Sterling schools thinking ‘outside the box’ to recruit, retain teachers

STERLING — A Sterling Public Schools program is going the extra mile to attract and retain new teachers.

SPS University is a cost-share program that helps pay for SPS staff, such as teacher’s aides and custodians, to start or complete the post-secondary education needed to teach in Illinois.

In return, those staff members sign a contract agreeing to work at an SPS school for a designated number of years and pay a small portion of their education fees, which they can put financial aid toward.

Sterling Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Sara Dail said SPS University was created to address a decline in the number of teachers applying to work at Sterling schools. SPS went from averaging more than 90 applications per open position in the early 2000s to just 20 or fewer applications in the last several years.

To make matters worse, Dail said SPS experiences an average of 19 retirements/resignations each year and is currently projecting 76 open positions over the next four years.

“It speaks to the true teacher shortage,” Dail said. “The reason that I wanted to look into another option is because going to job fairs and posting our openings wasn’t doing the trick. It’s not bringing candidates in. So, my goal was to think outside of the box.”

Dail started reviewing SPS employees and determined some had no college education and would need to start their associate’s degree, some had an associate’s degree but needed their teaching degree and some individuals had a bachelor’s degree in something else but needed a teaching certification.

“I started brainstorming and looking for programs that could help us pay for each of those types of individuals,” Dail said. “I shared our data with our Board of Education and asked them to commit $50,000 per year to pay for some of our employees to get their teaching degree.”

Dail opens applications for the program to SPS staff each spring and said that so far, the program has had enough money to cover everyone who has applied.

“I meet with them all individually and we also have an interview team,” Dail said. “Then we talk about where their education is and what program options would fit best for them. Then they draft a contract, like a promissory note. So, if we paid for the portion of their degree, and they were to not come and work for us, they would only have to pay the district back what we paid for them.”

But Dail is not worried about people leaving once they get through the program. She said more people have been asking about open teacher’s aide positions as a way to get into SPS University since it started in the fall of 2023.

“They are ecstatic about this because their kids go to our schools and they’re already invested in our community,” Dail said. “This is where they’re staying. So the fact that they are getting the majority of their schooling paid and a contract to teach is great on their end and I’m getting guaranteed employees.”

Dail said another program SPS has partnered with to complement SPS University is BloomBoard, designed for staff with an associate’s degree who need two more years of education to receive their teaching degree.

The program allows them to continue working as a teacher’s aide while working toward their degree; allowing them to use what they are already doing in the classroom for their assignments. Their required student teaching is spread out over two years so they do not have to take a full semester off work to complete it.

“It’s been life-changing for our staff who’ve gone through this because they can do it while they have little kids and still bring home an income,” Dail said. “The other partner that’s been instrumental is Sauk Valley Community College. They developed an entire set of classes for our staff to get an associate’s degree that was all online.”

BloomBoard also helped Dail work with her local workforce board, run through Best Inc., to secure reimbursement funding typically meant for traditional apprenticeship programs.

“BloomBoard helped Sterling Public Schools become a business recognized under this grant,” Dail said. “So, I was able to fill out an application and for this on-the-job training program of ours, I’m getting 50% reimbursement for SPS University every semester.”

Dail said SPS has already hired several educators through the program with several more currently on-track to follow.