Superintendent says he wants to focus on staff retention, recruitment in Sycamore schools

SYCAMORE – Two weeks after a 5-year labor contract was approved for Sycamore teachers following nearly nine months of deadlocked negotiations, Superintendent Steve Wilder spoke about plans to ensure educator retention and recruitment for the district.

Wilder’s report before the Sycamore school board Tuesday highlighted the need to fill vacancies in the district, fielding staffing shortages from a variety of roles.

On Feb. 22, the school board voted unanimously to approve a contract with the Sycamore Education Foundation. The ratification of the five-year labor contract came after negotiations had stalled since early 2021 and threats of a teachers’ union strike. The contract approval had for months been held up on disagreements related to salaries for teachers amid the district’s history of financial constraints and wage freezes, district officials and union members previously said.

Outlining a report on staffing levels and plans to address shortages Tuesday, Wilder touted teachers’ roles in the classroom.

“The most important connections in schools is really between the teachers and staff and students,” Wilder said. “You can have a lot of other resources that can really open a lot of doors, but still today, the connection between staff and students impacts teaching and learning the most.”

Wilder spoke of plans to complete a redistricting study for Sycamore schools in the fall, student-to-teacher ratios, school post-pandemic and program restructuring.

He highlighted the need to address long-term staffing, including teachers, paraprofessionals and bus drivers.

“We have a host of positions that have been posted for most of the school year that are still unfilled right now.,” Wilder said. “I hope that will get better as we come out of the pandemic … however, I don’t anticipate an avalanche of candidates [filling the] positions we have open. That staffing shortage and how that may change over time is something we need to keep an eye on.”

Those unfilled vacancies could also be the result of overburdened educators, he said.

“My greatest concern is that we ask so much of teachers, we ask so much of paraprofessionals and administration and everyone in education,” Wilder said. “But the mandates, the things they do beyond the teaching and learning in the classroom, some of those things that teachers do … I wonder what the teacher shortage might look like if we rolled back some of the things we require teacher to do on top of what they got in education to do.”

The next Sycamore school board meeting will be held Tuesday, March 22.