PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Great Resignation is hitting the Philadelphia School District hard. School teachers are resigning at a faster pace than at the start of the school year, and their positions are proving hard to fill.
At the start of the year, Philadelphia schools were 98% staffed. But, district Chief Talent Officer Larisa Shambaugh told the school board Thursday night that the rate of teachers leaving has doubled in the last three months.
“What we have seen is, more recently, resignations from the beginning of December through the middle of February have dramatically increased for teachers,” she said.
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Fifty-seven teachers left during that time period last school year, while 169 have resigned this year, and another 178 are on leave. In a district with 9,300 teachers, Superintendent William Hite was asked if he’d characterize the problem as a trickle, or worse.
“We do think that the problem is exacerbated at schools that already have vacancies,” he said. “Then there may be, for a variety of reasons, individuals who are out. And so that problem then feels like a water main break.”
Seven schools in particular are operating with 15% of their positions open. Shambaugh said mid-year vacancies are proving harder to fill.
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“We just know that as the job market is shifting, when we have a vacancy that opens up in the middle of the year, it has become more difficult to fill it with an external candidate,” she added.
Shambaugh said substitutes have only been available to fill 42% of openings this year.
