A New Jersey school district is offering $10,000 signing bonuses to teachers in five subject areas in which officials have a hard time attracting candidates.
Camden, a K-12 district with approximately 7,500 students in one of the state’s largest cities, is offering the hiring incentives as some public school districts across the nation are offering similar bonuses for new or returning teachers to help combat staffing shortages worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bonuses are being offered to new teachers in Camden’s “highest-need subject areas,” which are special education, bilingual, English as a second language, math and science, said district spokesperson Sheena Yera.
Of the district’s 47 teaching vacancies as of Wednesday, 30 positions were eligible for the $10,000 bonuses, Yera said.
The bonus offer will remain in place until all 30 jobs are filled, she said. The 47 vacancies represent approximately 6% of the teaching positions in Camden.
Camden is at least the third New Jersey school district to offer signing bonuses to teachers in the past year. The Newark school district announced in June that new hires, in the same five subject areas noted in Camden, would be eligible for $4,000 signing bonuses.