The biggest employer in the South County is looking to hire more than 300 new employees.
The Manteca Unified School District needs to fill everything from teaching posts to school site assistant positions as well as para-professional jobs during a job fair set for Saturday, Feb. 4, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the district office complex, 2271 W. Louise Ave.
The district is interviewing and hiring on the spot for at least 100 teachers they need for class-size reductions, retirement and growth. Those include kindergarten through sixth grade multiple subjects, junior high and high school assorted single subjects, and special education teachers.
There are more than 200 classified positions ranging from school site assistants and paraprofessionals to transportation and nutritional services. Information tables will be available for those jobs.
Certified teachers, candidates are asked to submit applications on Edjoin by Feb. 1 at 4 p.m.
Deputy Superintendent Burke Clarke notes that those teachers who are hired and aren’t currently employed that the district will work with them to fill substitute teaching jobs until their employment starts with Manteca Unified as a full-time instructor in August.
To avoid not having teachers hired in advance of the start of school in August with enough time to prepare lesson plans and classrooms, the district is hiring educators early in advance of vacancies being created. Hiring teachers credentialed in multipole subjects leaves little chance they won’t have a vacancy as is hiring math teachers of which there is a national shortage.
The hiring strategy also means Manteca will stand a better chance of getting even better qualified candidates by essentially getting at the front of the line.
That coupled with starting teachers being the highest paid in San Joaquin County and a policy that allows existing teachers transferring from jobs elsewhere to retain their seniority (up to 21 years credit where most salary schedules top out) eliminates pay as a deterrent to getting applicants.
At the same time the district is aggressively marketing the fact that Manteca is affordable for young teachers that want the culture and social activities that the Bay Area offers or the active lifestyle provided by everything from the Sierra to beaches.
 Manteca Unified also offers a free two-year teacher induction program, curriculum and training specialist, programs coordinators, and department chairs — all focused on helping a  teacher succeed. The district also offers ongoing professional development opportunities online and in person.
Other incentives are detailed in what Manteca Unified describes as a “culture of excellence.”
That includes digital learning being deployed in transitional kindergarten through the 12th grade, be.tech dependent vocational charter school, traditional high schools on innovative 4x4 block schedule, untethered teaching and wireless projection, Microsoft Glob, Showcase Technology District, “maker” mindset for engineering/computing and entrepreneurship, Advanced Placement District Honor Roll recipient, and an environmentally conscious mindset among other pluses.
Filling classified positions is an ongoing challenge.
All of the paraprofessional jobs — bilingual included — requires some college units or passing a test.
The positions dovetail well into some college students’ schedules giving that they start at $13.95 to $15.03 an hour and are only for a few hours a day.
Besides bilingual aides and classroom aides there is a pressing need for yard duty supervisors and nutrition services employees. The frequent vacancies are the function of two things: a job with more hours elsewhere or the employee taking advantage of the ability to move into other classified jobs as they become available with more hours, and better pay. In many cases, the current fulltime classified employees started in the district in jobs that had only several hours or work a day.
One of the biggest sources to fill the positions lately has been retired people that are only looking for a few hours of work a day.
Cooks and bakers start at $15.41 an hours. The pay steps based primarily on longevity go as high as $21.50.
Campus monitors start at $15.80 an hour. The pay steps top out at $22.04.
Classroom aides start out at $13.95 an hour. The pay steps top out at $19.46.
Bilingual aides in specific languages start out at $14.66 an hour. The pay tops out at $20.45
All open positions in the district are posted on EdJoin that in turn advertises on various online sites such as Indeed.com and Monster Jobs. They’ve post jobs in the newspaper, with educational agencies and in school site newsletters and on campus masques. They also advertise jobs on the school district office campus marquee visible from Louise Avenue and occasionally on the distinct Facebook page.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com