High schools are scrambling trying to find teachers to come to their school in Oklahoma. Some teachers are retiring, others transferring, or leaving the profession.
Teachers in Oklahoma are short by 4,000. That’s how many emergency certifications there were this year. Tulsa Public Schools and Union Public Schools are trying to close that gap as much as they can with a small token of appreciation.
As for how long the teacher shortage has been going on...
“The teacher shortage has really gone on for about the last 4 or 5 years. We have been raising the flag that there haven’t been enough teachers coming out of the school programs," said Executive Director of Human Resources at Union Public Schools, Jay Loegering.
Last year, Oklahoma colleges produced about 1,300 qualified teachers through teacher programs. But they had over 4,000 teacher openings in Oklahoma. High schools in Tulsa say they have to close that gap.
“Right now what TPS is offering is a 4,000 dollar signing bonus for anybody certified," said Tulsa Public Schools lead recruiter, Nicolette Dennis.
“If somebody is interested and wants to come to Union, we have a 2,500 dollar sign-on bonus for special education teachers. A 2,000 sign-on bonus for secondary math and science teachers. We also give a 3,000-dollar bonus if you are E.L. certified, English language certified, to really help with that population that we have here in the district," said Loegering.
TPS's focus right now is high school math, science, world language, and special education.
Tulsa Public Schools has hired 250 teachers for the next school year, but still are searching for more teachers.
Union has hired some teachers but still needs to close the gap before the next school year gets here.
“Our need right now is for teachers across the board. But we are down to 45 openings which we are excited we are making progress. In fact the last few days, we have filled seven positions. We're working hard at that. So if anybody is interested you can go to Union.org and you can go and apply to any of our positions," said Loegering.
"It’s a struggle to find teachers. We are all struggling against each other and with each other to try and figure out the best fit," said Dennis.
Tulsa Public Schools and Union told NewsChannel 8 that they are all in this together. They also said that they may go after one another on the football field, but education comes first for their students.