School administrators discuss school shortages in Will County

The teacher shortage has grown “exponentially” since the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools started publishing an annual Illinois Educator Shortage Survey, according to Shawn Walsh, Will County regional superintendent of schools.

Although Illinois has taken several measures to increase the number of teachers in Illinois – including a package of Bills Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed In April — many schools in Will County are still starting school this week with open teaching and other staff positions, including bus drivers.

“The teacher shortage is real,” Walsh said. “We’ve seen it coming and now we need to get more people enthused about joining the educational field…not enough people are going into the profession. We working to retain those folks who are new to the profession, so they are not leaving us. These are all things we’re worried about as school administrators.”

Theresa Rouse, superintendent of Joliet Public Grade Schools District 86, said District 86 typically has some openings as school begins – and more than normal this year. As Rouse also said in a 2021 Herald-News story on teacher shortages, some of the shortages stem from the fact students are not considering education when contemplating their future careers.

That’s especially true over the last five years, Rouse said.

“We’re all in the same position of trying to hire the same teachers because there’s just not that many out there,” Rouse said. “We’ve got to get more people who want to go into the profession. It’s a great profession, and hopefully, more people will want to join us along the way.”

Market conditions

Paul D. Schrik, superintendent at Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C, said the present situation is a “buyer’s market” for existing teachers, who have the luxury of “hopping around” from district to district, seeking the wages, benefits and workload that’s right for them.

“It’s a great time to be someone looking for a position in education,” Schrik said. “It truly is.”

On the other hand, Bob McBride, superintendent of Lockport High School District 205, said District 205 is “an attractive district for people who want to teach or be administrators or be in student support services.”

McBride said that’s partly due to the board of education deciding to pay its bus drivers and paraprofessionals when “COVID struck in 2020″ even though they were no longer servicing students. In return, staff remained loyal to District 205 and didn’t look for other jobs, he said.

“I think that was a very wise decision,” McBride said.

McBride said District 205 has also incrementally raised how much it pays for bus drivers, paraprofessionals and substitute teachers, especially since wages are increases in other job markets, too.

“We have to be competitive,” McBride said.

Tom Hernandez, spokesperson for Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202, agreed that the common market conditions of “wages, benefits, families struggling with childcare” is not unique to school districts.

Hernandez said District 202 has especially struggled the last two years to have enough paraprofessionals, so the district continues to advertise and offer special incentives.

“As with everything else, the conversation starts with our size,” Hernandez said in an email. “We have 3,200 staff, including 2,000 teachers. That does not include bus drivers or food service, who are contracted employees.”

In a 2021 Herald-News story, Shannon Dudek, superintendent of Morris Elementary School District 54, felt the cause of teacher shortage ultimately lay, not with the school district, but with Illinois regulations.

The state has required more and different testing and certifications from teachers, he said in that story. Some of those certifications are “extremely difficult to get” and it’s turning young people away from education as a career, he said in that story.

Getting creative with bus routes

But even if a school has sufficient teachers and paraprofessionals, getting the students to and from school is also challenging, and districts are addressing that, too.

“You’re consolidating runs. You’re creating alternative schedules,” Walsh said. “Schools are getting creative in getting transportation to provide for their students.”

R. Scott Tingley, superintendent of Lincoln-Way Community School District 210, said District 210 schools were without bus drivers for short periods of times and had to do “rolling blackouts.”

This meant each of District 10′s three high schools — Lincoln-Way Central, Lincoln-Way East and Lincoln-Way West — would go without bus service for one or two days in a week’s time, he said.

Parents were notified in advance, Tingley said. Students unable to get to school received an excused absence. Tingley said. Remote learning was not an option, he added.

But it all worked out.

“We had very, very few students who weren’t able to find a ride to or from school during those instances,” Tingley said.