Applications down, retirements up in area school districts

Jul. 3—Local school systems have been busy hiring and seeking out candidates for teaching positions for the upcoming school year, in part to make up for an unusually high number of retirements, but some systems have not seen as many applications as they would like.

Since Jan. 1, Decatur City Schools has hired 106 teachers and had 63 teachers resign and 32 retire. Superintendent Michael Douglas said he currently has 30 teacher openings and 20 classified openings for support staff and aides.

"That's about normal for this type of year, but there aren't as many applicants," Douglas said.

Douglas said he believes DCS will have all teaching positions filled before the school year starts. He said the COVID-19 pandemic was tough on teachers and led to some resigning or retiring, but the environment was nothing new to novice teachers.

"You know the crazy thing is, they don't know another way," Douglas said. "They've never had a normal school year."

In April, Alabama lawmakers approved a statewide pay raise for veteran teachers. Experienced teachers will receive raises of 5% to nearly 21%. This is on top of a 4% raise for all public education employees. — Morgan County

Morgan County Schools Human Resources Director Cliff Booth said the raises have not been effective in preventing veteran teachers in his district from retiring.

"We had probably above normal retirements and it shocked me that they retired, knowing they were going to get big pay raises," Booth said.

Booth said the pandemic posed new problems older teachers have not had to face before, leaving retirement as an appealing solution. However, he said applicants for teaching positions at Morgan County Schools have increased by 25% since the pandemic.

"We're still nowhere near where we were pre-pandemic, but we're progressing," Booth said.

Booth said his district has hired 95 certified and non-certified staff since Jan. 1 and about 75 of them are teachers.

"We've got 22 positions still open and we'll have those filled before the school year begins," Booth said.

Booth said he is still looking to fill specialty positions like special education teachers and speech pathologists, but "otherwise we're in good shape."

"We're still going to be hurting in some of our classified positions, like bus drivers and substitute teachers and custodians are really hard to come by," Booth said.

Booth said his district usually retains novice teachers because several of them have strong ties to Morgan County.

"We don't have a mass exodus like some of the other school systems around the state," Booth said. "There are more teachers trying to get in Morgan County than trying to get out. The vast majority of our teachers were Morgan County kids ... . They're wanting to come back home." — Lawrence County

Lawrence County Superintendent Jon Bret Smith said he is seeing fewer job applications for teaching positions this year.

"We've been able to fill our positions for the most part, however, we have seen a significantly lower number of applicants than we had in years past," Smith said.

Lawrence County Schools has hired 28 teachers in calendar year 2022, seven have retired and they currently have seven vacancies, according to Donna Flannagan, personnel director and special education director for Lawrence County Schools. — Limestone County

In addition to the state raise, the Limestone County school board approved raises for all their staff in May with the intention of retaining and promoting jobs in the district, according to Superintendent Randy Shearouse.

"Beginning teachers, which is where we're losing a lot of teachers, instead of a 4% raise, they're actually going to get up to an 8% raise," Shearouse said.

He said several of his older teachers have delayed retirement because of the raises.

"I really felt like this year retirements have slowed down, and I also feel like we're ahead of the game in regards to hiring teachers," Shearouse said. "We still have openings, but it seems like we're seeing more candidates in our district."

— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.