CASPER, Wyo. — The Natrona County School District has roughly 115 full- and part-time positions it has yet to fill ahead of the Tuesday, Sept. 6 start of the fall semester.
Difficulty filling certain positions is not unique to NCSD, Superintendent Mike Jennings told the Board of Trustees during its meeting on Monday. The district has roughly 2,200 total employees and Jennings said that despite some positions remaining unfilled, NCSD is “not in a crisis situation like many school districts are across the country.”
Decreased enrollment and graduation out of the University of Wyoming’s College of Education has been exacerbating hiring issues for NCSD and other school districts in Wyoming. In 2010, about 210 students graduated out of UW’s College of Education compared with 170 in 2021. In 2010, the College of Education had 1,250 undergraduates enrolled, a figure that dropped to around 700 in 2021. Jennings said the trend predates the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It has challenged all districts across the state,” Jennings said.
NCSD has enacted measures to help fill hard-to-fill positions. This includes efforts to train new administrators. A shortage of principals may not be often discussed, but Jennings said the administrator shortage across the country “is actually quite severe.”
NCSD has been able to hire 13 new administrators to start the new school year and has four interns training to serve such roles in the future. The district did not report any unfilled administrator positions heading into the new school year.
Another hard-to-fill area is special education teachers. NCSD has been able to find 31 people to fill special education positions, including 20 new teachers and 11 teachers who are transferring into the role from other teaching positions. Six of those transferring teachers are still working toward special education certification with support through an NCSD tuition assistance program.
While those six teachers have yet to complete special education certifications, they have other teaching credentials and bachelor’s degrees, Jennings said. A special exemption allows them to serve as special education teachers while they finish getting their credentials.
NCSD has six other teachers participating in its tuition assistance program outside of the special education teachers. The program offers NCSD staff up to $16,000 of tuition assistance.
Only one special education vacancy remains heading into the new school year, Jennings said.
Approximately 19 other certified teaching staff positions outside of special education remain unfilled, though Jennings said that figure may have dropped slightly with recent hires.
It is in the classified staff area that NCSD is seeing the most unfilled positions. The latest figures available showed 33 full-time education support specialists unfilled, 43 full-time and two part-time education support personnel positions unfilled, nine full-time and four part-time cafeteria positions unfilled and eight transportation positions unfilled.
Jennings said the district is continuing to work to fill the vacancies as the new school year approaches.
