COLORADO SPRINGS — Some local school districts are still feeling the impacts of a nationwide teacher shortage, but many say there are improvements.
At Colorado Springs School District 11, there are just over 100 teacher positions they’re trying to fill. At Academy District 20, there are 190 open positions on their website.
While those numbers may seem like a lot, “Comparatively, we're in pretty good shape to previous years,” said Allison Cortez with D20. “We’re actually in a better position this year than we were last school year,” said Debra Ashby with D11.
Ashby is the chief communications officer for D11. She said the district is still hiring special education teachers, math and science teachers and bus drivers. If the positions do not get filled, they'll make other plans.
“We do have long-term subs that come back into the classroom to help us. We have some retirees that are also willing to come back into the classroom and help us until we can fill those gaps in positions,” said Ashby.
Some licensed teachers who have taken jobs elsewhere in the district can also help.
“It’s not like some of those positions in those those classrooms will go without a teacher. We will have those folks in place,” said Ashby.
Ashby also credits the district having the highest starting teacher salary at $50,000 that’s been helping recruit teachers to the district.
At a job fair over the summer, the district hired more than 70 people. The district has also hired more than 60 people who have alternative licensure, which is someone who has a background in an industry, who can teach students in that field.
Meanwhile, Cortez with D20 said their biggest need this year is elementary school teachers.
“This year, we're really short elementary teachers, and in years past that hasn't been as much of a problem,” said Cortez, who mentioned in previous years, finding math teachers was difficult. “We don’t have a root cause for it at this point, but it’s something we’re looking into.”
Many positions were filled at the district’s most recent job fair, which was one of two large job fairs held every year. Cortez also credits the district advertising in college areas and working with their recruiting department to recruit teachers at colleges. The district also sends people to job fairs throughout the country to hire new educators.
Cortez added, about 40 new hires are also from out of state. D20 still needs about 50 teachers, 50 paraprofessionals and 10 bus drivers, but the good news this year, is that the district has even more backups to help
“There was a time during the pandemic where even our depth of our retirees and our long-term subs, we were very nervous,” said Cortez. “This year we're not in that place. We have such a deep pool of long-term subs and retirees, and we’re really lucky to have both of those pools.”
One of D20’s largest improvements is the amount of bus drivers that have been hired. Last year, there were 20 open positions, and this year there are 10. There is also a need for crossing guards.
“I think that's the big takeaway for us is how every year, the fluctuation of what we're looking for, seems to be changing and that's something that we're going to have to figure out,” said Cortez.”
District 11 anticipates having full staff for bus driver positions.
As local school districts are still feeling the impacts of a nationwide teacher shortage, many are still optimistic about the upcoming school year.
“We are probably going to see that teacher shortage extend throughout the rest of the school year and beyond,” said Ashby. “Who knows when it's going to be alleviated, but we'll continue to monitor the trends and we're going to continue to put alternative plans in place and do everything that we can to attract the best teaching staff into our schools.”
School District 49 is looking to hire about 30 teachers. A spokesperson for the district says they're optimistic about that number. They say the critical need this year is bus drivers. They need to hire about 20 more to be at full staff.
According to a press release sent out by Woodland Park School District, some local schools are in a better place than others.
Columbine, Gateway and Summit Elementary Schools have reportedly hired all necessary general education teachers. Woodland Park Middle School and High School also report having hired all of the necessary general education teachers they'll need for this upcoming year.
The school district is still looking to fill positions for special education teachers and support staff, but they are currently working with the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) to offer bonuses for these roles and contract additional support as needed.
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