With the start of the school year inching closer and students getting ready to return to the classroom, school districts are scrambling to fill empty positions as the nation struggles with a teacher shortage.
St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe Gothard joined News Talk 830 WCCO’s Vineeta Sawkar to discuss the shortages for the upcoming year.
Gothard shared that as things currently sit, his district has around 100 teacher vacancies that they are working “around the clock” to get filled before kids return to their desks.
“It’s really a fluid situation right now, and we’ll be ready to go Sept. 6,” Gothard said.
When it comes to what his district is most in need of, Gothard said it’s fascinating because most of the specialist classes, “art, phy ed, and positions like that,” have joined the areas that have always been in shortage, “special education, and multilingual learning.”
“There’s just such a growing need and demand that we count on that always being a shortage area,” Gothard said.
The teacher shortage has been a growing problem for the last two years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that from 2020 to 2022, approximately 600,000 teachers and staff walked away from education.
Those who have left the education field have cited several reasons, including low pay and burnout, and because of this, many have been hesitant to join the field.
Gothard shared that the shortages were felt in his district last year, as it goes beyond just teachers, with substitute teachers also being a part of the growing need.
“Just the conditions and the time we are in, in and of itself, but last year especially with the shortages and the way we had to cover for subs that weren’t there… It was an absolute perfect storm,” Gothard said.
Part of the reason educators were stretched thin was the quarantine policies put in place by the CDC, and Gothard said that he hopes now that those have been relaxed a bit, they won’t be in the same place again this year.
Gothard shared that he is working to ensure that students have some type of consistency in school this year and that all comes from having the same teacher.
He says that updated guidelines will hopefully not create as many disruptions as in the past two years, which will, in turn, create that stability.
“The biggest stress for us is that lack of consistency,” Gothard said.
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