Maine School District Leads State in Educational Recruiting Technology

After carefully watching a new technology establish itself in other areas of New England, the York School Department in York, ME has proven itself a leader in the state by adopting an online educational recruitment service to attract hard-to-find teachers while saving time and money.

York, ME (PRWEB) March 2, 2006 -- Dr. Henry R. Scipione, Superintendent of Schools for York School Department in York, Maine, had been carefully watching the expansion of a new online educational recruitment service called SchoolSpring (www.SchoolSpring.com) since its inception in 2001. Last year, however, Dr. Scipione knew it was finally time to bring the service to the attention of his colleagues to evaluate. It looked as though the service was really taking off in New England and he wanted to be one of the first in Maine to jump on board.

“I knew Jim Fitzpatrick, co-founder, president and CEO of SchoolSpring from when he was a high school principal in Vermont,” explained Dr. Scipione. “I occasionally saw Jim at conferences and he would fill me in on the growth of SchoolSpring. I watched the service evolve and in the spring of 2004 I decided that it was time for my district to seriously consider it for our recruiting needs.”

One issue was that the pool of applicants we were receiving for specialized jobs like special education and science wasn’t large enough.

That year, Mr. Fitzpatrick traveled to York School Department conducting presentations for the review board so that they could better understand how the web-based recruiting tool worked. “We checked customer references, looked at alternatives, and weighed our options for almost a year before deciding to go with SchoolSpring,” said Dr. Scipione.

York Schools had been using a successful method of recruiting for years but they knew it could be better and more efficient. “Two areas needed improvement,” explained Dr. Scipione. “One issue was that the pool of applicants we were receiving for specialized jobs like special education and science wasn’t large enough.” SchoolSpring’s website receives over a million visitors a year and currently has almost 35,000 educator members looking for jobs. That means those hard-to-find teachers are now easier to locate and hire using SchoolSpring.

“Another area that needed improvement,” continued Dr. Scipione, “was the sharing of information like resumes and transcripts for members of interview teams. Passing around information from school to school was cumbersome and slow. But with SchoolSpring, applicants’ complete information is online and everyone involved with hiring can it review and comment easily.”

Dr. Scipione went on to say that SchoolSpring’s automatic notification system makes communication with applicants during the hiring process effortless. “SchoolSpring automatically informs applicants when we’ve received their information, that we’re reviewing it, and even if we’ve made a decision about the job they applied for. I think it’s an important professional courtesy to keep applicants informed of the progression of their submission and SchoolSpring makes it a snap.”

There are challenges to adopting new technology like SchoolSpring and Dr. Scipione thinks York Schools is up to the test. “The capacity of SchoolSpring is amazing, now we have to harness it. I think that with time, training, and a few key people embracing the system, we’ll see cost and time savings for the district. I can see our newspaper advertising expenses declining and we expect be a paperless recruiter which will save everyone time and money.”

“I’m glad we were careful not to rush into an unproven technology,” concluded Dr. Scipione. “But now that SchoolSpring has established itself elsewhere, we’re excited to be on board as a leader for Maine schools.”

About SchoolSpring: Since 2001, SchoolSpring (www.SchoolSpring.com) has offered an innovative online solution for job seekers and recruiters in the education market. Founded by educators for educators, the company's mission is to provide an efficient and cost-effective method of connecting educators with jobs.

Media Contact:
Jim Fitzpatrick
802.660.8567

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