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Landing a teaching job on L.I. has become a near-impossible feat
First of two parts.
Despite holding two part-time jobs, substitute-teaching and waiting tables, 27-year-old Bellmore resident Anthony Messina has what he considers to be a third full-time job, for which he receives no pay. For five years, Messina has been searching for a permanent teaching position.
With cuts to education and teacher layoffs becoming more common these days, Messina says his hopes of landing his dream job have diminished, but he is not giving up. “I’m always buying The New York Times” for the Classified section, Messina explained. “I’m always checking OLAS” — the Online Application System for Educators.
Messina is among a generation of young educators who are struggling to find full-time jobs as school districts strive to reduce spending and control property taxes, in part by reducing staff.
Certified to teach art, Messina earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Adelphi University in Garden City. He has spent so much time and devoted so much effort to searching for a job that he considers himself an expert in the field. He joked that he might have stumbled on a different career altogether — as a consultant for young teachers seeking work.
Tough economic times have made it harder to find jobs in almost any profession, but landing a teaching job on Long Island has become tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack, with thousands of well-qualified candidates searching for that needle.
Dr. Mara Bollettieri, assistant superintendent for personnel in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, estimates that she now receives 4,000 résumés a year. For the 2011-12 school year, the district hired fewer than 10 new teachers.
Richard Banyon, deputy superintendent in the Malverne School District, said he is seeing similar numbers. “When I first started in personnel back in the mid-’90s, if we had an elementary position and we advertised, we’d maybe get 100 applicants,” Banyon said. “Now if I advertise for an elementary position, I get 200 to 300 applicants.”
