Clayton News Daily

Clayton County Public Schools will offer five job-seeking seminars to employees who recently found out their contracts wil not be renewed for the next school year.

Each seminar will begin at 3 p.m., and will be limited to 50 people per session. The seminars will be held today, and the next four Thursdays (April 23 and 30, and May 7 and 14), at the Professional Learning Center, which is located at 1087 Battle Creek Road, in Jonesboro.

During the district-sponsored sessions, tips for being interviewed, writing a resume, and applying for unemployment benefits will be offered by officials from the school system's Benefits Office, said District Spokesman John Lyles, in a written statement.

Officials for the 48,000-student school system announced late last year that the district was facing a $23 million shortfall in state funding for the 2009-10 school year. District leaders attributed much of the reduction in funding to the loss of more than 3,000 students this year, because of the school system's loss of accreditation.

Last month, contracts were not renewed for 300 teachers and five administrators, and 13 more senior-level administrators found out their positions would be eliminated in June.

One more senior level official, former General Counsel Julie Lewis, whose position was eliminated, has already left the school system.

One hundred of the teachers whose contracts were not renewed have been placed on a waiting list to see if other employees do not sign their contracts for the upcoming school year.