Every new teacher’s journey at Piedmont High School began long before the first bell rang. It started with a job posting, an interview, and an applicant with hopes of joining the PHS community. By the time they stand in front of the classroom, the process has done more than just fill a position. It has brought another voice, story, and perspective into the Piedmont community.
When a teaching position opens at PHS, the process begins with the vacancy being posted within the district.
“Once we know there’s a vacancy, we post it internally so it allows teachers who are interested, either from other sites or who are part time, to apply first,” Principal David Yoshihara said.
If nobody from PUSD seems like a good fit or nobody applies, the opening is posted to the general public on EdJoin, said PHS Human Resources director Kim Randlett.
“The external process then opens it up to essentially anybody,” Yoshihara said.
Randlett said supervisors review applicants and select who they would like to interview.
Department chairs are also involved in reviewing resumes, said Assistant Principal Joseph Marik.
“Why are they interested? Do they fit? Does their experience match?” Marik said. “Generally, we would select a handful of candidates who we think are good fits and do in person interviews.”
The interview process involves administrators, classified staff (non-teaching staff), and teachers. Interviews typically involve a panel of multiple teachers from the given department, but there is always at least one. Generally, there are two rounds of interviews, an initial round and a final round with one or two candidates.
“The candidates will come in one at a time. We’ll ask them the same questions, and our job is to rank them in what order we would prefer them to get hired,” said math teacher and math department chair Samuel Colburn.
After interviews, reference and background checks are completed on potential candidates.
“Reference checks is where we will call people that the candidate says can testify to their character and their work ethics,” Yoshihara said.
Using all of the information collected, administrators make the final decision of who to hire.
“Then they come our way and we work out with them what their salary is and things like that,” Randlett said.
According to the PHS parent newsletter, eight new teachers joined Piedmont High School staff this year, filling positions across a range of subjects and marking another year of growth for the district.
