As the school bell heralds classes this month, Utah school district leaders say teachers have been found for most classrooms.
A few of the Beehive State's 40 school districts have not found enough teachers to start school substitute-free.
Just a handful — such as Nebo District — scrambled to find last-minute appointments. Three days after buses rolled into campuses last week, the search continued for six teachers.
"We have over 1,000 teachers," said Nebo spokeswoman Frances Larsen. "If we are looking for just six, that's not even 1 percent (of classes that didn't have teachers.)"
Salt Lake, Granite, Morgan, Kane and Weber districts were juggling resignations with a shrinking pool of unemployed teachers. Officials were unsure whether school would start this week at full staff.
They're not the only ones to worry.
"I think the teacher shortage is very real," said Doug Wright, human resources chief for San Juan School District.
Wright is looking for a physical education-remedial math teacher and a music-drama teacher for Monument Valley High. The drama-teaching position is expected to remain open when school starts Monday.
"Those of us in outlying areas, if we don't raise our own teachers, so to speak, we're having a difficult time attracting people."
Federal officials a few years back sounded an alarm no school wants to hear: A teacher shortage is coming.
The U.S. Department of Education estimated 2.2 million teachers would need to be hired nationwide this decade to offset enrollment growth and expected retirements.
Utah was nailed by shortages last fall, particularly in special education, math and English as a second language (ESL).
Granite, Millard, Alpine and Nebo all report open posts in special-education classes. Susan Stone, an Alpine assistant superintendent who hired 315 new teachers this year, says
it is "always a struggle with special education."
Alpine is now missing communication-disorder specialists. There are enough bachelor-degree level applicants, Stone said, but master's degrees are needed for certification. This year, to fill open positions, Wasatch Front districts boosted retirement and health benefits — and recruited new graduates from Utah's universities. Some also established teacher exchanges with Spain, India and the Philippines.
But the dearth of teachers is expected to worsen.
The Utah Office of Education estimates public schools will grow by another 100,000 students by 2010. Meanwhile, about 5 percent of Utah's teachers will retire each year.
The result: Utah may need more than 2,000 new teachers every year and 1,200 will have to be placed in elementary schools, according to the state education office.
That's a tall order. Utah's education colleges expect 3,400 new teachers — 1,000 in elementary education — to graduate every year through 2004 or 2005.
Roughly half of graduates take jobs in other states or choose not to work in the field. And 40 percent of new teachers quit within the first five years.
In other words, the number of qualified professionals is shrinking — and the competition for them is getting fierce.
Massachusetts offers $20,000 signing bonuses to 125 new teachers who commit to work four years in the state.
Clark County, Nev., and the growing Las Vegas area, lures teachers with signing bonuses and moving expenses. Utah school leaders have griped for years about Nevada's recruiting techniques. But education chiefs are allowed to use some of the $58 million given for the "career ladder" program to solve teacher-shortage woes. Not a cent of the money was allocated last year to lure teachers to Utah, however.
Some Utah superintendents, however, have been able to offer incentives beyond Utah's low crime rate and breath-taking views of picturesque mountains.
Jordan School District offers a $2,000 bonus to attract ESL and special-education teachers. It also is looking to expand its pilot teacher mentoring program to help retain teachers.
Sevier School District grows its own teachers. In recent years, the district started paying tuition for teacher's aides to earn degrees in education and current teachers to acquire masters degrees, personnel director Leon Stewart said.
The "Public Education Job Enhancement Program," established by the 2001 Legislature, aims to attract, train and keep qualified math, science and technology teachers. Some candidates may be offered up to $20,000 in cash or a scholarship for advanced degrees.
A committee of State Board of Education, members of the Board of Regents and business-community representatives will determine how to award that money. It meets for the first time next week.
This week, as school started, Washington District officials continued searching for two speech and language pathology teachers and three teachers certified to teach students with severe learning impairments, said Lyle Cox, personnel director. Classes were manned by substitutes or teachers in a neighboring classroom.
Wasatch School District early last week was still looking for an ESL teacher and eight teacher aides.
Weber District was "scampering as fast as we can" to fill eight full-time and two part-time teaching positions, plus two full-time and one part-time special education posts, spokesman Nate Taggart said.
Last fall, the district pulled at least one teacher from retirement to head a math class until it could hire someone.
Salt Lake School District has until Tuesday to hire 21 teachers, assistant superintendent of human resources Dolores Riley said. The number of openings, however, is a moving target, thanks to late retirements and resignations.
Other districts reported similar last-minute problems, like Provo's search for a kindergarten teacher at Maeser Elementary; Morgan's lack of a high school math teacher and Davis' search for a few part-time teachers.
Most districts, including Murray, Jordan, Logan, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Juab and, for the first time in years, Tooele, are fully staffed.
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