Wake still needs 300 teachers as school year nears. But that’s good news, leaders say.
North Carolina’s largest school system is short nearly 300 teachers before classes start Monday, but says it’s in a better position than it’s been in recent years.
Wake County school officials said Wednesday that they still have 294 vacant teaching positions, which is 107 less than last August. Wake credits additional pay and new hiring strategies for getting the teacher vacancy rate down to 2.48% at a time when schools across the nation are scrambling to hire educators for the new school year.
AJ Muttillo, Wake’s assistant superintendent for human resources, said it’s good news that the district has filled nearly 98% of its 11,000+ teaching positions.
“I’m hopeful of the progress,” Muttillo told reporters on Wednesday. “We are in a better position this year than we were last year, and still need to continue to fill current vacancies while we plan for opening next year.”
Muttillo said the vacancy numbers are not as good as pre-pandemic levels though.
Wake also is looking for 117 more instructional assistants, formerly called teacher assistants. That’s 75 fewer vacancies than the same time a year ago.
Is NC teacher shortage improving?
Statewide school vacancy rates aren’t available yet. so it’s unclear whether other North Carolina school districts are having better luck hiring people this year. Two other Triangle districts, Durham Public Schools and Orange County, are also reporting good hiring results.
Durham has 110 vacancies — down from 250 openings this time last year, according to Crystal Roberts, a district spokesperson.
Orange County has 25 teaching vacancies, down from 53.5 this time last year, according to Kevin Smith, a district spokesperson. He said all bus driver positions are filled.
In Chapel Hill-Carrboro, the district is 96% staffed for the new school year, according to Andy Jenks, a district spokesman.
Johnston County did not immediately respond to The News & Observer’s request for information about vacancy rates.
Last year, the state’s school districts were short more than 11,297 positions, including more than 4,400 teachers, heading into the first day of classes, according to the North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association.
But Jack Hoke, the association’s executive director, said they’re waiting this year until the first day of classes before asking school districts for the vacancy information.
Even with the good news in Wake, Muttillo said it still means students in 300 classrooms won’t have a permanent teacher when classes start. Substitute teachers will fill the classes until a person is hired.
“I certainly don’t want to minimize the challenge,” Muttillo said. “We are still struggling to find teachers just like other districts are.”
Bus driver vacancies worsen
One glaring exception to the good hiring news in Wake is that bus driver vacancies are up.
Wake has 315 driver vacancies — 49 more than this time last year. Wake’s 35.75% bus driver vacancy rate means the district has had to take unprecedented steps to provide service to all riders this school year.
Around 3,000 Wake County students will start the school year arriving each day after classes have started. Some students will arrive more than a half hour late.
Those 3,000 students will also be picked up later from school, requiring more teachers to stay late to watch them.
Nearly 7,900 students are scheduled to arrive within 10 minutes of the start of classes. They’ll run a risk of being late as well if there are traffic delays.
Wake is hoping to adjust the routes when new drivers complete their training, which includes getting a commercial driver’s license.
“Our goal really is to add more bus drivers to the road every week,” Muttillo said. “But it does take longer to become a bus driver.”
Wake pays teachers for master’s degrees
Muttillo said Wake has had to adapt to the changing environment to hire teachers. This includes new strategies such as paying teachers who have earned a master’s degree, something the state stopped doing unless the educator had earned the degree by Aug. 1, 2013.
Wake is now spending more time on advertising and reaching out to candidates, including current student-teachers, Muttillo said.
“There’s this sort of shift in the marketplace where you had to think about hiring differently,” Muttillo said.
The teacher turnover rate is also down in Wake, Muttillo said.
Wake also benefits from paying teachers more than many other smaller districts. In North Carolina. The state pays the base salary, and school districts can supplement it with additional local pay.
The pay raise that teachers will receive this year isn’t known yet because Republican lawmakers haven’t finalized the state budget yet.
Wake’s 1,000 new teachers
Wake has hired 1,000 new teacher such as Haley Magee, a fourth-grade teacher at Beaverdam Elementary School in Raleigh. On Wednesday, Magee attended training sessions and got her classroom ready.
Magee, who graduated in May with a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, had multiple job offers. But in the end, the northern Virginia native chose Wake over districts such as Chapel Hill-Carrboro.
“I was able to look at a lot of different schools and pick a good fit for me, which I’m happy about,” Magee told reporters. “I was happy that I was able to look at different options and different states.”
Magee said factors such as Wake’s reputation, Raleigh having a warmer climate than northern Virginia and being in closer proximity to her parents in Florida helped with her decision.
Now Magee will step into teaching during a time when educators are under greater public scrutiny than ever. But Magee said she’s up for the challenge of teaching her new students.
“With any job there’s apprehensions, but I know that I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,”Magee said.
This story was originally published August 23, 2023 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Wake still needs 300 teachers as school year nears. But that’s good news, leaders say.."
