Teacher shortage hits home in St. Mary

Schools across the nation are feeling the effects of a teacher shortage, and St. Mary Parish is no exception.
The supply of certified teachers is not meeting the demand. According to the Learning Policy Institute, in the 2017-18 school year, the country was estimated to have a shortage of 110,000 teachers.
This shortage is coming from a combination of more students in the public school system, so more teachers are needed, but fewer people are choosing to major in education.
This is one of the reasons cited by St. Mary Parish School Board members who placed a new half-cent sales tax on the May 9 ballot to raise salaries for teachers and support personnel.
In 1975, 22% of college students majored in education. This was more than any other major. But by 2015, fewer than one in 10 Americans pursuing higher education chose to pursue a degree in education, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled by career website Zippia.
There are also more teachers than ever leaving the profession across the nation.
Thirty-three St. Mary Parish teachers resigned between July and November.
According to Alicia Morris, administrative assistant for human resources at St. Mary Parish schools, this is not an uncommon amount of resignations to see for St. Mary Parish, however, the problem lies in being able to replace them.
“The shortages are coming because they aren’t coming out of the universities,” Suzanne Bergeron, director of human resources for St. Mary Parish schools, said.
“For example, in December, we have a teacher that is going out on medical sabbatical for the second semester and I sent the principal a slew of resumes and applications I had received from Nicholls, UL and Southeastern and every one of them already had a job,” Bergeron said.
Southeastern had 58 candidates graduate from the College of Education in their fall commencement ceremony and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette had 65.
“It used to be, because I graduated at midterm from Nicholls, whatever job I got I took because there were no jobs, now there are jobs and no teachers,” Bergeron continued.
Bergeron goes to local universities for recruitment days in an attempt to get newly qualified teachers to come to St. Mary Parish and teach.
“The professor at Southeastern told us in the spring they will have 70 to 80, well that is not a lot of candidates to fill all the districts that were there at recruitment day,” Bergeron said.
“At recruitment day, not only were districts there from the state, there were charter schools, they had people from Texas, Mississippi, and they were all there recruiting teachers. So they are drawing them away from the spots we need them,” Bergeron said.
“A lot of the districts now are thinking creatively and outside of the box for ways to attract teachers to the district because education graduates know they are a hot commodity, which they are, because everyone wants them. So now they are looking for where can they go to get the most bang for their buck,” Bergeron said.
Some of the schools in the area have felt the effects of the shortage this school year. Some area schools did not have all the needed teaching positions filled until the first week of school and some positions had to be filled with uncertified teachers.
“Having that additional supplement would help, especially when other districts are out there trying to increase their pay as well. Lafourche is trying to get a 1-cent sales tax,” Bergeron said.
“This would be another selling point for us because the starting pay would be more. I don’t even discuss starting pay unless they specifically ask me at recruiting day because I know I can’t compete with any of the districts around me. Some districts have their starting pay in a frame,” Bergeron said.