Nearly a full house
SFPS says it has fewer than a dozen full-time vacancies as year starts; other positions also mostly full
While other districts in the state and nation may be struggling to find enough teachers to cover classrooms by the first day of school, leaders of Santa Fe Public Schools are confident they will have almost all of their teaching positions filled by the time students return next week.
As of Friday, the district had 11 vacant fulltime teacher positions, according to spokesman Jeff Gephart. Unlike in years past, none of those vacancies is in the special education department.
Gephart said the vacancies are not concentrated in any one area. “It’s STEM teachers, science teachers, math, language arts — it varies,” he said.
The district, he said, has been concentrating all summer on filling open positions, including those for counselors, nurses and bus drivers, to meet the opening-day needs of its approximately 13,000 students.
The district has two nurse vacancies and one open assistant principal position at Ortiz Middle School. Those jobs could be filled by Tuesday, the first day for students in grades 1-12, Gephart said.
“We’re still working on things,” he said. “Contracts are being offered, candidates are going through background checks and interviews are still being conducted.”
Gephart said all counselor jobs are filled, as well as 93 percent of bus driver positions.
The school board received an update on school staffing Tuesday. At the time, the district still had about 19 teacher vacancies. Mario Salbidrez, head of school security, said the district also was seeking two more crossing guards and up to seven security officers. Gephart said Friday he did not have an update on those figures.
School board President Steven Carrillo on Friday said 11 teacher vacancies is “pretty darn low” compared to previous years.
For example, when former Superintendent Joel Boyd came on board in the summer of 2012, the district had some 40 teacher vacancies. Carrillo said he remembered that figure being “in the 50s” at one time.
A recent U.S. Department of Education report on teacher shortages around the country said it remains a pressing issue in every state. The report said Albuquerque has the highest number of teacher shortages in New Mexico.
The Albuquerque district had about 300 teacher vacancies — including 165 in special education — posted on its website Friday. The district, which resumes classes Monday, employs about 6,000 teachers in all.
Meanwhile, Los Alamos Public Schools has all of its teacher, nurse and counselor positions filled, according to an email sent by Superintendent Kurt Steinhaus.
The district went “full-court press” all summer to fill vacancies, Steinhaus said, “working with our network of people to look for candidates, make lots of phone calls, use targeted and email strategies and purchase a fullpage ad in local newspapers.” Los Alamos students return to school Thursday.