Public school district officials in Jefferson County say they’re well-staffed for the new school year, despite fewer applicants than in past years and impediments such as a dearth of affordable housing.
“We’re in pretty good shape,” said Brinnon School Superintendent Patricia Beathard after classes at the Pre K- through eighth-grade school resumed Monday. “We’re fully staffed. We don’t have a lot of turnover in the paraprofessionals.”
Beathard said being a rural district can make it difficult to attract people to the area, but once workers arrive, they often stay.
Last week, the Port Angeles School District said it is “urgently hiring” paraeducators, emergency substitute teachers, substitute bus drivers and other support staff, and several other districts in Clallam County voiced similar concerns.
But district officials in Jefferson County say they’re comfortable with current staffing levels and not experiencing the same urgent need for employees.
Port Townsend, Jefferson County’s largest district, which serves roughly 1,100 students in the 2020-2021 school year, is adequately staffed, said Superintendent Linda Rosenbury, as it prepares to open Sept. 6. But she also noted it received fewer applications than usual, especially for paraprofessionals, bus drivers and substitute teachers.
“I know that we’ve been working hard to staff our para-ed and bus driver positions,” Rosenbury said.
Several districts cited a lack of affordable housing as an issue in recruitment, and Rosenbury said several of the teachers in the district live with families or in multi-generational homes.
Rosenbury said the district recently settled on a new contract with its school district employees’ union — Service Employees International Union — which included raises between 3 percent and 18 percent, and that bus drivers and substitutes are covered under the union.
As of Tuesday, Port Angeles School District was still negotiating with teachers and other employees and a strike was possible.
Frank Redmon, superintendent of the Quilcene School District — which resumed classes on Monday — also said there were not as many applicants for jobs as in past years, but that the district was able to fill both credentialed teacher positions as well as such support positions as substitute teachers and bus drivers.
“One of the benefits of a small rural district is the community is a little bit tighter,” Redmon said.
He added his district has only one K-12 school. It serves about 220 in-person students and a total of about 650 including home education students.
Scott Mauk, superintendent of the Chimacum School District, said his district increases pay offered to substitute teachers as an incentive to work in the district during the next school year, which will begin Sept. 6.
“A lot of our people commute from Sequim or Port Angeles,” Mauk said of substitute teachers.
“We’re all competing with each other to get subs.”
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at psegall@soundpublishing.com.
