Public school campuses in rural South Texas are struggling to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. Districts now have flexibility in hiring certified teachers, but the need for teachers continues to grow annually. The challenge lies in attracting teachers to smaller school districts, when there are larger districts throughout the State of Texas that can afford to offer higher salaries and better benefit packages. The students attending school in rural South Texas districts deserve the same education that any other school district in Texas provides, so it is imperative to understand how the principals in rural South Texas school districts identify candidates for hire, recruit said candidates, and retain employees on their campuses. This qualitative research sought to understand the perceptions of campus principals in rural South Texas regarding teacher recruitment strategies, retention strategies, and professional traits relevant to higher recruitment and retention success. Ten campus principals working in rural school districts were interviewed with the intent of gaining insight from their perceptions regarding current recruitment and retention practices in South Texas. Open-ended questions, active involvement, and observation were used to gather data during face-to-face Zoom video conferences. Through repeated analysis of the transcriptions there were 35 words or short phrases which emerged during the interviews. These words or short phrases were organized into themes. Key findings in this study indicate that the recruitment and retention of teachers is a direct result of the decisions made by campus principals, the salary offered to the teacher, the level of support from administration, the culture and climate of the school, the professional flexibility of teachers, and the advertising practices of rural school districts. School districts in rural South Texas could benefit from this information in their hiring practices and teacher retention efforts. Universities may benefit from the findings of this study and apply this research to the future teacher and administrator preparation practices. The primary beneficiaries of this research are the students attending school in rural South Texas districts. This study focused on recruitment and retention of teachers in South Texas rural campuses. It also sought to discover what professional characteristics were found to be the most desirable in a potential new hire. Future studies could seek to discover what type of monetary incentives are the most attractive to teachers, how a positive campus climate and culture impacts a school, and how employee flexibility increases their chances of getting and keeping a job.