SUMMERFIELD — Similar to surrounding districts, Guilford County Schools is working to fill teaching positions before the start of the new school year.

Governor Roy Cooper joined new teachers today at a training in Summerfield to highlight the importance of such events in public education.

“It was great to see these scenarios today where they can work through the problems they know will arise and give them the experience and fact-based ideas on how to deal with them.”

Governor Cooper’s visit comes just one day after the Guilford County School Board passed a resolution to put a sales tax increase to fund higher teacher salaries on the November ballot.

“Some school board members say local officials are not supporting public education enough. What policies and things can you support to adequately support our public education system?” ABC45’s Bailey Stamos asked Governor Cooper.

“I don’t know much about this particular referendum, but what I do know is that we need to invest significantly more in our public schools, we need to pay our teachers better, and we need to move away from taking tax dollars away from public schools and instead giving them away in the form of education vouchers for private schools,” said Governor Cooper.

With the expansion of Claxton Elementary and other projects taking place throughout the school year, Superintendent Dr. Whitney Oakley is preparing teachers for any scenario.

“So we’re helping teachers understand how they can use their schedules and resources, their materials and their colleagues to make sure we have flexible learning spaces for the kids,” Dr. Oakley said.

Guilford County Schools says it still has between 30 and 40 open positions and is on track to hire about 450 teachers this summer.

“Our goal is to always have teachers ready to go on the first day of school, so we’re moving forward and getting some of them trained today,” said Dr. Oakley.

When asked what her best advice would be for new teachers taking a training like today’s, Dr. Oakley said, “Just be yourself.”