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DeKalb County Schools' huge gains in teacher shortage
DeKalb County Schools says a combination of outreach and better pay is improving its teacher shortage problem. A shortage of nearly 700 teachers is now down to less than 200.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - After reporting a massive shortage of almost 700 teachers over the summer, officials with the DeKalb County School District say most of those vacancies have been filled just weeks into the new school year.
School officials say they used several strategies to get the number of open teaching positions district wide from around 650 to under 200. They say aggressive recruiting efforts and hiring incentives were among those strategies.
In the midst of a teacher shortage that’s being felt in classrooms across the country, DeKalb County Schools appears to be turning things around.
"We are elated that we have hired almost 775 teachers for this instructional year," said DeKalb County Schools Human Resources Administrator Dr. Tekshia Ward-Smith.
The district, now under the leadership of a new school superintendent, Dr. Devon Horton, reported more than 600 vacancies at the start of the summer, but in a matter of months has managed to fill most of the openings.
"By July, we were roughly down to about 525. By the first day of school, we were down to about 259. And now we stand today, as I stated, having about 174 teacher vacancies," said Ward-Smith.
Ward-Smith says recruitment efforts, including a summer job fair and tapping into the district’s substitute teacher pool, helped in addition to offering better pay.
"With approval from the board of education, we were able to provide a 6% increase along with a step increase for all newly hired teachers," said Ward-Smith.
School officials approved $3,000 to $4,000 signing bonuses for new teachers and a $2,000 retention incentive for returning teachers.
"We’re not only focusing on teacher new hires and recruiting, we’re also focused on teacher retention," said Ward-Smith.
Ward-Smith says while they are proud of how quickly they’ve been able to address the shortage, the goal is to see every vacancy filled.
"We’re not where we want to be…always want to be 100% staffed…and we know that those challenges will come, but we know that we have individuals that stand ready to assist," said Ward-Smith.
The school district is looking to its pool of substitute teachers, and what officials are calling "highly-trained master teachers" for that additional assistance.