St. Paul Public Schools welcome 350 new educators this school year, making strides to fill vacant positions
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Officials with St. Paul Public Schools, one of Minnesota's largest school districts, say they are making strides to fill teaching jobs in high demand as the state continues to struggle with vacancies in education.
More than 300 teachers and others who work in and around the classroom are onboarding this week during an orientation at Washington Technology Magnet School. Danaya Franke, assistant director of recruitment and retention, said that pushes the district closer to its hiring goals this year.
Across the state, there are thousands of vacant positions in education, according to a new survey from the Minnesota School Boards Association. Nine in 10 districts told state officials that they were significantly impacted by the teacher shortage, a state report earlier this year said.
Other communities across the country are facing similar challenges.
"It's the world we live in right now," Franke said of the teacher shortage. "So I think we in St. Paul Public Schools are doing the best we can to create systems and create procedures that allow folks to come into St. Paul Public Schools and feel safe, and feel like it's a place they belong and a place they want to continue to be."
With federal COVID emergency aid, St. Paul offered bonuses to special education teachers at $10,000 a piece, all of which are accounted for. There are about 30 remaining bonuses of $4,000 for education and teaching assistants.
Franke said staff on her team fanned out at recruiting events -- including at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase teachers of color -- to get more people in the door.
"I have heard several principals tell us that they're in a better position than they've ever been before," she said. "I still won't have the team stop until we have all of our positions filled."
Gov. Tim Walz's office last month estimated there are more than 13,000 jobs -- 6% -- open in education out of 225,000. The state legislature this year recognized the need, passing a budget that boosted funding for programs designed to bring more teachers into the fold, mentor current teachers and retain them, and reimburse Minnesotans for licensing fees that can be a barrier to entering the profession.
There's also money for grants to recruit teachers from out-of-state to work in Minnesota.
Kevari Fletcher was a teaching assistant for eight years because she participated in the Saint Paul Urban Teacher Residency program, a partnership with the district and the University of St. Thomas, to get her master's degree.
She will be a special education teacher starting this fall.
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"I just took the leap," Fletcher told WCCO. "I saw there was a need for teachers after COVID especially. I saw there was a need even having a daughter in the district, so I just felt like this was my calling at the time."
She encourages more people to considering teaching, especially teachers of color who are in high demand. In Minnesota, nearly 37% of school children are students of color or American Indian, but just 5.9% identify as such.
"My pitch would be just do it, just do it, because we need teachers. We need more teachers of color. We need all of that," Fletcher said. "We need inclusion. We need diversity. We need everything."
Lawmakers this year also approved new benchmarks for Black, Indigenous and people of color educators in the classroom.