Loudoun Tunes Up Its Sales Pitch in Quest for Teachers

Even inland Chesterfield County, Va., handed out surfboard-adorned pamphlets that asked candidates: "Are you looking for a job with . . . the Wow! factor?" Its bright yellow tower display and brochure showed employees doing jumping jacks and looking "wowed!" by the county's benefits and work environment.

John B. Titus, a stone-faced Chesterfield principal in a charcoal-gray suit, sought to explain his school's new marketing campaign. "I think it's like pizzazz or something," he said. Then he confessed: "We're school people. It's not what we do."

He came to talk about serious things: rising test scores, curriculum, growth potential. But in the meat market of a job fair, he said, it's important to turn heads. He nodded to the commotion caused by a recruiter from Highlands County, Fla., who set up a rotating tower display across the room.

"It's called a poster-in-motion," said Sean A. Rego. He said he has taken the revolving images of race cars and golfers to colleges throughout the mid-Atlantic to help staff a southern Florida school system that plans to open one new school a year for the next three years.

Florida has one of the biggest teacher-candidate deficits in the country. State officials anticipate about 22,000 job openings next year, but the education programs graduate only about 7,000. Recruiters look north or anywhere they can think of to fill the gap.

Fairfax County recruiters did their bit to hold on to local graduates. They offered an early signing bonus for hard-to-staff subjects and promoted their own theme: "Imagine Unlimited Possibilities." Beneath a banner of young people riding bicycles in cloudlike bubbles, a line of prospective teachers formed, wearing name tags with subject areas.

"Come closer, my friends," said Fairfax recruiter Alice Ford. "I see chemistry, I see math, and I'm drooling."

Minjae Yuh, 22, an aspiring math or science teacher, was clear where she wanted to end up: Her top choice is Fairfax, where her parents live, or nearby Loudoun.

Others were less certain. Another math candidate, Carolyn R. Fawcett, 23, signed up for an interview with Fairfax but said: "I'm not totally sold. . . . I told my parents I'd look in Virginia Beach. That's where they live. And I have two brothers in Northern Virginia, but I'm also looking in Georgia."

For Fawcett's wandering eyes, there were a million messages. Baltimore County is "closer than you think"; Nelson County, southwest of U-Va., is "a beautiful county and a warm community." Howard County proclaims, "Welcome home," and Loudoun County says, well, get out your sunglasses.