On his first day as a teacher in the United States, Ferdinand Batoon pointed out the Philippines on a map to students at North Stafford High School, in Virginia.

That’s his birthplace, and where he held a physical education position with the country’s Ministry of Education.

“Do you speak English there?” he recalled some of the students asking.

Actually, most of the country’s teachers know English. That’s one reason Stafford school officials recruited Batoon and 18 other special-education teachers from the Philippines.

A shortage of special-education applicants in the United States prompted Stafford to look outside the country, said Rick Fitzgerald, the country school system’s director of human resources.

So far, School Board Chairman Ed Sullivan said he’s heard nothing negative about the Filipino teachers.

“I’m not opposed to it if we’re not taking jobs away from people in the area who would like to work here,” he said.

But at least one teacher thinks this approach may not pay off, calling it a “desperation move.” Instructors have invested a lot time training the Filipinos, who can leave next year.

“If they don’t have the majority of these teachers stay for three years, it’s a loss,” said North Stafford High School teacher David Schaller. “We’re putting a lot of time into them.”

Spotsylvania County recruited 12 Filipino teachers last year, spokeswoman Sara Branner said. Eight stayed this year and nine new ones arrived.

North Stafford High School teacher Teresita Guevarra, 51, taught at a private school in the Philippines. When asked whether she planned to stay, she said, “I cannot answer you because I am still adjusting here.”

Both school divisions used a firm called Green Life Care International to find applicants. The company paid school representatives, such as Fitzgerald, to fly to the Philippines to meet teachers.

Isidro Rodriguez, president of Green Life Care International, said the Filipinos give him a month’s U.S. pay to set them up with employers.

Most end up staying in the United States, he said, partly because they earn less than $250 a week in the Philippines. In Stafford, they are paid as much as others with similar experience.

The Filipinos join teachers in “collaborative classrooms,” helping students with behavioral problems, learning disabilities or anyone in need of some extra guidance, Fitzgerald said.

Some students in Individualized Education Program (IEP) also report to the new hires.

Batoon, 39, said American students are bigger, more outspoken and more confrontational than their Filipino peers. And sometimes, he said, he asks students to repeat themselves because “they speak very, very fast. But we’re coping,” he said. “For us, learning is universal. You can always adapt to the situation here.”

Eventually, he said, he hopes to work with sports teams, such as tennis and track.

Schaller, a physics teacher, said Batoon mostly takes notes for students with special needs. By the end of the year, he hopes Batoon can teach 5 percent of the classroom lessons and add to lectures.

“I believe in a year, maybe two at the most, he’d be pretty much up to speed,” Schaller said.

Recently, Schaller taught his class about rain forests. Afterward, Batoon asked him whether he could interject during discussions.

“I said, ‘Man, come on, of course, I want to hear what you got,” he said. “Obviously, that wasn’t the way things ran in his country.”

Hampton Oaks Elementary teacher Loreto Cruz, 43, lives in a North Stafford house with five of his Filipino colleagues, including Batoon.

In his home country, he worked as a special-education teacher during the day and a college professor at night. At Hampton Oaks, he works with six students on Individualized Education Programs, helps teachers with their lesson plans and teaches weekly Italian lessons to five students.

Sometimes, he said, his housemates question his happy disposition. That’s partly because some deal with older students who often misbehave.

“How is it that these kids, when they grow up, they are contrary to what I see here?” he asked.

Acting Superintendent Andre Nougaret said the division will probably continue to recruit and retain foreign employees. But he said he wants to give the program more time before making any final decisions.

“I think it’s important for us to take a good look at how they’re doing and how they’re acclimating to a totally different environment,” he said.