Baltimore City Schools unveils plan to address teacher shortage
BALTIMORE -- School districts across Maryland are still feverishly working toward filling various staff vacancies.
But as teachers head back to the classroom in Baltimore, they'll have the security of a backup plan to ease their concerns, according to Baltimore City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sonja Santelises.
That backup plan relies on long-term substitutes, rearranging staff, and reducing non-core teaching positions to make sure every classroom is covered, Santelises said.
The district is even tapping retired teachers to help fill positions.
This plan was created in the wake of a nationwide staffing crisis.
In Baltimore, the public school district is short 225 teachers as of last week.
But that number "is going down daily," Santelises said.
"The good news is we have a majority of our schools are fully staffed and ready to go, but we do have some schools that were giving more focused attention to support now to be ready for next week," she said.
Last year, over 5,500 teachers left their positions, citing workload, pay, and a lack of respect and resources, according to the State Department of Education.
"We are in a deep crisis of our educator shortage," one teacher said. "We need to increase pay for our educators in order to keep them."
Callan Silver told WJZ that her 7-year-old child starts school next week and she is worried that if staffing issues continue into the school year that it would only hurt the students.
"It's frustrating because even if you don't have kids, that's our future," Silver said.
In comparison to Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County is down 351 teachers. Meanwhile, Baltimore County has fewer than 200 remaining classroom vacancies, according to a teacher staffing update made public on Tuesday.
School leaders in both Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County are planning to continue hiring to fill the vacancies.
Classes are still expected to start on schedule.