Education Week - November 23, 2022 - 12

Schools Are Still Understaffed. Here's How
Hard-Pressed Principals Are Responding
Filling hard-to-staff vacancies takes
time away from other tasks
for principals juggling a multitude
of responsibilities
By Denisa R. Superville
At Johnsburg Elementary School in
Johnsburg, Ill., about 60 miles north
of Chicago, principal Bridget Belcastro
had to move an academic support
staff member into a special education
position because she couldn't find a
replacement after the last-minute vacancy
popped up during the summer.
In Inman, S.C., Andrew McMillan
got no takers for a special education
opening last year at Chapman High
School, where McMillan is the principal,
leaving him to rely on regular
education teachers to fill the gap and
teach extra periods during the school
day. Another staff member ensures
that students get the special services
specified in their individualized education
programs, or IEPs.
The lack of applicants was " just
shocking, " said McMillan, whose district,
Spartanburg County School District
1, is among the seven in the county
jockeying for a small pool of candidates.
" There's a ton of those jobs posted. "
Belcastro's and McMillan's experiences
may sound familiar to many of
their colleagues, who, even before the
pandemic, had trouble filling vacancies
in special education and the sciences.
Now, their reliable pool of substitute
teachers and paraprofessionals is running
low. And districts themselves are
struggling to find enough bus drivers
and custodians, who often can earn
more money in the private sector.
Principals are relying on a hodgepodge
of ideas to plug staffing holes,
often taking them away from some of
their main duties. The inconsistencies
in approach also could be major hurdles
as schools seek to address learning
loss, mental health concerns, and
other challenges that have emerged
from the pandemic.
Nearly half of principals in a federal
survey this summer said they'd found
it " very difficult " to fill special education
vacancies. Foreign languages
and computer science also were particularly
hard to staff in June. The big
reasons? Not enough candidates and
a dearth of qualified applicants.
Finding the key to plugging gaps
But there's also " ghosting, " when
candidates just never show up for interviews,
Belcastro said.
That's how Belcastro almost started
the school year without a special education
teacher. She was already at a
disadvantage when she entered the
search at the last minute, but she was
still surprised that only five people applied.
The candidate who was originally
offered the position turned it
down. The next person on the list did
not have the right experience and certification,
she said.
" We also had several people who
were either no shows or did not respond, "
Belcastro said. " They just
didn't come to the interviews and
didn't tell us why. "
In the end, Belcastro offered the job
to an interventionist providing smallgroup
instruction in reading and math
who was already working in the school
and had a special education certification.
She then hired an interventionist-a
much easier process.
While stories of principals subbing
for classroom teachers, filling in for
custodians, and taking their turns behind
the school bus wheels are no longer
regularly making front-page news,
shortages continue to deflect principals
from their primary tasks, said Jason
Leahy, the executive director of the Illinois
Principals Association.
" Maybe it's become more routine,
maybe it's not at the forefront of our
minds, " Leahy said, adding that it's
also perhaps that, " we are grateful that
we are getting back to normal. "
But even just one missing person can
interrupt the normal flow of school, he
said.
Leahy's wife works as a school nurse,
and a student recently visited her office
for assistance after an accident that
was not considered serious.
But his wife still needed an administrator,
and she radioed the principal
and the school's assistant principals.
" She wasn't able to get any of them
to her office immediately because they
were all subbing, " Leahy said. Imagine,
he said, if it were an emergency and
the administrators weren't available.
" We have things that we expect and
need from our school leaders, in terms
of what they need to do in order to
lead their schools effectively, " he said.
" That takes time and energy, and if
people are subbing in classrooms, it
isn't going be a great use of their time
and it's not productive for the school in
the long term. "
The staffing challenges-a reliance
on substitute teachers to fill in for
regular teachers who are sick, on principals
to step in when subs are unavailable,
and on new teachers without full
teaching credentials-could jeopardize
the much-needed focus on combating
COVID-related learning loss, he said.
" It's only going to happen when we
have outstanding people in those positions
over a long period of time, " he
said. " The research has been pretty
clear: For us to be doing our best for
our students, we need teachers who
12 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 23, 2022 | www.edweek.org
are well-qualified, who are there over
long periods of time. "
'Not a desirable situation'
Aaron Hill has only one open position
at the 382-student Du Quoin Middle
School, in Du Quoin, in southern
Illinois, but that vacancy is forcing
him to make a decision he'd rather
not make.
Short a special education teacher,
Hill got a state waiver to combine two
special education classes. He added
an aide to assist the teacher in the new
class, which now has 14 students.
Hill would have preferred two
classes with half as many students in
each, with a specially trained teacher
at the helm of both.
" It's not a desirable situation, because
those students need a lot more
one-on-one help, " he said. " That
teacher can't provide the one-one-one
support that she normally would. ...
