Edmond will start school with few teacher vacancies

For the first time in at least four years, Edmond School administrators won’t be scrambling to hire teachers on the eve of a new school year.

Superintendent Bret Towne said only eight teaching vacancies remained in the state’s third-largest school district

“Our principals have done a great job in hiring,” Towne said. Last year almost 25,000 students were enrolled in the district. Edmond Public Schools grows by an estimated 500 students each year. Classes resume Aug. 16.

“We still have a few openings for science, foreign language and special ed teachers,” Towne told the Edmond Board of Education during its regular monthly meeting held Monday. “We’ve even hired a couple of principals from Texas.”

In recent years, the district had dozens of teacher openings even as class bells were almost ready to ring.

Towne attributed the change this year to a state mandated pay raise, with the minimum being $5,000.

Towne added some retired teachers had been lured back into the profession by the pay raises. The administrator already noticed a change among educators during a twoday STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) conference last week, hosted by Edmond Schools.

“Attitudes by teachers were very positive at the conference,” Towne said.

The number of teacher emergency certifications issued for Edmond instructors is also down. Emergency state certified teachers lack a state teaching license. Randy Decker, district chief human resource officer, said this year only 24 such certifications have been issued, down from 32 last year.

After the meeting, Decker said teacher recruitment is a process that continues yearround. He’s expecting to have just more than 1,550 teachers employed by the time school begins. That’s up from about 1,500 teachers last year. He added the number of first-year teachers should also be down from last year’s high of 100.

Meanwhile, Towne said some Edmond students’ school year is already underway to a degree.

“We have band, football, softball and cross-country students already involved in practice,” Towne said.

Construction continues at Edmond Memorial High School, with a new gym and parking lot near completion, Towne said.

“We should have 120 extra parking spaces open by Aug. 16,” he said.

Building work continues at Edmond North High School, where there is a parking lot expansion and widening of nearby Thomas Drive. About 100 to 150 construction workers are involved in work there, he said.

The city is relocating electrical lines near the street at a district cost of $113,675. Board members Kathleen Duncan and Jamie Underwood questioned the charge and wondered why the city didn’t absorb the cost. The school’s chief operations officer, Justin Coffelt, said the project was initiated by the schools and he had negotiated the price down from $150,000. Most of the $113,675, Coffelt explained, is for labor.