As Fox Valley schools scramble to fill open teaching positions, fears of the substitute shortage still loom
AnnMarie Hilton
While the label "teacher shortage" is being more readily used by some school districts than others, it's indisputable that school districts in the Fox Valley are struggling to fully staff schools for the upcoming school year.
Just weeks before school resumes, districts are grappling with fewer applicants for open positions, higher teacher turnover rates and an ongoing substitute teacher shortage.
This is happening amid claims of a nationwide teacher shortage as districts around the country scramble to address high numbers of unfilled teaching positions. Experts, however, say the issue is nuanced and a sweeping shortage label may not ring true for all districts.
That's the case in the Fox Cities, where the vacancies are undeniable, but not everyone is ready to attribute them to a teacher shortage.
The Menasha Joint School District, for instance, is still looking for elementary special education teachers, a kindergarten teacher and someone to teach high school Spanish for the upcoming school year.
While the number of vacancies heading into this year are about the same as this time last year, that doesn’t mean it’s been smooth sailing.
Let’s take the kindergarten teacher opening, for example. Superintendent Chris VanderHeyden said they posted that job a few weeks ago and, so far, there are just two candidates.
Several years ago there would have been 50 or 60, and there was a time when there could have been more than 100 applicants.
But now there only are two. It’s better than the the responses to more specialized subjects like foreign languages or consumer sciences, which have no applicants.
So is Menasha seeing a teacher shortage? If you ask VanderHeyden, he’ll tell you: “There’s no question. That’s accurate.”
While the Neenah Joint School District is seeing the same fraction of applicants they used to get, Communications Director Jim Strick wouldn't label the issue a teacher shortage.
"It's probably more of an applicant shortage and a substitute shortage," he said.
And multiple district leaders told The Post-Crescent that the challenges are exacerbated by spending limits and a low unemployment rate that makes it hard for school districts to compete with the private sector employers outside of education.
“We’re certainly looking for the state to step up and make us whole after what they did this last budget,” VanderHeyden said, referring to the 2021-23 biennial budget that froze state funding and left districts to rely on pandemic relief money to cover additional costs during the pandemic.
Positions are getting filled, but turnover is higher than normal
The Appleton Area School District had almost twice as many educator vacancies in early August as it did last year. At a school board meeting Monday, Chief Human Resources Officer Julie King said offers had been extended for many of the 28 vacancies.
“All our classroom teacher (positions) will be met and we have contingency plans that will be put in place for some of those other areas,” King told the board.
The other areas she mentioned include special education, where the district still has a large number of teaching vacancies.
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Districts in the Fox Valley are seeing teacher turnover rates, the percentage of teachers who leave each year and must be replaced, between 10% and 15%. Appleton is at the lower end of that range with 10%, up slightly from the 9% last year.
The teacher turnover rate in Menasha is higher, at 12.7%. That compares to 13% the year before — a difference of just one teacher.
The Kimberly Area School District saw its turnover rate grow in the past couple years from 8% to about 14%. Even with that, Superintendent Bob Mayfield said the district has been able to fill open positions.
In fact, he said, Kimberly is in “really good shape at this time.” As of early last week, Kimberly was still looking for a part-time elementary-school literacy teacher and three full or part-time paraprofessionals.
As of early this week, Neenah had 32 vacancies across all 770 district positions. Of that, about 13 were for teachers. Strick said that's “very typical” for this time of year.
But, he said, the situation is fluid and sometimes the number of openings changes by the hour. On Wednesday, for example, the district had plans to offer positions to five people.
Like Appleton and Menasha, Strick said it can be harder to attract teachers for specialty subjects, especially technical education and family and consumer science. Those jobs are often in competition with better-paying private sector jobs in those industries.
Substitute teacher shortage still looms
While school leaders are confident they'll be able to fill their vacant teaching positions before school starts, many worry more about what will happen if those teachers are sick or unable to work.
That's because the substitute teacher shortage is "still at a crisis stage," Strick said.
Last school year, there was at least one unfilled absence every day in a Menasha school because the supply of substitute teachers couldn’t keep up with educator absences, he said.
“There were several days with way more than that,” he said.
The substitute shortage is “still at a crisis stage,” Strick told The Post-Crescent.
Normally, Neenah brings in 25 to 30 new subs each year. This year, only five people have expressed interest so far.
“That’s a bigger issue for us,” Strick said.
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Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.