School district still needs more teachers

MAT-SU -- With school starting in a few days, the Mat-Su Borough School District is still trying to fill about 15 full-time teaching positions and, depending on enrollment numbers, may need even more.

Human Resource Coordinator Paula Harrison is heading the effort to fill teaching vacancies as fast as possible, so students can start the year with the same teachers they will have for the entire year.

"After school starts, it makes it more difficult to hire teachers because they are signing on with other school districts," Harrison said. "It's better when the education budget gets taken care of earlier."

Kim Floyd, public information specialist for the Mat-Su Borough School District, said the district is late hiring teachers because the state Legislature did not approve final funding for education until May, two months later than usual.

"Because of other fiscal issues the Legislature was dealing with, they didn't act on education until near the close of the legislative session," Floyd said. Without pre-approved money, the district could not risk signing teachers to contracts.

Harrison said she is still looking for elementary, special-education and extended-learning-program teachers.

"We are doing OK, " Harrison said. "We still have a lot of really well-qualified teachers in the pool, but the pool is growing smaller every day as teachers sign with other districts."

Harrison said school may begin with teacher shortages and, if so, she said some classes will likely contain 30 or more students.

"We might have to move some kids out of classes, later on, to make smaller class sizes," Harrison said.

"We anticipate that we will need to shift staff," Floyd said. "Typically at the beginning of the year we shift staff based on where students are."

With enrollment numbers expected to be higher than the projected number of 14,393, Harrison said the district will likely have to hire even more teachers after school starts.

"Our enrollment has grown every year," Harrison said. "We are pretty well staffed for high school but I anticipate we will hire more elementary-level teachers."

In past years, Harrison said the district has hired anywhere between eight and 25 new teachers after school starts.

Floyd said it is difficult to estimate the exact number of new hires because districtwide enrollment usually continues to grow through the end of October.

"The administration meets very regularly at the beginning of the year to address staffing issues," Floyd said.

Getting the new teachers up to par will be another challenge.

Anyone hired after Friday will have missed all the teacher in-service training days before school and, according to Harrison, will have to work one on one with principals and school staff to find out about new programs and policies.

"They won't have had the opportunity to learn things with the rest of the teachers," Harrison said.

For now it looks as if assistance from retired teachers and substitutes will be important. Harrison said several retired teachers have come forward, willing to help. The district is also still looking for more substitutes, including school nurse substitutes.

Harrison said hiring enough teachers is important to achieve goals set by the Mat-Su Borough School Board. The board is focused this year on reducing kindergarten through second-grade class sizes, in order to work on individual reading skills. With the current teacher shortage, however, this may prove difficult at first.

Harrison encourages anyone interested in a teaching or substituting job to call the district's human resources department at 746-9245.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.