'It's a national crisis,' Marion County districts approach upcoming year understaffed

Intervention specialists, foreign language instructors and secondary education teachers: these are the greatest needs for Marion County’s school districts as they face the national shortage of teachers with the upcoming academic year just weeks away.

Across the country, staffing gaps in education range from the hundreds to the thousands, with The Nevada State Education Association estimating that roughly 3,000 teaching jobs remain unfilled across that state as of early August.

Across Central Ohio, a shortage of bus drivers and food-service workers is expected to cause challenges for New Albany-Plain Local Schools, and the same shortage has caused Marion City Schools to reduce its bus routes for the upcoming academic year.

What district leaders are finding

Although different in scale, each of Marion County’s public school districts has been affected by the national shortages of education workers, with both Pleasant Board President Vicki Kimmel and Ridgedale Board President Ryan Cook saying they have seen more staff transition than their district’s usually experience, but they believe it is the reality not only in education but across many industries right now.

“It’s definitely been a year for us with more movement that we’ve traditionally had, but I really think that is not even related to our school, even our county, it’s all schools and even all industries – I see that in my professional job, my day job, as well, it seems to be the environment that we’re in,” Kimmel explained of the district’s 33 transitions this year.

According to Kimmel, staff have been leaving for various reasons, including accepting a higher or better-paying job in the field at another district or leaving the field of education altogether.

Marion City Schools Interim Superintendent Steve Mazzi has been in the process of conducting exit interviews with former staff to determine the reasons people are leaving after 40 employee resignations were board approved during the July board of education meeting.

Marion City Schools had a turbulent 2021 – 2022 school year as teachers, parents and community members began making claims of a “crisis of discipline” within the district and several top administrators left the district including former Superintendent Dr. Ron Iarussi and former Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Lawson.

However, Mazzi explained that in the exit interviews he has accomplished thus far, he found that this issue was not the sole reason for all the resignations as the public may believe, rather a sign that the national teaching shortage has arrived in Marion.

“Let’s not localize it, because it is a national crisis,” he said.

Marion City Schools Board President Kelly Mackay said that the district has been working to fill these open positions and “pivot” into the new year, citing an article in the Los Angeles Times reporting that a Southern California district, Los Angeles Unified, is hurrying to fill 900 teaching positions and find over 200 bus drivers just two weeks before the new academic year.

She said although Marion City Schools has been working on a tight deadline to fill positions as well, she is grateful the district is not in the position of the Los Angeles district.  

Mackay also noted that the district’s staff left for various reasons, including wanting to be closer to family, finding other positions or leaving the field of education, like Kimmel said.

Still, she hopes this year the board and administration will better hear and address the concerns of staff.

“We’re in a better position to hear the concerns and address them, because I think we all want our students to learn and our teachers to be able to teach in a safe environment and for our bus drivers to be on a bus and be safe,” she said.

Marion Education Association President Jami Rawlins said earlier this week that she is hopeful to be heard by the new administrators as she also explained the severity of the teaching shortage.

“The teaching shortage is real, and it’s hitting Marion City,” she said. “It just causes more stress for the people that are there.”

For Marion City Schools, the districts biggest hiring needs include intervention specialists and high school teachers, Mazzi said.

“You can’t find a special ed teacher. They’re not going to school. You can’t find a science teacher, a math teacher, they’re just not coming to the field,” he said.

“We are begging for special ed teachers, and secondary math and science as are other districts.”

Elgin is still seeking intervention specialists as well, according to district Superintendent Lane Warner, who said he first heard that was a county-wide need when he last met with the other Marion County superintendents at the end of last school year.

"We, like everybody, and the last time all the superintendents met together in May, I think every school in the county was looking for intervention specialists,” Warner said.

Bus driver shortage affecting Marion County

At River Valley, Superintendent Adam Wickham also said the district has had fewer teacher applicants than in past years, especially for intervention specialists.

He also said the district has had trouble filling bus driver positions, especially subsititute bus drivers, but currently has enough to start the school year.

At Pleasant, the district will now be offering benefits to all bus drivers, even for individuals working less than 30 hours per week, Kimmel said.

“We are going to be offering benefits to bus drivers. We just voted on that last night, so we’re really happy about that as a board. That will be a huge benefit for our staff members who don’t have that opportunity now,” she said.

At Elgin, Warner said there is always a need for bus drivers and substitutes as it is sometimes difficult to staff busses for an evening sporting event following the afternoon bus route due to employment numbers.

Warner said the most difficult positions to fill are highly specialized positions, adding that Elgin had a July resignation for its Spanish teacher, and the district has yet to have any applicants.

The position is still open for applicants, but as of Aug. 4, the district was planning on contracting an outside service to teach students Spanish via a live video instructor in a class staffed by a teaching aide.

Warner noted that he knew Ridgedale also currently has a foreign language position open, explaining that Elgin wasn’t alone in the fruitless search for a new instructor.

“I think staffing in education right now is an everywhere problem. I’ve talked to lots of different superintendents and just other people that I know in education in different roles, and I’m hearing the same kind of thing from people all around: that there’s a shortage of teachers, there’s a shortage of bus drivers, there’s a shortage of all people in coaching, there’s a shortage of referees. Like many other industries right now, we’re struggling,” Warner said.

Over at Ridgedale, Cook mentioned the foreign language position is still open, explaining that along with intervention specialists:

“Those folks are just incredibly difficult to find.”

He said the district still has several positions open, like other districts across the county, the state and the nation as they work through a newfound struggle with supply and demand.

“We’re not seeing anything different at Ridgedale than Pleasant is, than Elgin is, than Marion City, Columbus, Toledo,” Cook said.

“I think the great question floating around out there is: why?”

Noting that he was speaking from his own opinion and not on behalf of the board, Cook, who is the chief financial officer and director of operations for the Bucyrus City School District, said he has seen a lack of support and respect for differences in opinion take over society and politics, and he believes that is getting drawn into the classroom.

“This vitriol style of politics has just taken things over, and I think teachers get caught in the cross-hairs of that. I know administrators do. I know school board members do,” he said.

He said he hopes the respect for local education and the high school diploma will bring civility back into the school buildings where it is lacking.

“I hope I’m wrong. I hope we can get that back, but I think that’s a big part of this,” he said.

As Marion County districts prepare for the new year, Warner said he hopes greater knowledge of the shortage in teachers can encourage Marion’s seniors to consider going on to college and considering pursuing education.

“We still need good people to do it. There’s always going to be a need. There’s always going to be kids, and as long as this earth’s still spinnin’ there’s going to be kids growing up and needing to get an education,” Warner said.

Story by: Sophia Veneziano (740) 564 - 5243 ∣ sveneziano@gannett.com