In a two-page letter to the community, Schools Superintendent Bill Burr on Friday cautioned that ongoing staffing shortages, particularly aides and substitute teachers, could push the schools into considering a move to distance learning in lieu of in-person instruction.
“As we have had a number of unfilled positions over the last month, we need to continue looking at the need to move toward distance learning,” he wrote in his letter Friday. “We have worked very hard to keep our schools open during (COVID) mitigation and adversity, but without our educational staff, it will be hard to meet the true social emotional learning and needs of our students.”
His recruitment message was “You can help!”
Burr added, “We need substitute teachers in all buildings. We still have permanent positions at Evergreen Elementary School to close out the year and continue to meet the new challenges in the fall.”
Distance learning “is not what we want to do,” Burr said in an email Friday, “but without help, we will need to strongly look at a distance-learning move at one or both buildings so that we can staff the other building in the near future.”
The chamber of commerce is trying to help, sending out a Facebook post on Friday, alerting the community that the school district “is in desperate need of substitute teachers.”
The middle and high schools had seven staff members out two weeks ago, but only two substitutes available, said Bob Davis, assistant principal for the schools. Last Friday, he was short four staff members, still with only two substitutes. Staff members were out for health reasons, student travel or other needs, Davis said.
Shortages of staff and substitutes “is way worse than it was last year,” he said Friday.
“The shortage of staff and subs is not a new problem, but it is also at an all-time high in my experience,” Jenn Miller-Yancey, assistant principal at Evergreen Elementary, said Friday.
“COVID has been especially rough on school this spring. A typical day starts very early (4 to 5 a.m.) or sometimes even the night before, getting word someone has popped positive for COVID, been a close contact, or is sick with the other illnesses going around,” Miller-Yancey said in an email. “Then it’s a mad staff shuffle to get all of the essential duties covered to be able to be open for in-person learning.”
Davis, who is retiring at the end of this school year after 34 years in education and 28 years with Wrangell schools, said the lack of job applicants is distressing. In past years, he might have seen as many as 50 applicants for a full-time teaching position. But now, he still needs to hire two teachers for the fall school year, and he has not received a single application for the special education teacher position.
Wrangell is not alone in looking for special education teachers. In 2019, 44 states reported special education teacher shortages to the federal government. This school year, that number jumped to 48, according to a National Public Report last week.
In addition to a nationwide teacher shortage, Alaska school districts are finding it hard to recruit on at least two counts.
More people have moved out of Alaska than moved here during each of the past nine years, according to state Labor Department statistics. That outmigration has cut into the state’s workforce.
And school officials statewide have long argued that the Legislature’s decision in 2005 to eliminate a defined-benefit retirement system for teachers and other public employees hired after 2006, in favor of a less certain personal savings plan, called defined contributions, has made it hard for Alaska schools to compete with Lower 48 districts that offer the certainty of a traditional retirement structure.
Davis noted that not one of Wrangell High School’s 15 graduates this year is considering a career as a teacher.
The shortage of aides and substitutes, particularly when a teacher is out, means the rest of the staff just gets stretched thinner, “covering other teacher’s classrooms, filling in as substitutes, volunteering for everything imaginable,” Burr explained in his letter.
“The stress of the last two years has also taken a toll on staff and students,” he said in his email Friday.
“Staff works covering other duties, staying late to try to catch up, and it just ends up being one of those cycles of no return,” Miller-Yancey said. “This spring is reaching a breaking point.”
Burr wrote in his community letter: “As we approach five weeks left before summer, we have one very big request … visit our buildings, talk with staff and students about how you can be involved in keeping Wrangell’s schools open and active.”
Even if it’s just one day a week, “we can work around that,” Miller-Yancey said.
The hourly pay for substitutes ranges from about $13 to almost $19 an hour, depending on the position and whether the person is a state-certified teacher.
Job openings on the school district website as of Friday for an elementary school library aide and special education aide — called paraprofessionals — were advertised at between $14 and $22.50 an hour, depending on experience. Because it’s only part-time work (under 30 hours a week), the district does not offer benefits with either position.
Part of the problem in recruiting substitutes and aides may be the wages, Davis said. Some food service jobs pay more, he said.
Anyone interested in applying can call the district office at 907-874-2347 or email Kim Powell at kpowell@wpsd.us for more information.
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