August 29, 2019 Vol. 20, No. 14
In This Issue DIRECTIONS
Teacher recruitment remains challenging According to recent survey
Directions, by Joe Slack, in real life is located in front of OnCue, at 15th and I-35, 4100 E. 15th Street, but this week is hidden somewhere in our paper. Email c o n te s t @ e d m o n d p a p e r. c o m with the correct location to be entered in the weekly drawing. For more information, see page 4.
Surgeon General pays a visit to metro See Page 19
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 Partly Cloudy High 87° Low 70°
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31 Scattered Thunderstorms High 81° Low 66°
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 Partly Cloudy High 83° Low 65°
Oklahoma’s public schools are poised to hire more teachers and make other classroom investments thanks to back-to-back years of increased education funding, but teacher recruitment and retention remain challenging, according to a new survey from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. Schools had 596 teaching vacancies on Aug. 1 while districts reported mixed plans for staffing that will boost the number of teachers statewide. Districts that serve nearly half of Oklahoma’s public-school students reported they would hire more teachers, adding 599 teaching positions. A smaller number of districts reported plans to reduce staffing, eliminating 207 teaching positions. The vacancy number doesn’t include positions filled by emergency certified teachers and is higher than in each of the last four years. Nearly half of vacancies are in districts that added teaching positions. This is the sixth year OSSBA has conducted the survey, which was completed by 305 school districts that serve 81% of the state’s public-school students. “The survey shows the historic investment in teacher pay is beginning to put a dent in the teacher shortage. The overall hiring
of more teachers is an especially encouraging sign, but it’s also obvious the teacher pipeline is weak,” OSSBA Executive Director Shawn Hime said. “The teacher shortage crisis is not over.” During much of the last decade, funding failed to keep pace with increased student enrollment, and budget cuts forced schools to eliminate teaching positions. Hime said the reduction in teachers during tough budget years and the financial inability of districts to hire more teachers as enrollment grew likely masked the depth of the shortage. With the restoration of many positions, it’s no surprise that finding qualified teachers remains a challenge, he said. Superintendents across the state are more optimistic about their ability to hire teachers than previous years but will remain heavily reliant on stop-gap measures to fill vacancies, including seeking emergency teaching certificates, hiring retired teachers and hiring adjunct instructors who teach on a part-time basis. Last year, the state granted a record 3,038 emergency teaching certificates. This year, districts have already sought and received more than 1,600 emergency teaching certificates, an continued on Page 5
Higher pay helping EPS In Edmond, the teacher recruitment picture is a bit brighter than what it is for so many other districts in the state. Part of that rests with starting salaries, which are $41,745. The benefits package pushes that to over $50,000. In addition, according to a recent release, the district was the first to offer a starting salary of $40,000 to first-year new teachers. The EPS school chief, Bret Towne, noted the competitive salaries in the release. “Edmond Schools is pleased to work with our employees to provide highly competitive compensation and benefits,” Towne said. This year the ranks of teachers in the EPS district has swelled to 1,620. Chief Human Resource officer, Randy Decker, said the district was nearly fully staffed and was working on filling the last few slots. Decker said teacher recruitment wouldn’t be solved over night. “It will take time for the teacher pay raise to result in more high school students and others beginning to fill the pipeline from college,” Decker said. “However, the pay raises have certainly helped in all our efforts in trying to encourage people to consider the field of education.”