TIFTON — Tift County Schools is seeking new teachers.

Human Resources representatives assured the Tift County Board of Education they are hard at work on recruiting new teachers.

Assistant Superintendents Kevin Dobard and Mickey Weldon came before the board reporting the school system is still facing the same labor and teacher shortages it faced last year but they are working to find solutions and bring in new educators.

Dobard said in addition to a severe lack of applicants in educational fields, the school system is competing with not only other school districts for securing teachers, but large corporations. He added corporations are interested in teachers because they are easy to train and are used to constant training.

To help remedy the issue, he said the recently passed House Bill 385 would allow retired Tift County Schools teachers to come back to work either full or part time without worry about losing their pension.

Dobard said he has been in contact with many of the school system’s retirees to check who would be interested in coming back.

Dobard suggested the starting salary for bus drivers and nutrition workers could be increased to try and maintain their respective workforces.

Weldon said his department is working on paraprofessional education programs with local colleges, developing the Future Georgia Educators program and encouraging teachers to participate in educational leadership training.

Many of the FGE students had been informed they would be welcome to come back and sign up with the school system if interested in becoming teachers down the line.

As for existing or new personnel, Weldon said they are working on getting new teachers acclimated to TCS as quickly as possible, in terms of their work and the community surrounding it.

He described the effort as akin to getting them “plugged in.”

Dobard described the plan to tackle the teacher shortage as a work in progress but asserted it was something necessary to consider moving forward.