Hillsborough County School District looks to fill hundreds of open job positions

TAMPA, Fla. - The Hillsborough County School District is holding a job fair on Wednesday with the hopes of filling hundreds of positions throughout their district. They say they’ve experienced staffing shortages in the past, but nothing like this as they say the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame.  

During the months that schools were closed and learning was completely online, the district told FOX 13 that many of their employees left to stay home with their kids and just never came back.

Now the district is hoping to bring people back through their doors and fill those empty spots as they currently have over 800 available positions.

These positions are both instructional and non-instructional as the district really has a need for anybody and everybody. They’re looking for people to fill positions like bus drivers, custodians, and positions within their nutrition services division.

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However, the greatest need at HCPS right now is teachers. The district says they have over 500 of those positions that they need filled and the pandemic has not made their search any easier.

"That creates a higher-class rosters because those kids are still being taught by somebody. We have a great need for substitute teachers, and it's making the problem that we have with COVID only worse because we're putting more kids in classrooms," said Rob Kriete with the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. "We need you; the kids need you, and it's a very rewarding job working with these kids."

The district is hopeful that they’ll find the perfect employees for the job. As of Tuesday night, they already had over 300 people registered.

If you are interested in attending, the job fair will be held Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Silo Bend Event Center at 9036 Brittany Way in Tampa.

To register ahead of time, visit https://bit.ly/JobFair0929