Aug. 14—As more than 26,000 Lackawanna County students return to school within the next three weeks, some districts may not have enough teachers, aides, bus drivers and custodians.

While districts nationwide struggle to fill vacancies, the Scranton School District needs to hire about 40 teachers and 55 personal care assistants. Other Northeast Pennsylvania districts seek substitutes, maintenance workers and cafeteria staff.

"Scranton is feeling it now. If you follow the statistics, we should feel it shortly," said Riverside Superintendent Paul Brennan. "It's only a matter of time before it hits the outlying districts."

Shortages in many education-related jobs began before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated the problem. Teacher work conditions and the politicization of curriculum and other issues made the profession unappealing. Wages became uncompetitive for some of the lower-paying positions, including aides.

In Florida, military veterans without an education background can work as teachers. Some rural Texas districts have moved to four-day weeks because of the shortage. In Arizona, college students enrolled in an education program can become a teacher before graduation.

As the number of educators entering the profession declines in Pennsylvania, the rate of educators leaving accelerates. Staffing shortages are felt most by schools serving the highest proportions of low-income students and students of color, according to a July report from the state that proposes a plan to increase the workforce.

"I worry about the future of education. The dwindling numbers entering the profession are shocking," said Old Forge Superintendent Erin Keating, Ed.D. "We need young people to see it as a positive, rewarding profession and a place to look for future employment. I am concerned that as my generation of educators is heading into the last five to 10 years of their career, will there be anyone there to take our spots?"

Teaching declines

In the last decade, the number of newly certified teachers declined 63%. In the 2010-11 school year, the state issued 21,045 new certifications. In 2020-21, the latest year available from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 7,695 people received certifications. In the same time period, 9,900 public school employees who qualified for a pension retired, according to data from the Public School Employees' Retirement System.

The July report from PDE recommends developing recruitment systems, changes to educator preparation program entry requirements, residency and fellowship programs and targeted marketing and recruitment.

Lackawanna County schools have expanded advertisement and recruitment efforts, searching beyond the region and working with local colleges to find new teachers.

"The availability of qualified candidates to fill vacant positions in school districts is a significant concern," Lakeland Superintendent Marc Wyandt, Ed.D., said. "Certain certification areas are all but impossible to fill when a vacancy occurs. Finding certified candidates to serve in long-term substitute roles when a teacher is going to miss an extended period of time is becoming increasingly difficult in all certification areas, and when those positions go unfilled it causes a major disruption."

As of last week, Scranton needed 40 additional teachers, mostly for special education, alternative education or center-based programming at the district's Electric City Academy. So far, the district will have nine teachers working with emergency certifications. Under the state's emergency permit program, districts can temporarily hire an applicant with a bachelor's degree for a teaching position if a certified applicant cannot be found.

"We are concerned with the lack of students graduating from colleges and universities with education degrees," Superintendent Melissa McTiernan said. "Many of the recent graduates we have interviewed and hired are passionate and enthusiastic educators. Retaining teachers across the country is an issue that we are all dealing with."

The district must also hire 55 personal care assistants, five maintenance workers and six paraprofessionals.

First-year PCAs or paraprofessionals earn $18,024, or about $13 an hour, plus benefits. PCAs help students with various health needs, including feeding, toileting and hygiene.

"They're grossly underpaid for what they do," said Rosemary Boland, president of the Scranton Federation of Teachers, which also represents the PCAs.

Shortages, especially when they affect special education students, may also lead to potential legal issues.

Special education attorney Dennis McAndrews, whose firm has an office in Scranton, sent an email last week reminding parents that if their child has an individualized education program (IEP) that calls for services the district is unable to provide — including because of a staffing shortage — families have the right to sue.

Other positions

Besides Scranton, other local districts are able to fully staff classrooms, except for a few long-term substitute teaching positions. Those teachers may work half a year or more, but without a contract and no guarantee to come back the following year. They make the salary of a first-year teacher.

Valley View would typically have at least 20 applicants for a long-term substitute position, and now the district is struggling to find anyone willing to temporarily teach high school art, intermediate school STEM or sixth grade. The district is going through lists and making calls to try to find someone, said Business Manager Corey Castellani.

"We're definitely feeling like everyone else," he said. "We just don't have the applicants."

Day-to-day substitute teachers have often been college graduates seeking full-time teaching jobs. With many jobs available for those new teachers, substitutes are much harder to find. Most schools deal with multiple unfilled absences each day.

Since 2015, many districts have used Kelly Educational Staffing to find subs. Abington Heights has decided to employ and find its own subs again. As an incentive, substitutes will be guaranteed first-round teaching job interviews.

"We think that having substitutes more connected with our district would be enticing and allow for a higher level of engagement," Assistant Superintendent Maggie Vitale, Ed.D., said.

A critical shortage of bus drivers statewide continues to worsen, said Aaron Sepkowski, president of Pocono Transportation and first vice president of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association.

Pocono Transportation provides busing for North Pocono and Mountain View school districts and Catholic schools and buses athletes at several other districts. While Sepkowski is confident he can staff his routes this fall, he's about 16 drivers short of where he'd like to be.

Drivers make about $18 an hour and typically work between four and six hours a day.

Extensive training requirements and the inability for companies to increase wages, thanks to many contracts being locked into the state transportation reimbursement formula, have made it unappealing to many. The companies find it difficult to compete with higher-paying jobs which also require a commercial drivers license — or even a job at a fast-food restaurant. While other wages have increased, bus companies have nowhere to go, Sepkowski said.

Superintendents said they also remain concerned about finding mental heath specialists, paraprofessionals, custodians and cafeteria staff.

"We learned during the pandemic the absolute importance of teachers and the public school system for the betterment of our children, but also as an essential piece of workforce stability for parents and guardians," Keating said. "The teacher shortage needs to be a priority focus area of policy makers."

Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter.