BY BRAD A. HODGES
SALISBURY POST

Warmer weather and friendly faces drew Cindy Nimmer to Rowan County from Waupun, Wis.

Nimmer is one of more than 200 teachers the Rowan-Salisbury School System hired this summer — the largest group ever. Nimmer will teach third grade at Hanford Dole Elementary.

“I applied to six school systems in the area, and Rowan was the first I heard back from,” said Nimmer, who met her husband while stationed in the Marines at Camp Lejeune. “People here are so friendly and polite.”

This morning, the school system and Rowan County Chamber of Commerce hosted a breakfast at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College to welcome new teachers to the area.

They came from all over the East Coast to mix and mingle: South Carolina and Tennessee, New York and Pennsylvania. There are 110 teachers coming straight from college or other careers, a term known as lateral entry.

Many others come as career teachers from schools outside Rowan County.

Emily Kozakiewicz will teach third grade at Hanford Dole with Nimmer. Kozakiewicz, who moved to Charlotte from upstate New York, liked the recruiter for Rowan-Salisbury schools in particular.

“She would get to know you as a person rather than just saying, ‘OK, we have a position to fill,’ ” she said. “The other thing was, if I’m going to have kids of my own in five or 10 years, this is the kind of place I would like to be.”

Teacher turnover and recruiting is a problem in much of North Carolina.

The Rowan-Salisbury system has raised its stakes in hiring teachers in recent years. This year, it sent recruiters on more trips — and farther away — than ever before. Their more than 40 stops this year included Wisconsin, Indiana and other Northern states.

New teachers in Rowan-Salisbury schools receive a $600 automatic advance, which is deducted from the school system’s local supplement to teachers’ state-paid salaries. The school board just raised those supplements this summer. Teachers who move here also get reimbursed for relocation expenses and graduate courses.

For many teachers, recruiters say, larger school systems still win because they typically offer starting bonuses of $1,000 or more. And North Carolina still ranks below the national average for teacher pay.

The school system has 20 teaching positions left to fill for its 30 schools.

“I feel comfortable we will be virtually fully staffed by the first day of class,” Dr. Danny Thomas, assistant superintendent for personnel, said this morning.

Bob Marchinko will become athletic director at Southeast Middle School. He came from Clarkesville, Tenn. because of family members nearby, benefits and the challenge of teaching at a completely new school.

“I love the state of North Carolina,” Marchinko said, “and I’m excited about the challenge of teaching at a new school.”

Kim Fortney, who came from a suburb of Washington in northern Virginia, will teach seventh-grade math at Knox Middle. Salisbury’s size and abundant arts attracted her.

“I chose Salisbury because of the small-town atmosphere,” she said. “Every time my son sees cows he gets excited.”