Hiring through a shortage

Despite a nationwide personnel shortage, Walnut High welcomes seven new faculty members into the Mustang family.

The positions that are hard to fill are often special education, math, science, world languages and substitute teachers. But by sending out recruitment posters early in March and April, Walnut was able to alleviate the difficulty to hire faculty members. On average, two to five teachers are hired a year, depending on staffing, school numbers and the number of students enrolled. 

“A lot of the hiring process is trying to be proactive and to get people to apply and see our job before other jobs” principal Ryan Maine said. “You have to do [well] in recruiting and selling your district and showing the job opportunities that we have here.” 

As less teachers and staff are available, schools are searching for people to fill those positions. The shortage of staff is often because of the lack of enough compensation. Respectable class sizes, adequate facilities, and better pay all contribute toward attracting people to education-type careers.

“There were quite a few job openings at the time I was applying. Districts are now realizing that a mental health provider on campus is pretty important and more campuses are wanting them,” recently hired school psychologist Savannah Gutierrez said. 

However, even though WHS has remained unaffected, there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of staff applications. The different pathways and programs also lead to overcrowding of students in core classes such as English, math, and health, since they’re required classes.  

“There’s been an impact of teachers leaving the profession, as well as educators, counselors and administrators,” Maine said. “It would be nice to see what initiatives [that] are going to happen nationwide to help bring some of these educators back into the classroom, and back to campus.”