Now hiring. School districts throughout DuPage County face staffing shortages

Students throughout DuPage County are back in school, but as the labor crunch in Illinois hits public education, some schools need more teachers.

The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools’ annual study on teacher shortages, released in January, reports almost 80% of the 690 respondents have a shortage and 93% of those say the problem is as bad or worse as the previous year.

Statistics from the Illinois State Board of Education show this year started with more than 7,000 open teaching, paraprofessional, support and administrative staff positions around the state, up from 5,301 in 2022 and 2,006 in 2017. Of the more than 7,000 unfilled positions, the state board shows about 2,700 are for paraprofessionals.

Community High School District 99 Superintendent Hank Thiele said his district’s biggest need is to fill its remaining paraprofessional positions. Paraprofessionals work with teachers to assist students who need extra assistance.

A decade ago, Thiele said, licensed teachers were encouraged to accept paraprofessional positions because of limited teaching vacancies.

“Now, many districts struggle with filling their open teaching positions,” Thiele said. “District 99 is fortunate in that it is seen as a destination district by teachers, so we have not encountered as many challenges filling positions. Even so, the surplus isn’t as much as it once was and that impacts support staff roles, particularly paraprofessionals.”

Thiele also said District 99 would like to add to its daily substitute guest teacher pool.

“We are always actively seeking highly qualified candidates to fill positions, including the hard-to-fill roles like paraprofessionals,” he said. “This summer, we hosted two career fairs, which were successful in attracting many candidates. People outside of education aren’t always as familiar with working in the school setting. The career fairs allowed people to meet us and learn a bit about what the role entails and what is required to work in these roles.”

Ed Piotrowski, director of human resources for Lyons Township High School District 204, said the district also is grappling with some vacancies.

“We have seen shortages in elective area teachers, paraeducators and substitute teachers for multiple years, even prior to the pandemic,” Piotrowski said. “While we believe the pandemic has certainly had an impact on the availability of candidates, we don’t attribute any shortages to that one area.”

Piotrowski said as District 204 enters the new school year, “we are working to fill paraeducator staff.”

“Our leadership teams determine the number of vacancies based on student and program needs,” he said. “We are anticipating approximately four vacancies to fill. We continue to post our positions on our website, online job boards and community job boards.”

District 204 in the past also has hosted on-site career fairs.

“And [we] plan to continue,” Piotrowski said.

Justin Sisul, assistant superintendent for personnel and staff development for Downers Grove Grade School District 58, said while the district is not necessarily experiencing a teacher shortage, some positions have yet to be filled.

“We feel that we are a destination district for teachers and have filled all of our certified positions,” Sisul said. “At this time, instructional assistants for special education and our specialized programs are our greatest need. We also are always eager to see our list of substitute teachers grow as well and are so grateful for all of those individuals who serve our district in this way.”

Sisul said District 58 is looking at more creative ways to market its vacancies, such as advertising on different platforms where more people will see them. In August, the District 58 Board of Education approved increasing the one-time stipend for hard-to-fill instructional assistant positions from $1,200 to $2,000.

“We also focus on creating a climate and culture that makes people happy to be at work,” Sisul said. “Our hope is that you will stay for a long time.”

Al Llorens, president of the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said the shortage crisis “has been growing for a number of years” because of inadequate pay and stressful working conditions. The issues, he said, predate the pandemic.

“COVID did not help the current situation but just added to the complexity of it,” Llorens said.

To that end, the Illinois Education Association has for the past few years been working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and the office of Gov. JB Pritzker to address the issue by passing several pieces of education legislation, Llorens said.

He cited the bill signed by Pritzker in 2019 raising teachers’ minimum salary to $40,000 over four years to address a statewide shortage of classroom leaders.

“When you look at some of the salaries around the state, even some teachers have to work extra jobs to keep food on the table and the lights on,” Llorens said. “We have education support professionals who qualify for assistance because they make so little money. At the same time, educators are paying out-of-pocket for supplies for their classrooms. It’s a lot to ask. Clearly, educators aren’t there because of the wages. They’re there because they love what they do and we should respect that in a way that is reflected in the wages they’re making.”

Earlier this year, Pritzker announced a $70 million pilot program to help address teacher vacancies. Additionally, Illinois is offering a short-term paraprofessional license, which allows those 18 and older to work in schools while completing coursework.

Llorens acknowledges there is no “quick fix” for the teacher shortage.

“These changes have to be incremental and there has to be ongoing political will to improve things over time,” he said. “We have to do everything in our power to help educators when and where we can. This is about our kids. Public education is a necessity. It changes lives.”