Edmond schools chief voices concern over teacher shortage

The Edmond School Board agenda now allots time for a regular report from its superintendent, and Bret Towne took advantage of that to convey his deep concerns over a growing teacher shortage problem.

"We used to have 2,000 applications every year for teacher openings," he said Tuesday during the regular monthly meeting of the Edmond School Board. "We now have half that number."

Five board members, staff and patrons heard Towne outline even more hiring challenges.

"In one day we had five teachers leave from Edmond North (high school) to teach elsewhere," he said.

He noted one husband-and-wife teacher team left the district for work in Fort Worth, Texas, where they immediately earned thousands of dollars more.

"The teacher shortage has caught up with Edmond," he said. "This will affect the quality of education."

He noted the district had 20 emergency certifications. Those are given to educators who lack a teaching certificate.

Statewide, that topped more than 1,000 certifications as districts struggled to try to find teachers.

The shortage had been blamed on stagnant educator salaries and state budget cuts.

Edmond has about 1,500 teachers. When school opened, there were only a handful of openings.

Towne said the district did make 260 new hires for this school year. Hiring new instructors is critical in Edmond, where student enrollment figures continue to climb.

Also in his report, Towne said latest enrollment figures in the district show 24,847 students. That is up 444 students from final enrollment numbers on Oct. 1 last year.

Some good news

Despite his bleak teacher recruitment assessment, Towne had some good news.

Contracts with teachers and staff have been ratified, he said. Because of an increase of local funding, teachers will receive a 2.2 percent raise and staff a 3 percent raise.

Among the funding increase is a $280,000 rebate from one of the district's insurance carriers.

Towne praised the budgeting and planning efforts of fellow administrators Randy Decker and Lori Smith. Decker is chief human resources officer, and Smith is chief financial officer.

"They both did a great job of planning ahead," Towne said.

Board President Cynthia Benson said Towne's remarks would become a regular part of the agenda each month.

Later during the meeting, Benson asked Towne to explain a $12,000 expenditure to Templeton Demographics of Texas.

Towne said the company was used a few years ago when the Edmond district redrew its boundaries.

Towne said he is concerned over the construction of new apartments in the southwest parts of the district in Oklahoma City. Towne called the situation "frightening" because of the potential of adding many more students to an already growing district.

"We need to understand where we are growing," Towne said. "This will tell us if we have to adjust our next bond issue."

The school district has taken bond packages to patrons once every two years, usually in February. The last bond issue package, totaling $111 million, passed in February with more than 80 percent of the vote. The next package, probably in February 2019, would again be in the $90 million to $100 million range, Towne said.

The board later voted to give administrators a 2 percent raise and a 2.5 percent raise to professional noncontract staff.