Some school districts see a boost in teacher hires following incentive program
With just weeks until the new school year kicks off, some districts are seeing a boost in teacher hires despite the ongoing teacher shortage. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Oklahoma City, Okla.(KOKH) — Oklahoma continues to navigate through an ongoing teacher shortage, with hundreds of vacancies throughout the state.
However, the Oklahoma State Department of Education say they're working to ease the tension for districts.
"We are adding to the school personnel with those who can help support classroom learning," said State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister. "Whether they be a behavioral specialist, a reading specialist and also all of our new counselors and mental health professionals."
Some districts are seeing a boost just weeks before the new school year.
"As of Monday, we were 96% staffed," said Brad Herzer, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Safety and Security for Oklahoma City Public Schools. "That puts us in a good spot and it's better than where we were last year."
Herzer says hiring incentives the district has been offering has helped increase their teacher staff.
"We were fortunate enough to offer incentives of $1,500 for hard to fill positions and Special Education and we had over 100 educators to take advantage of that," said Herzer.
But the district is still lacking with about 100 vacancies.
Herzer expects that to change as the new school year approaches.
"Some of those 100 vacancies could be in the que to be hired, they just haven't physically finalized everything," said Herzer.
State education officials says they've been dealing with a bit of a backlog with approving teacher certifications and renewals. Officials say this is something that typically happens around this time of year but has been made a little worse due to the pandemic.
Hofmeister says once those documents go through, that will give the state a better idea of how our teacher situation is shaping up.
"It's very different due to COVID but it's certainly something that is promising as we think about these are people ready to go to work in our schools," said Hofmeister.
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