Akron Public Schools looking to hire 60 more teachers, 30 more bus drivers before new year
Akron Public Schools is looking for another 60 teachers and, ideally, 30 more bus drivers before school starts in less than two weeks.
The district had 62 open teaching positions as of Monday, Recruitment and Retention Manager Angela Carter said. Areas of high need include intervention specialists, with 15 such positions open, and 10 physical education teachers. The district is also in need of foreign language and science teachers.
"Every day we’re working on filling the gaps," Carter said.
The district added at least 20 new positions this year, she said, accounting for some of the need. Some positions are by nature harder to fill, and others are opening late in the summer as teachers put in notice when they receive other job offers or their families move.
But the district also saw higher than normal turnover last school year.
Teacher resignations double year over year
According to data received in a public records request, the district lost 116 teachers throughout or just after the 2021-22 school year. That was a 32% increase from the previous year, and compared with five years ago, when just 47 teachers left, a 146% increase.
The 116 who left the district last year include 66 who resigned, 45 who retired, one who had a disability retirement and four who died.
The number of retirements dropped last year, but the 66 resignations were double the total of the year before. In the 2017-18 school year, just 17 teachers resigned.
Even with the uptick, teachers leaving the district last year still only represented 6-7% of the teaching workforce in Akron.
Carter said the district has been working with substitute teachers on getting fully licensed to teach, if they don't already have a license and wish to be in a classroom full time.
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After significant trouble last year with finding substitutes, numbers have rebounded, Carter said, after the board increased their pay. Subs in Akron can now earn up to $249 a day, depending on their assignment.
Any openings for full-time positions at the beginning of the year will likely be covered by long-term substitutes, Carter said. Many are retired teachers who come back as substitutes, but if they are in a classroom long-term, they receive additional training.
"We do make sure our subs are properly trained and equipped with the tools that they need before they get in front of our children," she said.
Transportation shortages could mean delays
Getting kids to school every day was a challenge on many days last year, and may continue to be this year, Transportation Coordinator Bill Andexler said.
The district needs about another 30 bus drivers, Andexler said, to run its district-owned buses and those run by a third-party vendor, Petermann Bus.
Andexler said he'd also like to have another eight drivers serving as substitutes who can cover routes when regular drivers are absent.
The benefit of driving for Akron instead of other districts, he said, is that drivers with assigned routes can receive full benefits. There's also no shortage of workload for those looking for full-time work. His drivers continued to drive over the summer for Akron's camps, but with the low staffing, "my staff’s exhausted and we’re going right into the new year."
Andexler said the current numbers are similar to where the district was last year, but last year saw frequent delays as drivers had to cover for each other, absorbing additional routes on top of their usual load. Every day was precarious, he said, and he'd like to avoid that this year as much as possible with as many additional drivers as possible.
"If I had 30 maybe I’d get some of my gray hair back to brown," he said.
Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Public Schools has 60 teacher vacancies ahead of new year
