GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – It’s a busy week as Green Bay Area Public District administrators continue their search for teachers.
Chief Human Resources Officer Jean Marsch tells WLUK the district is focusing on filling 26 open classroom positions.
“We’ve been having interviews almost everyday, almost every hour of the day actually. The hard to fill positions are special-ed and bilingual.”
Marsch said Washington Middle School has six open classroom positions.
According to the Wisconsin Education Career Access Network, the middle school has the highest open classroom positions.
But Marsch isn’t alarmed.
“We’ve made progress in just the last week. They’ve had six open positions but we’re doing interviews today and the rest of the week and I do feel confident that we’ll fill them.”
One position needed to be filled includes a former Washington Middle School teacher who resigned in June, citing safety issues. Since then, the district has been working to make changes at the school.
Marsch said teachers typically leave the district because of family reasons or to get a job closer to their homes.
“Our turnover is relatively low. It’s about 6.7% overall district wide, which is considered quite low.”
Scott Ashmann works at UW-Green Bay. He says overall, fewer people are entering education programs.
“I know overall the education program across the U-W system is down 25% from where it was just a few years ago.”
Marsch said there’s still time to fill the open positions in Green Bay.
“If we can’t find a position, and I’m confident we will, we have other qualified teachers that can fill them until we find a qualified teacher to take that position.”
The Green Bay Area Public School District employs around 1,800 teachers.
