Amid the ongoing national teacher shortage, West Contra Costa Unified started its second week of the 2023-24 school year with 80 teacher vacancies, which may lead to shuffling teachers during the first few weeks of school.
According to the district’s spokesperson, Elizabeth Sanders, when the school year started on Aug. 15, the district had 99 unfilled teacher vacancies out of about 1,500 certificated positions. Certificated staff are largely teachers, but include counselors, librarians and instructional coaches. By Tuesday, the number of unfilled teacher vacancies in the district was down to 75, Sanders said.
Last year, at least a half-dozen of the district’s teachers were reassigned to different schools or classes during the fall semester, and some of the reassignments didn’t occur until more than a month into the school year. At the time, teachers said making the changes so late was disruptive to the classrooms and undermined the work they had done to gain their students’ trust and build connections.
John Zabala, president of the United Teachers of Richmond, the district’s teachers union, said he fears shuffling may occur this year as well, given the number of vacancies.
“We have concerns about working conditions for teachers and learning conditions for students,” Zabala said. “We know this problem is greater than just West Contra Costa Unified. Ultimately, we’re going to need legislative changes in Sacramento to address these shortages.”
Sanders said the district has ensured coverage for all vacancies by reassigning instructional coaches and other teachers on special assignment to cover temporarily while new teachers are hired and processed. The district is also using substitute teachers and retired educators.
“We appreciate these instructional leaders for their work to ensure that all students start the year with highly qualified teachers,” Sanders said.
The 30,000-student district in the East Bay cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo, Pinole, Hercules and El Sobrante is working to hire and onboard more teachers to ensure that the fill-ins are only temporary, Sanders said.
Zabala said district officials have been proactive in trying to shuffle their classrooms before the school year starts and have been communicating with the union about its progress.
Hundreds of West Contra Costa Unified teachers have resigned since the pandemic, Zabala said. At the end of the 2021-22 school year, more than 200 of the district’s teachers resigned, he said, and more than 100 resigned at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Studies show that, across the nation, teachers are feeling burnt out and leaving the profession in large numbers.
The situation has increased the competition to recruit from the small pool of qualified teachers between districts in a region, Zabala said. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that neighboring Oakland Unified started its school year on Aug. 7 short 60 teachers out of 2,300, and that San Francisco was still looking for more than 140 teachers about two weeks before its first day of school last Wednesday.
“Districts are essentially poaching from one another high-quality candidates,” Zabala said.
The problem could worsen in the coming years if the district needs to lay off employees for budget reasons after years of declining enrollment and increased pay for teachers and staff. The fiscal solvency plan laid out in June by Robert McEntire, associate superintendent of business services for West Contra Costa Unified, calls for a reduction of 145 full-time employees, including 54 teachers, through attrition or layoffs before the 2024-25 school year, and more the following year.
West Contra Costa Unified has also struggled to staff special education paraprofessionals this year — an issue districts throughout the country are grappling with. The district had more than 200 such vacancies in mid-July and contracted with outside staffing agency ProCare Therapy to fill the vacancies.
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Dan Plonsey 3 years ago3 years ago
It’s not complicated, is it? Education jobs are unfilled because compensation is insufficient, and working conditions are not good. Shall we discuss what can be done about that, in a state with ~200 billionaires? As a side note for WCCUSD in particular: it looks like Zabala and UTR settled a bit too easily with WCCUSD: the raises they received by cancelling their strike at the last minute were not enough.
Anita G Urmann 3 years ago3 years ago
New teachers cannot afford to live in any of the mentioned areas.
J 3 years ago3 years ago
You should look closer at these schools' hiring policies. I am getting my internship from Touro University. I worked at Benicia Middle school in Solano County last year but was non-renewed because admin had a vendetta against the special education department. I was a first year teacher and didn't even know that could happen. They put me in a moderate/severe class with zero experience and no support. I have all the proof. Chewed me up and … Read More
You should look closer at these schools’ hiring policies. I am getting my internship from Touro University. I worked at Benicia Middle school in Solano County last year but was non-renewed because admin had a vendetta against the special education department. I was a first year teacher and didn’t even know that could happen.
They put me in a moderate/severe class with zero experience and no support. I have all the proof. Chewed me up and spit me out. Then I was told I had no rights as a first year teacher. I was supposed to be starting my internship and now I can’t pay rent.
The same goes for John Swett High School in Crockett. They continue to put listings up saying they need teachers. I interviewed for a mild/mod position on Friday only to see they listed the position again on the 20th of August. They need teachers but are not hiring. I put several hours into this. People are applying they just won’t hire at these schools. Or they use back-door ways to move money around for their desires. I’ll go on record if you want to interview me. These schools need some accountability.
Hercules high school in West Contra Costa is the same. This is a huge issue being buried.