When Elkhart Community Schools would advertise for a second-grade teacher a few years ago, the district would receive at least 50 applications for the position. This year, only about 20 applied for the vacant positions.
Although Elkhart County schools have been able to fill nearly all teacher positions for the 2015-16 school year, officials say the reduced applicant pool is a sign that the teacher shortage is real and that it could hit close to home.
Warning bells of the shortage sounded a few months ago when school districts across Indiana reported they were having trouble filling their teaching positions. That concern was echoed by data from the Indiana Department of Education, which shows a 21 percent decline in the number of licenses issued to new teachers in the past year.
’A SMALL STRUGGLE’
Despite the reduced number of applicants this year, Elkhart’s classrooms are fully staffed. But the district needed to get creative to fill positions in areas such as math, science and foreign languages, said Cheryl Waggoner, director of talent recruitment and management.
“Any resource that we have to get the word out, any stone that we can look under, we’re searching for teachers,” Waggoner said. “But most important, we want to look for quality.”
While a simple job post hosted on the district’s website would typically be enough to attract applicants, that wasn’t the case this year — particularly for one Latin teaching position. Instead, Waggoner ended up approaching other language teachers in the district and asking if there was an online community or website they visit often where they may be able to reach potential new teachers. It worked.
Goshen Community Schools is also fully staffed, but administrators did notice signs of the shortage during the recruitment process.