The Greenwood Association of Educators is welcoming 45 new teachers to the city school district this year.
A new teacher orientation program will be held Tuesday.
Unlike previous years, there will be no centralized meeting. Instead, small groups of new teachers will gather at different places in the district.
Rylander Lee, a Greenwood High science teacher and president of the Greenwood Association of Educators, said the goal is to help recruit and retain new teachers.
“It’s going to take all of us to pull them in, hold them in and let them know that Greenwood is a great place to live,” she said.
Teacher recruitment and retention is an important need throughout Mississippi because half of the teachers in the state are eligible to retire, said Lee, who is entering her 29th year in the classroom.
She said the Greenwood school district has always done new teacher orientation and that the educators’ association began assisting about five years ago. She said the number of new teachers in the 2,900-student district varies from year to year from about 25 to 45.
Lee said the association informs the new teachers about benefits of membership and discusses issues that will help them be better teachers. The topic for this year’s meeting will be teachers and the law; last year it was bullying.
