Over the last eighteen months, we have successfully increased minority representation among the faculty from four to eight members. Based on the availability of qualified minority candidates in this competitive area, this increase is significant. We are optimistic through our expanded advertising efforts and first on-site Minority Career Fair held in March, that we will be able to add to this number for the upcoming academic year.
The challenges we face in recruiting qualified minority applicants are shared by most educational institutions and are primarily due to availability of qualified applicants within a given geographical location, tenure considerations and competitive salary packages. However, competitive salary has not been a factor for NCSSM, as our faculty are the highest paid public high school teachers in the State. Like the public school system, NCSSM teachers' salaries are based on years of experience but placed on a different pay scale.
The majority of NCSSM faculty are on state supported multi-year contracts with the remaining being on one-year, soft-funded contracts. Most often, it is the one year contracts that are available due to the rare turnover of faculty on the multi-year contracts. Consequently, the most qualified minority applicants are also being recruited by other institutions offering regular or tenured type appointments which puts us at a disadvantage since our preferred hiring criterion closely aligns with that of higher education: Masters' degree or Ph.D.
The key factors which continue to attract applicants to NCCSM regardless of ethnicity are: challenging curriculum, focused student body, competitive salary, distance learning initiatives, beautiful campus and the reputation of NCSSM as the nations' first residential public high school of its kind which continues to serve as a role-model nationally and internationally. As we celebrate 17 years of existence and recognize the evolution of our own seeds as an exceptional applicant pool, we enthusiastically welcome the partnering with our alums as recruiters and potential NCCSM faculty.
Gracie Johnson
Head of Personnel