Newly certified teachers filling gaps in CT schools
Brenna Doherty sent her resume for a teaching position on a Saturday. By the following Monday, a week before the year began at Kings Highway Elementary School in Westport, she was hired as the new kindergarten teacher.
“I was basically thrown into it,” Doherty said. “It was in the span of a week that I got the job.”
Doherty hadn’t even thought of teaching so soon after graduating from Central Connecticut State University, which is known as a teaching school. She finished her undergraduate studies in the spring and had started working toward a master’s.
But as schools reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, districts are rushing to fill the holes that teachers who chose not to return have left behind.
The gaps are statewide. The state Department of Education has identified certification shortages in everything from math and science teachers to school psychologists and special education professionals.
And according to Kelly Education, which helps supply substitute teachers to 50 of Connecticut’s school districts, the need for substitutes has doubled during the pandemic.
CCSU Assistant Professor of Elementary Education Michael Bartone said that though CCSU “always gets a steady stream of students who get jobs,” the current hiring rate is unusual and will only persist.
“There seems to be more of a filling of the positions because of the craziness,” Bartone explained. “[The number of requests for teachers and tutors] is not out of the norm, but I think it will be in the coming months and next year.”
A mutual friend connected Doherty with Kings Highway’s vice principal, who’d been asking around for qualified educators to hire before the year started. Now Doherty juggles teaching online all day with doing assignments at night for her master’s in integrated technology.
“It’s crazy, but we’re making it work,” Doherty said.
CCSU student-teachers are helping with the shortage as well. Michael Fiorillo, a CCSU student-teacher at John Barry Elementary School in Meriden, said that while he’s currently assisting another teacher, he’ll be teaching on his own in October.
“I’m basically doing the same thing I would be doing as a teacher,” Fiorillo said.
Fiorillo added that with the “absurd” number of job openings right now, he wishes he could get his certification earlier and work full-time, similar to how Gov. Ned Lamont and the Department of Public Health accelerated certifications for nurses in training in March.
Fiorillo said that despite the unknown being overwhelming and the schoolwork balance getting challenging at times, he’s enjoying being a student-teacher.
“We’re going good on the fly, but no one really knows what’s happening now,” Fiorillo elaborated.
In addition to their health concerns, Fiorillo and Doherty both said they’ve heard from veteran teachers that they’re leaving their posts because adjusting to online and hybrid instruction is taking a toll. Fiorillo said that even having to print out each student’s worksheets individually — there’s no paper-passing anymore — can get taxing.
Dana Malave, a 2018 CCSU graduate teaching 4th grade at the Capitol Region Education Council, or CREC, magnet school in Rocky Hill, said the pressure teachers are constantly under might contribute to educators opting out this year. She’s in person in the classroom full-time and she is focused on bonding with her students and being mindful of whether they feel safe.
“Sometimes I think the stress and the demands society and the government put on us is a lot. You really have to sacrifice your time at home and it sometimes becomes your number one thing in life,” Malave said.
“I think that we are definitely essential workers and we should be treated as [such],” she continued.