Parents line up to drop students off on the first day of school at McMullin Elementary in Murray, Aug. 15, 2022. The Murray School District is looking for parents to work as classroom aides and other school support staff. (Becky Bruce, KSL NewsRadio)
MURRAY, Utah — If you’re a parent in need of a side hustle, the Murray School District wants to talk to you.
Unlike many Utah school districts, Murray is fully staffed when it comes to its teachers for the new school year that began Monday. But like many others, the district needs support staff, according to Superintendent Jennifer Covington.
“We are fortunate, we have all of our teaching positions filled, but we are looking for education support professionals,” she said.
Those are our classroom aides, lunchroom workers and transportation workers. And so that’s a real need we have right now to ensure that we can provide really good education to our students, and those education support professionals are crucial to what we do.”
Covington said aides, in particular, perform critical services in the classroom. And parents, this is a side hustle that doesn’t necessarily require experience.
“If you want to be a bus driver, we will pay for you to get the CDL training that you need. So if you don’t have your CDL, we’ll make sure that you get that. If you want to be a classroom aide or a child nutrition worker, apply. We will get you the training that you need,” Covington said.
Side hustle options for parents aside, Covington said she feels a real sense of optimism headed into the 2022-2023 school year.
“We are just excited to get back to the culture of school,” Covington said. “And so, not having some of the restrictions that we’ve had in past years, which of course were validated, but we’re excited for that to come back, for us to build our connections with our community, with our parents and our students, really building those strong school cultures.”