Fort Worth ISD using billboards to recruit Oklahoma teachers

Fort Worth ISD is in need of more teachers and is looking across the Red River to find them.

Concerns over school funding and teacher pay led to protests and school district shutdowns in Oklahoma last month.

It's something Fort Worth ISD paid attention to. The North Texas school district is able to offer tens of thousands more in starting pay, so it advertised that on billboards all over Oklahoma.

Each year, Fort Worth ISD says it has about 500 to 700 vacancies to fill. In the past, the district has done recruitment campaigns in places like San Diego, Michigan and Florida. This year, the district is shifting its attention to Oklahoma and is advertising jobs in a not-so-subtle way.

"We're not trying to raid Oklahoma,” said Fort Worth ISD Spokesperson Clint Bond. “We're just saying that if you're thinking about a change, we would like to talk to you."

Billboards now up in Oklahoma read, "Your future is in a Fort Worth classroom. Teacher starting salary $52,000."

"The teachers in Oklahoma are passionate. They're committed. They're compassionate,” Bond. “And those are the kind of teachers that we're looking for."

Fort Worth ISD says is so impressed by the Oklahoma teachers who recently staged a nine-day walkout that it's now recruiting them with the billboards in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and college towns Stillwater and Norman. The Oklahoma teachers demanded and got millions of dollars in new education funding for students and a small raise.

Dallas ISD was already recruiting in Oklahoma. Last December, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin attended a DISD recruiting event and posted a message about the need for education funding.

“The Dallas school system saying that they pay their teachers over $50,000 a year. We pay on average about $32,000 a year plus benefits,” Fallin said.

Kevin Harrington and his wife, Suzanne Harrington, are both teachers who answered that call last year. They dedicated three decades to teaching in Lawton, Oklahoma. Kevin taught history and coached three sports to make ends meet.

"It was a life-changing difference just moving two hours away,” he said.

Kevin watched as his peers started accepting jobs in Texas, making $20,000 more by crossing the border. He says numbers don't lie. He now teaches health and is the assistant basketball coach at North Side High School in Fort Worth. His wife teaches fourth grade in the district.

"It was a situation where we felt like, for our family, putting two kids through the University of Oklahoma, paying back school loans and things like that, this was a great opportunity,” Kevin said.

A receptionist at Fort Worth ISD says Oklahoma teachers are calling already.

Fort Worth ISD says they plan to expand the campaign to Arizona. The district is looking especially for math, science and bilingual teachers.