BOSTON — Despite filling 2,760 job postings between March and October, the shortage of educators and support staff in Boston Public Schools is still large, according to the district’s annual update on hiring and workforce diversity.
There were 797 vacancies across the district this week when the Human Capital Office updated the School Committee on recruitment and retention efforts. That number is down from the 838 openings on Oct. 1.
Educators are leaving the city district much later this school year than usual, said Raecia Catchings, interim chief human capital officer. Madison Park Vocational Technical, Charlestown high schools, and the grade K-8 Hennigan and Orchard Gardens schools — among the city’s largest — are receiving “intense focus” from her office, she said.
The city’s high schools are down 62 teachers, and at the elementary-middle school level, there are 46 vacancies, district figures show. Despite those deficits, 80 of the district’s 125 public schools are either fully staffed or short just one teacher, Catchings said.
There are roughly 11,000 school employees serving about 49,000 students.
“On several occasions this year,” Catchings said, “we have been in school buildings and literally working through how we can get educators in front of the classrooms and to close out these vacancies.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, Catchings said, has exacerbated workforce challenges in education, like it has in nearly all industries, as “burnout is certainly a reality.” Roughly 392 staffers have left the district so far this year, the highest rate over the past five years, figures show.
Educators leaving have stated in exit surveys they are turned off by the lack of work-life balance, the culture within their school and the district, as whole, and the lack of new leadership positions to apply to, said Charles Grandson, chief of equity and strategy.
“Our work is to use their feedback to inform our retention strategies moving forward to help mitigate as many exits as possible,” he said.
These shortages come amid an “unprecedented investment,” with the district adding 1,220 new positions since the 2019-20 school year, Catchings said.
Officials are tapping into the district’s federal virus relief funding to bring in more family liaisons, nurses and social workers, among other roles, to help meet social, emotional and physical needs of students outside of the academic setting.
Filling vacancies in special education, science and English as a second language are key priorities, Superintendent Mary Skipper said.
Maureen Moore, principal administrative clerk for the Human Capital Office, highlighted the challenges facing district staffers part of the Administrative Guild, which represents a variety of central- and school-based employees.
She pointed to the district’s residency requirement, the city’s expensive rental market and how staffers are underpaid, such as special education clerks who make $17 per hour and school secretaries who make $20 per hour.
“Most of our members are single-income households, many of them single-parent households and visiting food banks,” Moore said. “These are full-time city of Boston workers and their wages are shameful.”
