Iowa schools are entering another year of teacher and staff shortages, but schools in Johnson County continue to report near-full teaching staff. However, schools in and surrounding Iowa are experiencing shortages in other staff, and they are concerned about what the future will look like with more vacancies.
“If there’s a superintendent in Iowa that says they’re not really worried about it, then I would say they’re lying,” Tyler Hotz, superintendent of Lone Tree school district, said.
Over 1,000 teaching positions were unfilled at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, according to the School Administrators of Iowa. An additional 1,826 teachers were reported for being not fully certified to meet their assignments, often not meeting the license requirement in a particular content area.
The shortage impacts more than 37,000 Iowa students — and the shortage is not just happening in Iowa.
According to the Learning Policy Institute, over 400,000 vacancies were reported as unfilled or filled by teachers who did not meet the full certification requirements nationwide. This leaves millions of children impacted by a teaching shortage.
In Iowa, the schools most impacted are in rural areas. Lone Tree has filled all of its teaching positions, which Hotz attributes to a strong community and the school’s proximity to the University of Iowa.
“From a teaching staff standpoint, we were pretty fortunate compared to what I’m hearing from some of my peers,” Hotz said.
Hotz said the university brings in many families who often look for teaching jobs. He said this can be a double-edged sword, though, mainly because some families are only in Iowa City pursuing a degree and will leave after a couple of years.
While teacher positions are filled, Hotz said finding substitute teachers remains challenging. In some cases, a principal will have to fill in class when no one is available.
Nick Proud, chief human resource officer at the Iowa City Community School District, also said the UI and the hospital have been a draw for staff within the district. Additionally, Iowa City schools generally pay teachers above average, which helps attract teachers.
According to Iowa City School’s pay scale, a starting teacher with a bachelor’s degree has a $47,500 starting salary. The average salary for a starting teacher in Iowa is $43,822.
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Proud said finding paraprofessionals and nutrition service specialists has been the biggest challenge for the district. He believes competition with private entities, which can pay more, is one of the reasons this is the case.
“The $15 to $20 an hour positions, those positions are at retail stores, gas stations, grocery stores,” Proud said. “You really have to find somebody who wants to be in the school, and that can be sometimes a challenge.”
Angela Olson, head of the Regina Catholic Education Center in Iowa City, also said the school has a full staff this year. Regina Catholic is a private religious school with 32 elementary teachers and a combined 29 teachers for junior and senior high.
“To be fully staffed this year was unexpected and above average,” Olson said.
Olson said when they are looking for candidates, they have to find people who are open to embracing a certain religion while also accepting a teacher’s salary. While Regina does not employ paraprofessionals, they have had trouble keeping on bus drivers.
The school contracts a company to provide them with six buses, which has been struggling to keep bus drivers.
Olson said it’s essential to spread initiatives to educate people on how a profession in teaching and schools is worth it.
“The challenge is, how do we encourage people who are right where you’re at, thinking about what I want to do for my career, and saying to them, this is a really great job,” Olson said. “I think just as a whole, across the state, maybe across the country, even in our schools, we’ve got a role to sell what a great job it is for folks.”