to seek employment in the district.
“DD2 is an award-winning school district,” she said. “We have that family feel. I’m a product of this district. We pour into our students and this community, and the community relationships are positive. We give it all we’ve got. You can go into any school in this district and see excellent teaching and student engagement. It’s just a positive culture and climate in this district. It’s just such a positive place to be.”
The reasons stated by Summerhill and signing bonuses – $2,000 for teachers, $3,000 for special education teachers and $1,000 for bus drivers – likely contributed to a turnout that pleased Tracy Tayloe, DD2 director of personnel.
“We are really excited about the turnout,” she said. “We did registration, but we also had a fair amount of walk-ins. The interview area with all of our administrators has been busy all day interviewing candidates. We’re really looking to fill all areas, particularly special education. You know, that’s been a shortage for us. We’re always recruiting bus drivers, and the signing bonus has really helped us recruit, but we’re always looking.”
DD2 is the largest employer in the county, with about 4,000 employees. Gray Service, a senior education major at Coastal Carolina University in Conway who wants to teach middle school math, was looking to be included in that total. The New Jersey native drove from Conway to attend the recruitment fair after researching DD2 online.
“I looked at the district online as much as I could, and I really liked the area,” she said. “I thought I should come check it out.”
