Wake schools report progress on vacant teacher positions, less than 1 per school
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wake County schools report 175 teacher vacancies across 203 schools in 2025.
- Vacancy rate improves to 98.52% filled, aided by higher salary supplements.
- Assistant roles show rising unfilled positions amid wider hiring challenges.
Wake County schools will start the new school year with improved numbers on teacher vacancies for the third year in a row, showing progress in difficult times for hiring.
The school system released its annual staffing data Thursday and reported 175 open teacher positions as traditional calendar schools prepare to start classes Monday.
‘We continue to evolve’
That’s 60 fewer openings than Wake schools reported at the start of 2024 classes, bringing the total filled rate to 98.52%.
“We’re super-excited about that,” said Crystal Gregory, Wake’s director of recruitment and talent acquisition. “We continue to think outside the box. ... Wake County is a great place to work.”
The number of vacancies split to 171 among general education teachers and 74 for special education. Gregory noted that Wake operates 203 schools, meaning the 175-teacher shortage amounts to fewer than one per school.
She credited Wake’s comparatively high local salary supplement, which increased by 4% at the start of last year, meaning a teacher with no prior experience earned $48,340.
Gregory also applauded Wake’s embrace of nontraditional teachers, which might, for example, allow new hires to earn their licenses during their first year teaching.
“We continue to evolve every day,” she said. “Teacher pay will continue to be an issue across our state. We’re continuing to see our vacancy rate lower than other areas, and teachers continue to tell us it’s because they can earn a living here.”
Thursday’s data did show a higher rate of vacant positions among instructional assistants — 115 in all, rising by 12 this year — and among special education assistants — 92 in all, 21 higher than in 2024.
But Gregory noted that while the vacancies among assistants are higher, the total number of assistants has also risen. But qualified candidates, she said, are increasingly hard to find nationwide.
Public schools across North Carolina start classes this year facing uncertainty over finances, both because the state’s budget hasn’t been finalized and thanks to the prospect of federal education cuts from the Trump administration.
Meet Sarah Carter
None of that shook the excitement of first-year teacher Sarah Carter, who starts teaching eighth-grade math at Dillard Drive Middle School in Cary Monday and offered visitors a look at her first classroom.
“My father, my grandfather and my uncle all helped me paint,” she said, showing off the new blue walls.
Just 21, Crawford had all of her pre-college education in Wake County, graduating from Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy after a lifelong yearning for the classroom.
“I was that little girl lining up all of her stuffed animals, playing school,” she said. “That’s really never changed.”
She graduated early from NC State University, having gone through the Future Teachers of NC program, and when she graduated, she asked for classroom supplies in lieu of money.
She is now the first teacher in her family since her great grandfather led classrooms in Johnston County. When Carter got hired, her grandmother contacted some of her great grandfather’s old students, who mailed her their memories.
“I am so excited to meet the kids,” she said. “I am so excited to form those relationships and get to know them as people because they’re not just a number. Bottom line: you just show them that you care about them.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Wake schools report progress on vacant teacher positions, less than 1 per school."