Education Solutions Services, LLC (“ESS” or the “Company”), based in Knoxville, TN, is proud to announce the acquisition of Austin, TX-based Proximity Learning Inc. (“PLI”). ESS, the largest K-12 staffing provider in the country focused exclusively on placing qualified substitute staff in daily and long-term school positions, will now be able to offer PLI’s highly qualified certified virtual teachers to complement the Company’s in-class substitutes.
This acquisition helps solidify ESS’s position as a uniquely focused student-first company with the only platform that can provide a full range of short-term and long-term substitute, paraprofessional, and now Certified K-12 Teachers for every school and district in the nation. Going forward, with these combined services, no K-12 school serviced by ESS will have its students deprived of access to a qualified teacher and/or an in-class substitute.
Founded in 2009, PLI pioneered using web conferencing technology to stream certified teachers into a classroom when a teacher could not be found locally. Students are able to see, learn, and interact with a teacher “live” each day from within their school classrooms. The virtual teacher even attends parent-teacher conference nights and can participate in district professional development. This PLI model directly addresses the acute and growing teacher shortage crisis plaguing school districts across the U.S.
“We see this as an opportunity to further provide an alternative solution for long-term substitute teacher staffing needs, allowing ESS to build upon the varied services our clients demand,” said ESS CEO Buddy Helton. “By bringing PLI into the ESS family, we can instantly offer a full continuum of teacher staffing solutions across our customer base, while adding additional abilities around curriculum development and a solution for virtual charter schools. As the K-12 teacher and substitute shortage has continued to increase annually, the marriage of these two services will enable school districts to gain access to innovative solutions to ensure their students’ educations do not stop with a vacancy.”
Proximity Learning CEO Evan Erdberg added, “We’re thrilled to partner with ESS’s platform to bring together market-leading substitute staffing capabilities with an innovative virtual teacher offering for school districts that have difficulties filling a vacancy. We believe this is a real win for all K-12 schools.”
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