LM April 2024

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e asked three Illinois superintendents about their staffing challenges and how Teacher Vacancy Grants are helping.

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Harlem SD #122

IASA Region:

Superintendent:

Kishwaukee

Dr. Terrell Yarbrough

Size:

Enrollment:

Adequacy %

preK–12 6,111

75%

We have ongoing challenges with specific positions in the district including paraprofessionals, substitute teachers, custodians, bus drivers, food service workers, special education teachers, ESL and bilingual teachers and social workers. Our greatest need has been in the paraprofessionals category but that has started to improve this year. Depending on the type of job, we will see anywhere from just a few applicants to over 20 applicants. How does your district plan to use the Teacher Vacancy Grant to address staffing challenges? We are using the grant to pay student teachers during their student teaching experience; we are also supporting our support staff by giving up to $6,000 in tuition reimbursement and by continuing their pay and benefits while they are student teaching for us. We are also letting our students in our educational pathway know about the opportunity. Our hope is that we can get 15–20 people to complete the program at the end of their senior year and then join us as support staff while we are reimbursing them for attending college to become a teacher. We are always looking to retain our diverse student population as they become working adults in the community. How big of an impact will this grant have on your district? We anticipate that this will have a significant impact. We are starting to get universities reaching out to us about our program. We have an increase in student teachers and our support staff have been utilizing the funds that are available through the grant. We can see the initial impact of the grant this year. Our student Describe the staffing challenges in your district, including issues with vacancies, how many applications you receive for job openings and any other related challenges caused by the teacher shortage?

By Jason Nevel IASA Director of Communications

How three dist are filling th Teacher Vac

teacher number has increased. This year, we have 18 student teachers, and this is the highest number we have seen since records were kept on the number of student teachers. By integrating our education pathway and the benefits of the vacancy grant, we are hoping to increase our numbers of student teachers while increasing the diversity of our student teaching population. How will your district sustain the programming beyond the term of the grant? That is a good question. While we would not be able to sustain it at the current funding amount, we would

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LM April 2024