In the News: School Staffing Starts Strong in San Mateo County

Original article courtesy San Mateo Daily Journal

By Sierra Lopez
Daily Journal staff
Aug 26, 2022

Teachers and school staff have been in short supply across the state but San Mateo County education leaders say they’re comfortable with their school year staff rosters while keeping their eye out for key areas.

 

Substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, special education staff and mental health professionals are roles many districts are still looking to fill. For some districts, limited resources have made it difficult to attract applicants who are looking for quality pay while living in the Bay Area’s high cost of living. For others, particularly large districts, the issue is less pressing.

San Mateo Union High School District, home to more than 9,000 students, is one of the institutions starting the year off strong, Superintendent Randall Booker said. The district is one of the highest paying in the area and though some positions remain open, Booker said a district, as large as it is, typically hires all year round.

 

“We’re feeling really confident about staffing levels,” Booker said. “We have people come and go throughout the school year so we’re never done with hiring season. It just comes in different waves but that’s nothing we’re not used to.”

 

Last year, the district regularly sent out notices alerting the public to open positions, such as bus drivers or substitutes, but this year, Booker said those issues are largely resolved. Craig Childress, president of the district’s teachers’ association, echoed Booker’s approval of certified staffing levels while also shedding light on the need for more special education staff.

 

Childress said the association regularly advocates for bringing on more staff in special education departments and said the distinct and association are working collaboratively to address the issue.

 

“Special education is huge and has been a huge issue even before the pandemic, and the pandemic has amplified that,” Childress said. “It doesn’t go unnoticed in our district.”

 

Diego Ochoa, superintendent of San Mateo-Foster City School District, said district classrooms are nearly 99% staffed but special education staff, particularly paraprofessionals, are top of his mind currently.

 

The district is about a year out from fully addressing the issue and publishing an action plan, Ochoa said, noting multiple factors contribute to recruitment hardships including the area’s high cost of living and work demands in the classroom.

“I’d love to see more recruitment happening with special education,” Ochoa said. “It’s also challenging to work in special education settings because these are very dynamic classrooms and the needs are great.”

 

Burlingame School District Superintendent Chris Mount-Benites shared his own confidence about staffing at the start of the school year. He said the district would have liked to fill out more classes, however, it doesn’t have the means to hire even more staff.

 

Ultimately, he said families like that their students have smaller class sizes and smaller community schools have remained open.

 

“They get to really know each other and I think that’s actually really important. Parents want their kids to go to a smaller school,” Mount-Benites said.

 

 

John Baker, president of the South San Francisco Unified School District Board of Trustees, said his district is “not doing bad” at the start of the new school year. Dipping enrollment, typically an unwelcome trend, caused the district to reconfigure some classes, which helped ensure all nonelective classes have a certified teacher working them.

 

And students at each campus have access to both breakfast and lunch, a positive change from last year when a shortage of nutritional staff forced the district to end breakfast services at some of its campuses to prioritize those with the highest need.

 

Where the district is really feeling the shortage is among its paraprofessional staff, employees tasked with supporting teachers during or after lessons. Recruiting nine mental health professionals has also been a challenge as the district builds out its mental health and wellness programs, Baker said.

Districts are ultimately limited by the funds they have on hand and Baker noted it would be irresponsible to spend one-time funds like those promised under the state’s $90 billion budget surplus — more than half of which will be going toward education — on ongoing costs like staffing.

 

“We get poached and, sadly, have to poach from districts to the north,” Baker said. “We are all hiring from the same pool and finding that that pool is shallow.”

 

After increasing their base pay for substitute teachers to more than $200 a day, Baker said the district is also struggling to build out that roster. The South San Francisco Unified School District is not alone in hiking its base pay for substitute teachers. Many school boards across the county underwent the same process of getting their pay to around $200 in recent years and have adopted pay scales to attract retirees or provide greater financial support to long-term substitutes.

 

 

COVID-19 exacerbated the issue in part by driving away many retired teachers and older substitutes who may have feared putting their health at risk by entering a classroom. The challenge came into focus this January as the spring semester began and hundreds of teachers and students were forced to stay home after contracting COVID-19.

 

Recognizing that recruiting substitutes has been a longtime struggle for many districts, County Superintendent Nancy Magee said the Office of Education has tried to help. Last year, her office piloted a program in which substitute teacher roles were advertised to graduate students at San Francisco State University and those who were interested were provided assistance applying for the permits they needed to substitute teach.

“We’re hoping to do that again and go through two different cycles each school year to help further support that sub shortage and give people nearby within grad level programs some experience with the community and just a chance to give back in a way,” Magee said.

 

The state is also looking to support the public school system. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond launched a work group to study the issue earlier this year.

 

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