[Tuxedocat]

I have dropped off, emailed and snail mailed resumes and cover letters and applied to every school within 25 miles and I haven't received even one reply. Not one interview. Last year I worked part time in a Reading Intervention position. One lady that worked there with me had just recently graduated and has no classroom experience. She's had interviews and job offers. I have 15 years of experience (in another county/system) and I can't even get a response. I'm discouraged, disheartened and about ready to throw in the towel. This is my second summer trying to find a classroom position here. I seriously want to just walk away.

[LilMsSunshine]

That’s so frustrating!! It sounds like you are doing everything right! Have you had someone look at your resume and cover letter? That might help!

[GraceKrispy]

I'm so sorry, that is incredibly frustrating! I agree with having someone else look over your material just to see if there is anything there. With the current financial situation, it might be that districts are looking for those with limited to no experience to save money.

[cruxian]

Have someone look at your stuff.
Having said that, in my area, admin won't really look at applications that are handed off in person or mailed. They won't even open or consider resumes/cover letters emailed to them. All applications are done online and are evaluated that way. I'm not sure what the districts are like where you are. Are you doing the online applications and in addition doing the emails/in person/snail mail stuff? It may be overkill. Don't they do online applications? They do it that way to make it more uniform for applicants; the dropping off the stuff in person is fairly old school. At most, if I was really interested in a school, I'd send an email expressing interest but even then sometimes that's considered an annoyance.
Now to the other part. When jobs open up, you don't know what they're really looking for. Cost is a consideration. If they have a super experienced team and are looking to fill a slot, they might well seek out a new teacher due to cost and an attempt to balance the team. (Also my previous admin seem to prefer younger teachers at least in part because she lacked confidence in her own authority and viewed younger people as easier to boss around/mold to her way of doing things.) They might sometimes be looking to hire someone with a different background---you're strong in reading but maybe they already have two strong reading teachers on the grade level and are looking to hire a math person.
Don't give up hope though! Often they want someone with experience. I've been hired because they were trying to balance a team between experienced/newer teachers or because I'm strong in a particular subject. Just keep trucking. It's hard under any cirumstances but especially now.

[Tuxedocat]

I had a friend who is a former principal go over my resume and cover letter and she said they looked great! I have applied online on the district website. I've been told that they want a resume in addition to the online application, because the online application isn't super informative. I don't know...like I said, it's just frustrating. I don't really know many people in this county - so I have no connections here. There is a brand new school that's due to be finished just before school starts, and another one in the area that's losing their principal to the new school, as well as lots of that staff that are going WITH the principal to the new school. I though for sure I could at least get interviewed at one of those schools.

Thanks for the input.