By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph school officials have their work cut out for them this summer.
They must fill 56 teacher vacancies with an emphasis placed on recruiting special education teachers.
St. Joseph School Board President David Foster says the teacher shortage is real and is a nation-wide problem.
“Our district I think is about average, but we’re looking at solutions to try to stay ahead of the game,” Foster tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “And special education is probably one of the areas that we can improve on just from a standpoint of that job in itself is much more challenging.”
Foster says the board is relying on specialists in the various areas to help recruit and keep good teachers.
The St. Joseph School District hopes to fill its 56 teacher vacancies as well as recruit six special education teachers and 18 paraprofessionals by start of the new school year August 22nd.
Lafayette High School Principal Ashly McGinnis says some teaching positions are more difficult to fill than others.
“I’d say science is a very challenging area, math, Spanish, anymore woodworking is a tough one to fill as well,” McGinnis tells Birr. “Really, special education is tough, just because there’s a lot of paperwork involved, there’s a lot of testing involved, observations.”
McGinnis, who becomes Associate Superintendent of Academics July 1st, says special ed teachers also have to attend more meetings than others. She says the school district is experimenting with various ideas to ease the bureaucratic burden on special ed teachers.
Foster says recruiting the right people for the classroom is about more than just about money, though he concedes money makes a difference.
“We have to look for incentives to incentivize teachers in these particular areas, like special education.”
Foster says it will cooperation from everybody to find good teachers and keep them.
“We all want the same thing,” Foster asserts. “We’re definitely in support of our teachers, our staff, our students, even parents. I think coming up with a solution is just about probably ironing out the details and I’m pretty sure we’ll come up with a solution that we can all agree on.”