Local schools say no shortage
Some districts around nation facing severe vacancy of teachers
While a teacher shortage in some parts of the country is leading to schools opening for only four days a week, or shoehorning multiple classes together in the gym under one supervisor’s eye, school districts in the Capital Region say they are not facing such worker shortages.
Some school districts still have a few teacher positions to fill, but many have already finished their hiring for the fall.
A few districts are now offering a “recruitment stipend” for hard-to-fill positions, said New York State United Teachers spokesman Matthew Hamilton.
Lansingburgh is offering that stipend, he said. The district as of last week was still looking for an elementary school special education teacher, as well as English, Spanish and biology teachers at the high school.
In Albany, district officials were still interviewing for 105 teaching positions, which is about 5 percent of the teaching staff. It is actually far fewer than the district’s vacancies last year. But Superintendent Kaweeda Adams said it would be much better to have all the staff in place now.
“It is always a crisis” if the district has even one vacancy,
she said.
“In the end of the day, our students are the ones who experience challenges when they do not have a licensed, permanent teacher in front of them. Whether it is one position or five positions or 50 positions, we are always concerned we have the appropriate personnel in front of the students,” she said.
This year’s openings are typically what Albany city schools experience before school starts.
“We have hard-to-fill areas: science, math and foreign language,” Adams said.
If they aren’t all filled in time, administrators, teachers on special assignment and subject coaches will step in, she said. But she expects to hire many people before the first day of school, which starts for some buildings next week on Thursday, Sept. 1.
“It is highly unlikely we would still have 105 openings in the next few weeks,” she said. “We are interviewing each and every day.”
Suburban districts the Times Union connected with are not seeing a teacher shortage either, just the same number of vacancies as usual.
“We are still hiring folks and I know we are short at least two monitors for two elementary schools. Other than that, we are probably
at the same level we were last year,” said Scotiaglenville Central School District spokesman Bob Hanlon.
In Bethlehem, officials were only in need of one more teacher to finish their hiring before the school year starts there the Tuesday after Labor
Day.
Many district officials said their greatest need is still bus drivers. Scotiaglenville has enough drivers — unless two call in sick.
School officials said that scenario is not ideal, and the district is trying to hire more.
One difference between districts nationwide that are seeing a teaching crunch and the Capital Region might be pay.
In a rural district in Mineral Wells, Texas, where school is starting four days a week as a way of attracting staff, the pay ranges from $40,000 to $72,000, according to Glassdoor.
In the Albany school district, the highest-paid teacher last year made $118,000, according to Seethroughny.
Still, money is likely just one factor.
Nevada’s Clark County School District offered retention bonuses, hiring bonuses and increased salaries by $7,000. But a week after school started, the district was still looking for more than 1,100 teachers, from kindergarten to specialized autism teachers, according to its job listings.
Rural districts also have a harder time attracting employees if the person’s spouse can’t find a job in the area, or if there isn’t housing available.
“I’d caution generally against saying that better pay is a sole driver that makes things less bad
“
In the end of the day, our students are the ones who experience challenges when they do not have a licensed, permanent teacher in front of them. Whether it is one position or five positions or 50 positions, we are always concerned we have the appropriate personnel in front of the students.”
— Albany Superintendent
Kaweeda Adams
than another state,” said Hamilton from NYSUT. “School climate, relationship with administration and overall wellness (i.e., stress management, feeling supported, etc.) are all things I’ve heard about when it comes to what we need to retain staff or what we need to make a district more attractive to work for, before pay is ever brought up.”