Westbrook Superintendent Peter Lancia had about 60 positions to fill at the end of the school year last spring and has filled all but 13 positions that he expects to be filled before the school year begins. Other districts across the state are scrambling to fill vacancies before the school year begins. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
With only a few weeks left until the start of the new school year, Westbrook Superintendent Peter Lancia is feeling pretty confident.
As the end of last school year approached, the school board needed to fill about 60 positions, from teachers to support staff to bus drivers. Knowing that wouldn’t be easy at a time when schools are struggling to hire new staff, the district launched its hiring drive months early and was more intentional in describing the positions, schools and the district’s mission.
There are only 13 positions left, most of them in special education. Lancia is confident that most of them will be filled before the first day of school on August 28.
“We were able to put ourselves at the front of the field,” he said.
As in years past, school districts in Maine and across the country are scrambling to fill vacancies amid a longstanding teacher shortage that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, 8% of teachers changed schools and 8% left the profession, according to a survey released in December by the National Center for Educational Statistics.
In some parts of the state, parents and current and former employees are concerned about the number of people leaving their districts to take other jobs.
The Maine Department of Education does not track turnover rates or vacancies among school staff, a department spokesperson said, but it is clear that some local school districts are still struggling, particularly in the special education sector, principals say.
“This is a national trend,” said Shelley Kane, who leads recruitment for schools in Biddeford, Saco and Dayton. “There is definitely a shortage of special education teachers.”
A push for higher wages
School officials say low wages are one of the biggest challenges in attracting and retaining staff, and educators and activists have repeatedly called on the state to raise minimum wages.
According to the Department of Education, the average salary for a classroom teacher in Maine is $60,054, but the minimum salary is $40,000.
For Ed Techs, the average wage ranges from $21,480 to $28,174, depending on certification level. To address the widespread shortage, state lawmakers this year raised wages for Ed Techs to 125% of the minimum wage and for support staff to 115%. This brings the minimum wage for Ed Techs to $17.69 per hour.
In Brunswick, the school district raised the salary for ed techs to attract more applicants. But Superintendent Phil Pontenziano said the district still has about a half-dozen openings in its special education program, mostly for ed techs.
“It seems like there are just no people interested in these positions,” he said.
Special education positions receive fewer applicants and are always difficult to fill, at least in part because the work is intensive, Lancia says.
“The needs of our students are very complex and require people who have certain skills and a certain attitude when dealing with children with special needs,” he said.
Longtime teacher Wyndee Grosso prepares her first grade class at Saccarappa School in Westbrook on Monday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
In Portland Public Schools, nearly 20 of the 50 open positions are in special education. Superintendent Ryan Scallon said the district is developing plans to fill the vacancies – likely with employees from temporary staffing agencies – until permanent hires are made.
“It will be an exciting endeavor to fill some positions,” he said.
In Saco, where a new collective bargaining agreement is in place, the starting hourly wage for ed techs is now over $17, up $3 to $4 an hour. This increase makes the district more competitive compared to others in the region, said Development Director Kane. While the district will start the year with a shortage of ed techs, she believes they will be able to fill the positions more easily now.
“If schools can’t even compete with restaurants, there’s no incentive to do this job,” she said. “Pay is a big factor because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much people love the job. They have to be able to afford to make a living at it.”
In Westbrook, where a new teacher contract increased salaries, the district has been more targeted in its job posting, Lancia said. That includes describing positions in more detail and highlighting the district’s strengths and its commitment to diversity and inclusion, he said.
“People see and understand that,” he said. “They believe in our mission.”
PERSONNEL PROBLEMS
Pay is one of the reasons some are leaving Regional School Unit 21, the school district that serves Kennebunk, Kennebunk and Arundel, and it has become quite a controversial issue in the community.
In many districts, staff turnover and the challenge of filling vacancies go largely unnoticed outside of schools. At recent RSU 21 meetings, the community and school leadership discussed whether recent staff turnover was unusual. The discussions led to the creation of a new staff advisory committee to address these concerns.
“It’s extremely concerning how many qualified staff we’re losing,” said Shannon Cavanaugh, who teaches fifth grade at Sea Road School in Kennebunk. She says the loss of experienced teachers and staff has contributed to low morale throughout the district. Her husband, Greg Cavanaugh, a former elementary school teacher in Arundel, said it’s frustrating to see the impact on morale when people move on to other jobs.
Greg Cavanaugh, a former teacher at Mildred L. Day School, and Shannon Cavanaugh, a teacher at Sea Road School, with their children Mckenna, 1, and Declan, 3, at their home in Kennebunk. The Cavanaughs say a lack of support from district administration is one of the main reasons for the high number of employees leaving the district. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
“I don’t care if we lose dozens of people or five, we’re losing good people here,” he said. “It’s a great sadness to all of us to see the development of what’s happening here.”
Since April, 37 district employees have resigned or retired, including 24 teachers, professional staff and administrative staff, district data show. That puts the turnover rate just below the state average. The district currently has 34 vacancies, including 14 teaching positions.
“Unfortunately, it is a tough time to be in education. More people are leaving the industry than entering it,” Superintendent Terri Cooper said in an email. “Other districts in Maine are also struggling with increased staff resignations.”
Last school year, 31 teachers resigned or retired, for a turnover rate of 14.35%, according to RSU 21 data. That’s up from the 25 resignations in the previous school year. In 2021-22, there were 28 resignations. More recent national statistics put the average teacher turnover at 16%. District leaders in Kennebunk point out that their turnover is not that unusual.
At RSU 21, departing employees have the opportunity to fill out an exit survey and meet with human resources to talk about their reasons and how they want to improve the district, Cooper said. Recent reasons for leaving include retirement, relocation and getting out of the industry, she said.
“Pay is also a reason for some of the resignations,” she said. “This is not to dismiss the moral concerns that people have raised – we hear those concerns and we are working hard to resolve them in a professional manner while also considering the needs of all other parts of this district.”
EMERGENCY RULES OFFER FLEXIBILITY
After the Maine Department of Education relaxed some of its regulations last spring, districts also have more flexibility this year in filling the most needed positions.
The department found that the greatest demand was in the areas of health and physical fitness, special education, computer science, music, social studies, art, English, English as a second language, mathematics and science.
Districts are now permitted to hire non-teaching credentialed individuals for these positions as long as they have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience, are enrolled in a teacher training program, or have the highest educational technician certification and have undergone a criminal background check.
At the end of the last school year, 136 of the state’s 16,697 teachers were working on emergency licensing, according to the Department of Education.
“Maine, like the rest of our country, has suffered from a teacher shortage both before and after the COVID pandemic. Ideally, all teachers should be fully certified, but our state laws and regulations provide certain caveats that allow for flexibility,” spokesman Marcus Mrowka said in a statement.
Teachers may have emergency or conditional certification for a variety of reasons, such as moving from another state, changing grade levels, or entering the profession after working in another field. To help these teachers obtain full certification, the department has partnered with the University of Maine System to cover tuition costs for teachers to take summer courses.
“If you want to teach at a school in Maine, we will support your path to the classroom,” Mrowka said.
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