The headlines don’t all agree. Is the United States facing a critical lack of educators, or isn’t it? The Washington Post reported on Aug. 4 that the country is facing a “catastrophic teacher shortage,” but on Aug. 24 The Atlantic disagreed, saying that “the narrative doesn’t match the numbers.” Earlier this week, The New York Times landed in the middle, saying that it “depends where you live.”
What is for sure, though, is that South Fork school districts have been beyond busy scooping up all the qualified teachers, teaching assistants and aides, special-education therapists, mental health providers, and substitutes they possibly can ahead of the first bell this year. Record numbers of recent teacher retirements, Covid-related turnover, and prohibitive housing costs and commutes have exacerbated the situation. Since May, school district records show that between Montauk and Bridgehampton, at least 50 teachers have been hired across various academic disciplines — most to replace people who retired, some to launch new programs.
In East Hampton, which employs about 400 people across every education profession, 29 employees — 22 of them classroom teachers — are new to the district this year. “I’m hoping we only have to hire one or two next year, because this was exhausting,” Tim Fromm, East Hampton’s assistant superintendent, said this week. “It’s been a very busy summer making sure all the I’s and T’s are dotted and crossed. That’s a huge hiring effort for us.”
For context, Long Island teaching jobs have long been regarded as coveted positions with excellent benefits that often lead to six-figure salaries for those at the peak of the profession. Because of that, candidate pools have historically been enormous; take, for example, the approximately 1,000 applications that the Wainscott School District received for a single elementary job opening in 2015.
That’s not the case anymore.
Jack Perna considered himself lucky to hear from 50 candidates for the Montauk School’s openings this year. The longtime superintendent advertised three jobs — an elementary Spanish teacher for a brand-new language program, plus two classroom teachers — on a regional job board through BOCES. Then, he said, the hiring committee “tried to concentrate on getting as local as possible because of the housing crisis.”
They hit the public-school jackpot: All three newly hired teachers are local, and two of them are even graduates of the Montauk School. “I think that’s the way to go. Let’s hire our own kids,” Mr. Perna said.
Jeff Nichols, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, also said his district was lucky this year, securing 15 new hires over the summer. “It varies by discipline, but in the past you might get, for an English position, several hundred [applications]. This year there might have been 60 or 70,” he said. “In general, I’d say we saw a 40 to 50-percent decrease in the applicant pools.”
The competition among candidates is still fierce, though. Jacqueline Bates of Springs, who starts this year as a sixth-grade special education teacher at the East Hampton Middle School, described Long Island as a “cutthroat” environment for teachers. Previously a prekindergarten teacher in Springs and at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, Ms. Bates has five different state certifications and is “one test away” from a sixth, she said. Accumulating all of those qualifications is common among many of the local districts’ new teachers.
“People nowadays are getting more and more certifications,” Ms. Bates said, “so you have to be able to compete with those people and make sure you are meeting the needs for all learners in your particular area.”
“We’re seeing a lot of that, and we’re happy to see that,” said Mr. Fromm. “It’s hard to hire someone on the first day of their job and know that’s the only thing they’re going to do. It’s good for them to diversify themselves.”
Even though candidate pools are smaller, he said, “most are coming in with experience — a couple of years in the city or a different district and are moving back here,” he said. “We do talk to them in the interview about the location. . . . We don’t want anyone to be surprised about the bottleneck that is coming.”
Districts are also finding themselves looking ahead by encouraging assistants, paraprofessionals, and substitute teachers to pursue state certifications. Those experiences can boost an applicant’s chances of getting hired, Mr. Fromm said, and in a few cases it has worked out.
“They got to show us who they are. Last year we had four permanent subs — three have moved to teaching roles,” he said.
Seth Turner, Amagansett’s superintendent, concurred with his peers and said school psychologists, counselors, and world language teachers are the hardest personnel to find. Special education, science, and math teachers “can be difficult” to hire, he said. Business administrators “are at a premium,” he noted. “It’s difficult to become certified, and it’s a tough job.”
Amagansett employs 27 teachers among its 46 total employees. Three of them, including the art teacher, are new this year. Springs has four new teachers and a teaching assistant among its 157 employees. In Montauk, the three new teachers are among the district’s 75 employees.
“This has been looming for many years,” Mr. Turner said of the national teacher shortage, “and it’s in particular geographical areas as well as curriculum areas. We are aware of it, and intentionally act to hopefully minimize its effect on the Amagansett community.”
Administrators here agreed that regardless of the talent pool, they are confident in the abilities of the teachers who were ultimately hired.
“We were very, very fortunate to have a great new teacher class,” Mr. Nichols said. “Sag Harbor is just really lucky to hire thoughtful, intelligent people who we’re really excited about.”