The Juneau School District started off the school year with more than 90 open positions.
Of those, close to half are certified staff – positions that require a license like teachers, counselors and speech therapists. There were also openings for paraeducators, school nurses and administrative assistants.
According to staffing reports presented at a board meeting earlier this week, a quarter of the district’s paraeducator positions remain unfilled. Paraeducators are also known as teacher aides or assistants. This includes special education paraeducators, literacy paraeducators and those for various KinderReady programs.
Superintendent Frank Hauser said the shortage means the district has to make tough decisions like moving employees to different buildings in order to meet the special education needs of students.
“Those are difficult conversations [we] have to have with staff saying, ‘we need to potentially have you move from one building that you’ve been at for a couple of years to another building,’ Hauser said. “But in those decisions, the focus is always on making sure, are we meeting the needs of the students?”
The district is also filling 18 certified positions with employees from third party contractors, with three more waiting to be confirmed as of Aug. 14.
Hauser said that’s to bridge the gap in services while the district makes permanent hires. He says some contractors are working virtually, but the contracted teachers are qualified for the position.
“A lot of our third party services are experienced, qualified teachers that work for a, you know, a third party contractor and provide these services,” he said. “Many of them have extensive knowledge on a specific area of need.”
Hauser says long term substitute teachers also aren’t included in the vacancy data. The district is currently hiring several teachers from the Phillipines, an increasingly common practice in the state.
This comes as the school district continues to negotiate new contracts with its teacher and support staff unions. The school board is expected to vote on ratifying a contract for school administrators at its next meeting on Sept. 9.
The school board is also considering how to spend more than $1.5 million in state funding that was restored by the state Legislature after the governor’s veto. The school board’s priority list of things to add to the budget includes more staff positions and universal free breakfast.
