The national teacher shortage has been one of the most prevalent issues among school districts this year and now it is affecting local schools’ ability to fill teaching vacancies as well as bus drivers.

“Are we seeing a teacher shortage? Yes, no doubt about it,” Granville superintendent Tom McGurl said in a Aug. 22 phone call.

Usually, McGurl said Granville has about 60 applicants for open elementary positions. This year, the district had only 15-20 candidates.

McGurl added that he has noticed trends in the last three years and has done his best to prepare Granville’s Board of Education for the abundancy of open positions and nationwide.

“It is absolutely a national issue. It is not unique to Washington County and it is not unique to rural versus urban,” he said.

“I described it as a tidal wave that was coming. I do fear that it is going to get worse.”

Hartford superintendent Andrew Cook views the shortage as a result of multiple topics, one being the long-term casualty of the Gap Elimination Adjustment, a measure taken in 2010 by New York State to narrow a $10 billion budget deficit that led to cutbacks in state aid. The GEA was canceled in 2016.

“From a statewide perspective, I think this has been an issue that has been brewing since the Gap Elimination Adjustment,” Cook said. “I think we’re seeing the fallout of that where qualified candidates who might not have explored the profession because of the GEA and the those who were unsure of the profession because of Covid-19.”

As for Whitehall, the elementary school will be running under interim principal John Godfrey’s watch and with years of experience among districts in Washington County, he weighed in on how the district has been handling the shortage. 

“There’s a shortage of teachers and there’s a shortage of substitutes. Four to five years ago we could call and have three or four substitutes but that’s not the case now. That’s not where we are anymore,” he said.

The two district superintendents south of Whitehall mutually agreed on the type of candidate they seek: an individual who is invested in the educational experience of their prospective students, buys into the community and establishes a rapport with their students and coworkers.

Both McGurl and Cook said their districts are fully staffed for teachers (Granville with 108 full-time faculty members and Hartford with north of 50) as well as bus drivers. Both districts are recruiting for substitute drivers, and Granville is looking to combat anticipated retirements by keeping postings open.

Whitehall, however, is still looking to fill multiple positions, including one general education elementary position, one special education elementary position, one self-contained special education elementary position and one special education slot at the high school level.

“In our region,” Cook said, “there are a lot of school districts that are searching for positions. Unfortunately, the candidate pool isn’t like what it was 15-20 years ago,” Cook said.

According to McGurl and Cook, historically, struggles have been consistent in filling Science and Mathematics positions, specifically at the high school level with specific classes like Living Environment, Chemistry or Physics. McGurl credits this partly to the availability of more money to positions of engineers with a science, technology and math background or credentials.

Typically, McGurl sees a stronger interest from candidates in Physical Education, English and Social Studies.

“Those fields just seem to have more kids interested in going into them,” he said.

The New York State United Teachers reports that “Enrollment in New York State’s teacher education programs has declined by 53 percent since 2009.” With over half of the program in decline over 13 years, school districts have become creative in finding ways to keep students in the classroom with an educator. 

“When we are short on teachers that kind of spirals and then we’re all trying to get a sub in that day and what some districts have done is figuring out a plan for people to cover. So, you’re using your available staff that day and you’re covering your classes that need to be done and it makes it challenging,” Godfrey said. 

“You’re pulling people from their positions since we don’t have extra people around. So, you’re asking who you have if they can help support and people have really stepped up in the district to help. They use the time that is available to help fill a class.” 

Granville implemented two building substitutes to all three district buildings during the pandemic to compensate for staff getting sick, and McGurl said he is glad to keep this going into the upcoming school year.

Whitehall was forced to close school for a day last school year due to instructional staffing while Granville had to do the same due to a lack of bus drivers. McGurl said he is in the process of securing his CDL while Cook already has and was seen operating buses, in the cafeteria serving food and teaching classes when staff depth plummeted.

States such as Arizona and Florida have turned to hiring college students to get more teachers in the classroom while Missouri, California, and Oklahoma have lowered the standards and qualifications to be an educator. Godfrey said this could work well for those states, but he is hesitant about the idea. 

“I think we have to be cautious when it comes to lowering standards because we want to make sure we have qualified people to keep the kids safe and educated. I think New York could certainly look at ways to address that problem,” he said. 

“Do we tap into college students? I think that’s a good resource because there’s a lot of young talent out there, but I still think we need to ensure that when we get folks in here, they are qualified good people that will provide the best for our students.”

Granville’s contract provisions with candidates signing on include medical insurance and the opportunity to have graduate school credits paid off. However, Granville and Hartford don’t offer sign-on bonuses or incentive pay.

McGurl compared industry to education in this sense, which may lead to potential candidates straying away from education as he said, “eventually, you’re going to price yourself out,” which leads to district programs being affected.

“Make sure people understand that this isn’t an individual school issue. Right now, every school district is having issues finding school teachers,” McGurl said. “I don’t see an immediate end to this unfortunately.”