CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The application window might have closed Monday at noon, but the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System’s teacher pipeline program was still receiving submissions up to the last minute, which speaks to the success of the program for this coming school year.

The school board was given an update on the Teacher Residency Pathways Program Tuesday night, and program leaders were met with praise from both board members and county commissioners.

Residency candidates

There are already 105 teacher residents deployed throughout the school system that are receiving training to become certified educators.

This year, the schools received 155 applications, which is up from previous years, and facilitators have already interviewed 130 of them. The applicant pool also included 25 interested high school seniors.

School board member Margaret Pace, District 2, asked about the type of residents and non-CMCSS community members that were applying.

“They’re from all walks of life; it’s amazing,” said Phyllis Casebolt, CMCSS director of federal projects. “We have people who have been (working) in hospice care and have that service-oriented mindset, but they want to have a change in careers. We’ve have people who have vastly different  career choices who’ve said, ‘My dream was always to do something to give back.’

“There’s tremendous talent. We were so excited about the interviews this season,” Casebolt said.

Effects of COVID-19

That excitement was “contagious,” according to board member Kent Griffy, District 4.

“Your enthusiasm from your entire team during this presentation is probably contagious, and has a lot to do with the success of your group efforts,” Griffy said.

The recruitment numbers drove much of the enthusiasm, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited the TRP team’s recruiting options.

“We started to look at our communications, and how we could get the word out particularly in this season since we weren’t able to hold informational sessions,” said LaVetta Radford, a CMCSS Educator Pipeline facilitator.

These efforts included a new program website, high school visits, pushing the program on social media and networking. Sean Impeartrice, chief academic officer for CMCSS, took part in a Clarksville’s Conversations talk about the program.

“When this (program) kicked off a couple of years ago, I was excited about it then, and I’m excited about it today, and I’m excited about it for next year because I know this is something that is needed and is something that this community could support,” said school board member Jimmy Garland, District 5.

Bridging the community

Three new pipelines are available for this coming school year, and, in addition, the school system was able to find applicants that would fit the Spanish immersion program at Barksdale.

“We were able to identify four native Spanish speakers, and we presented them to Helen Nicholas, who runs our Spanish immersion program at Barksdale Elementary School, for possible feeding into her program so that she can continue her program at Barksdale, which is very exciting,” Traci Koon, a CMCSS Educator Pipeline facilitator, said Tuesday night.

The school system plans to reopen applications in January 2022 for the 2022-23 school year, with new opportunities for those interested.