Kaylee Cook - reporter@highlandsnews.com
As Macon County residents prepare to send their children back to school on Aug. 29, the school system itself is facing a surge of faculty and staff vacancies. Across the 11 public schools in Macon County, there are multiple openings for bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and, of course, teachers.
The school system is currently missing four bus routes, including two half routes and two full routes and there are two custodian positions open. There are teaching assistant positions that are open as well, however, MCS does not control the money used to hire assistants.
Additionally, the school system is in need of teachers with approximately seven current vacancies. However, that number is fluid as the school system has had experienced teachers resign, or recommended new teachers for hire, every day for the last month, Macon County Schools Human Resources Director Todd Gibbs said. The school system is having trouble filling teaching positions that fall into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields as well as exceptional children teaching positions.
“Any vacancy that is science or math or an exceptional child is difficult to fill,” Gibbs said. “There just aren’t that many science or math ed graduates coming out of college these days.”
The school system has increased its recruitment techniques including an expansion of their advertising of job positions and communicating with universities in order to find and hire recent graduates.
Additionally, they are offering more incentives to personnel, including bonuses that are distributed on a particular schedule. The next bonus will be distributed at the end of December for all employees who are on the payroll as of Dec. 15.
“This past year, we’ve offered bonuses to all personnel, we’re communicating with colleges and universities and advertising both across the state in electronic publications and in local publications,” Gibbs said.
MCS is not the only school system to be hit hard by staff shortages. All across the United States, school systems are in desperate need of teachers as well as other school staff such as bus drivers, cafeteria workers, school nurses and more.
“I think it’s indicative of the labor market across the United States,” Gibbs said. “There are hard-to-fill vacancies in education, in the service industry and in the manufacturing industry. I think anywhere you look, people are looking for employees and education is not above or beyond that.”
While the school system has other options it can take to ensure the school year doesn’t start with no one to teach students, they are short-term solutions. The best option, according to Gibbs, is for Macon County Schools to hire as many permanent, full-time faculty and staff members as they can, but that can only happen if people are applying for the jobs.
“We’re going to look to obviously hire people looking for permanent teaching jobs,” Gibbs said. “We also look toward retired teachers who are willing to do a long-term sub or interim position to get us to find another person to fill that position. We also have substitute teachers who may not be certified but have worked a lot in our school system and are familiar with what we’re trying to accomplish in the schools. And we can call on those people too.”
For more information on employment opportunities visit Macon County Public Schools at www.macon.k12.nc.us and click the “Employment” tab or contact Todd Gibbs at todd.gibbs@macon.k12.nc.us.