Camden, NJ schools offer huge $10K signing bonus to new teachers

💲 Camden City schools offer $10K signing bonus

💲 More than 100 candidates attend recent job fair

💲 Districts find some success with bonuses

CAMDEN — Desperate to fill open teaching positions ahead of the 2024-25 school year, the Camden City School District is again offering $10,000 to entice new teachers in select subject areas.

The hefty signing bonus is being offered to candidates for teaching positions that are more in demand.

When the $10,000 signing bonus was first announced around a year ago, it was only offered to teachers in math, science, bilingual, and English as a second language. The offer has since been expanded to health/PE teachers, CBS Philadelphia reported.

The average salary was $54,272 for a first-step Camden schools teacher with a bachelor's degree in the 2022-23 school year, according to the district website. A $10,000 signing bonus at that salary would be worth just over ten weeks of pay.

Job fair attracts 100+ people

Hoping to attract new candidates, the district held an in-person job fair after school hours at the Camden High School gym on March 19.

There are around 50 open high-demand teaching job positions, for the upcoming school year, NJ.com reported.

More than 100 people attended the job fair, according to the district.

New Jersey 101.5 has reached out to a district spokesperson to find out how many positions have been filled since the job fair and how many openings remain.

SEE ALSO: NJ school district has been discriminating against moms, state says

Districts find some success with bonuses

Offering big checks to entice new teachers has found some success in other New Jersey school districts experiencing staff shortages.

Paterson schools began offering $7,500 bonuses to new teachers in September 2022 as it faced a significant number of teacher vacancies. To keep new hires around, half of the bonus was paid in the first year and the remaining half was paid out in the second year.

The district hired 115 new teachers in less than three months.

The Newark school district announced in August 2022 that it hired over 600 new teachers after the board increased overall pay and began offering a $4,000 signing bonus.

However, months later enough vacancies remained that the district began trying to entice retired teachers to teach again by offering salaries of $92,000.

While signing bonuses have had success, even more tempting are higher base salaries. Below are the New Jersey school districts with the highest teacher salaries.

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