We'd rather have a fully staffed classroom
and have smaller class sizes. "
Staffing challenges were mounting
long before the pandemic hit, Hill
said. Changes to Illinois' retirement
benefits, which resulted in reduced
benefits for newer teachers, have made
more people think twice about going
into the profession. Add to that, local
college students can move to neighboring
states after graduation and still
maintain close, strong ties with their
families and communities. That leaves
districts fighting over those who stay
behind, Hill said.
As for the open position, Hill is looking
to find a qualified special education
teacher before the new school
year starts.
" We are just very hopeful that we can
find somebody that is going to graduate
in December, that we can convince
to come work for us compared to another
district, " he said. " It's a competition
to lure that person ... It's very, very
competitive right now. "
Belcastro, Hill's colleague in the
northern part of the state, doesn't normally
have trouble finding candidates,
in part because her district's proximity
to Chicago makes it an attractive option
for job-seekers.
But the last-minute vacancies this
year-in addition to the special education
spot, one opened up for a 5th
grade teacher who was moving-has
Belcastro thinking not just about her
situation but that of her colleagues
across the country.
In her first year as principal, nearly
16 years ago, more than 400 candidates
applied for four open positions.
The dwindling number of candidates
for every opening is forcing school
leaders to hire people they may have
passed on before, she said.
" When you have fewer bodies applying
for positions, you may not get
the person that's right for your building, "
Belcastro said.
She thinks she's made good choices.
" I don't believe that among my
current staff there's anyone that's a
placeholder, " she said. " I think I have
qualified staff. It's those subs-that's
the hardest part. So making sure that
we have qualified subs and enough
subs is important. "
Moving the interventionist into
the special education position may
have saved the day this year, but that
teacher wants to return to her passion.
Belcastro still has to fill the position
next year. " She's great about being an
interventionist, and I want to do what
I can to get her back into that position, "
Belcastro said.
Belcastro doesn't generally have
openings at the school, for which she
credits a positive school culture, a high
level of trust, and a collaborative spirit.
Worries about future hiring
Even with a positive school culture,
those reaching retirement age have to
be replaced.
That's a worry for Alan Stanfield,
an assistant principal at Glacier High
School in Kalispell, Mont., whose staff
includes a number of people who are
nearing retirement.
Pandemic relocations to Montana
have increased class sizes and driven
up housing prices in the area, he said,
making it harder to attract candidates.
In some cases, when school leaders finally
land employees, the cost of housing
scares them off, Stanfield said.
The biggest staffing challenge in his
area is finding enough people to fill custodian
and support staff positions. The
district also has vacancies for substitute
bus drivers and paraprofessionals.
" We have been fortunate at the high
schools, but some of the elementary
school principals have been doing
custodial work; teachers are doing
clean-up duties, " he said.
In cases when a substitute teacher
is unavailable, teachers fill in the gap
during their prep periods, Stanfield
said. The district and teachers' union
have agreed to pay teachers for giving
up their planning periods, he said.
" That's not a sustainable model
over time, " Stanfield said. " They elect
to do that; now they've lost time. "
From leading a school to being an
'HR' representative
McMillan, the South Carolina principal,
now has a teaching assistant and a
custodian position open, along with the
unfilled special education position from
last year.
McMillan, whose school has 1,050
students, has tried recruiting fairs, social
media posts, and worked with colleagues
and local universities.
" We've extended our footprint into
other counties and other parts of the
state, which we never had to do before, "
McMillan said. " There is just no one
going into our field in that area that's
not under contract. "
There's a sort of " gentleman's agreement "
among principals to send along
prospective full-time candidates, people
already vetted as long-term subs, recent
retirees, or other qualified applicants to
their colleagues who are in the market,
McMillan said.
" We do talk as principals-just trying
to share resources and trying to share
staff to ensure that kids have a quality
teacher in the classroom, " McMillan
said.
But all of the efforts to fill positions
can eat up a principal's time, he said.
" You're trying to work the phones
and find the next person; sometimes, it
takes time away from your job, " McMillan
said. " When you have a lack of applicants,
you have to be off campus more
to [attend] recruiting fairs. You have to
dive into your system of networks and
colleagues to call upon. It turns into an
HR responsibility to find people. "
Belcastro, in Illinois, worries that
some of the proposals in other states
to ease teacher shortages by loosening
certification requirements could hurt
the profession.
She is concerned that some changes
to address the emergency could further
devalue the profession and send the
message to those already teaching that
the effort they put into obtaining their
certifications was pointless.
" I think that it breeds this spiral, 'We
have to do this as a Band-Aid for this immediate
problem,' " she said. " Are those
states saying that at some point you go
back to certification? Well what about
the people who are doing it without certification? "
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Education Week - November 23, 2022

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