Lodi Unified looking across world for faculty positions

Tokay High principal set to embark on trip to find teaching candidates to fill math, science needs

Citing a years-long shortage of credentialed teachers in math, science and special education, Lodi Unified will look as far as the Philippines to fill in teaching gaps next school year.

In a few weeks, Tokay High School Principal Erik Sandstrom will set forth on an all-expenses paid trip to the capital city of Manila and Cebu in the south, where he will interview credentialed teaching candidates willing to teach math and science in Lodi schools.

The idea is to fill positions that American teachers have historically left vacant. But at least one Lodi educator feels officials may be premature in supposing California teachers won't want those jobs.

When Sandstrom leaves Feb. 13, most of the expenses for his week-long trip will be paid for by Healthquest Enterprises, Inc. a recruitment service that matches qualified teachers, nurses and physical therapists with employment opportunities in the United States and Australia.

The company pays for the recruitment trip and all the paperwork, cutting out the work the district has to do, according to Len Casanega, Lodi Unified's assistant superintendent of personnel.

"Instead of going to Stanislaus State to recruit, we're going to the Philippines," Casanega said.

Sandstrom could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Lodi Unified School District will continue to recruit new teachers within California and the United States. The recruitment process will include having personnel staff attend job fairs at Stanislaus State University, the University of the Pacific and those hosted by the San Joaquin County Office of Education.

The four math teachers and two science teachers the district is hoping to find abroad will be added to five special-education teachers who have already been offered jobs next school year, Casanega said.

The employees will work under the same terms of any other teacher, and will belong to the same teaching organizations, he said.

Sue Kenmotsu, president of Lodi Educators Association, the district's teachers union, said she saw no problem with the district using foreign teachers to fill open positions.

Kenmotsu did have a problem, however, with the positions being filled before local teachers had a crack at them.

"There may be right now, in San Joaquin County, a teacher completing a program in math, science or special education who will be hired, but not in Lodi because we've hired someone from the Philippines to take their place," Kenmotsu said. "That disturbs me."

To school districts struggling to find teachers that meet state and federal standards, foreign teachers seem a better option than filling spaces with unqualified long-term substitutes, which has been the practice up until now, officials say.

And Healthquest swears by the abilities of its Filipino employees, who were taught under the American education system and are eager to work in this country.

Farah Hontanosas, a marketing consultant for Healthquest based in Missouri, said the candidates pay the company $5,000 after they receive a job offer. Healthquest, which will soon be renamed International Resource Link, then processes the paperwork for a H-1B working visa.

As many as 10,000 foreign teachers work in public school systems on "nonimmigrant" or cultural exchange visas, according to the National Education Association.

On such visas, workers can stay up to six years and then on a renewal basis as long as work is available. Hontanosas, who herself came from the Philippines as an accountant, said qualified workers are eager to work abroad to avoid the dismal economic environment in their native country.

"If there's greener pastures for them, they want to go there," Hontanosas said.

Still, Kenmotsu wonders whether or not next year's needs could have been filled by candidates a little closer to home.

"Shouldn't there be a hometown advantage, or a home county advantage?"

Contact reporter Sara Cardine at sarac@lodinews.com.

This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 24, 2006, to clarify that the Lodi Unified School District will continue to recruit teachers in California and the United States.