LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Numerous key positions in classrooms and buses remain vacant at Jefferson County Public Schools as the start of the 2022-23 school year nears.
The Jefferson County Board of Education heard updates Tuesday on the district’s staffing issues ahead of the upcoming school year, particularly on the district’s efforts to recruit and keep certified teachers in classrooms.
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio offered a stark assessment of staffing troubles facing JCPS and other school districts throughout the U.S. as interest in careers in education slides.
“The outlook for the teaching profession at this time in this nation is not good. It really isn’t,” he said. “I think whoever is sitting at this table over the next decade will be doing the same presentation each and every year in some way or another.”
JCPS has 342 teaching openings listed on its employment website as of Tuesday evening, but Aimee Green-Webb, the district’s human resources chief, said that number does not include new hires who have not signed their teaching contracts.
"We've had 48 contract signings already this week," Pollio said. "We had 57 job offers go out today."
The district plans to fill classroom vacancies with staff who hold teaching certifications, such as district resource teachers and instructional coaches, who can be assigned to schools on 12-week rotations through an agreement with the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
All told, Pollio said JCPS has 125 classroom vacancies to fill.
"I'm confident that we will see a certified teacher in every single classroom," he said.
The push to fill classroom vacancies comes at JCPS deals with a record number of teacher resignations during the 2022-23 school year, when 437 educators left the district voluntarily as of June 30, Green said. That’s the most in the past six years since 337 teachers resigned during the 2018-19 school year, according to data presented Tuesday.
Another 96 teachers retired during the past school year as of June 30, the lowest since the 2016-17 school year when 92 retired, data show. But those numbers don’t include the 74 educators who retired in July, up from 26 last year, Green-Webb said.
Green-Webb said the district is taking steps to listen to staff concerns, noting an expanding pilot project in which school administrators get direct feedback from teachers through confidential surveys.
"Principals can focus on what is going to work in their school for their school community, their students, so being able to expand that to every school absolutely will make a difference," she said.
JCPS is also working to improve the exit interview process in hopes of boosting “abysmal” response rates, she said.
But Diane Porter, the board’s chairwoman who represents District 1, said district leaders could do more in response to staff concerns.
“What we continue to hear is we are not listening to our staff,” she said, drawing applause from some in the audience. “… We have to get the information.”
Compensation is another piece of the district's strategy to recruit and keep teachers in classrooms.
"I'm glad to hear that we are very competitive in wages with other districts, but I think we also have to bear in mind that we're not as competitive with other industries," said board member Chris Kolb, who represents District 2. "... I'm glad we were able to do something this year fairly substantial, but as (Jefferson County Teachers Association President) Brent McKim noted, that's after several years of stagnation or decline in wages, so it needs to be something that we do for the next few years."
The district is also hoping to hire more bus drivers for the start of the school year on Aug. 10.
Seventy bus routes remain uncovered ahead of the upcoming school year, though Chief Operations Officer Chris Perkins said about 80 prospective bus drivers are in the district’s hiring pipeline after the recent one-day push for new drivers.
"We're going to experience delays on the first day," Perkins said.
The district is exploring the possibility of creating an online dashboard with "accurate live information" for parents on bus delays, he said.
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