School District welcomes Clemence Hwayire
The Wrangell school district in Alaska has hired Clemence Hwayire as a new special education teacher to fill a vacancy. Hwayire brings over two decades of international teaching experience to the district, which has recently faced significant faculty turnover.
Why it matters
The hiring highlights the ongoing challenges of teacher retention and recruitment in remote school districts, as well as the global mobility of educators.
The school district has hired Clemence Hwayire as a new special education teacher — the last of four new faculty hires for the school year that started on Tuesday.
Hwayire brings 24 years of teaching experience to Wrangell, including a decade focused entirely on special education. He began his career in Zimbabwe, teaching fifth through seventh grades for 18 years in public and private schools. He later taught in Botswana for four years before moving to Fairbanks in 2024 to teach for two years.
Though he applied to schools across several states when leaving Botswana, he felt drawn to Alaska. Adjusting to the subarctic weather, however, proved to be an initial challenge.
“It gets cold in Fairbanks — very cold,” he said.
Wrangell’s milder climate appealed to him, and he was also encouraged by the district’s reputation and vision for the future.
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