As school begins for most of this week, a concern still remains about teacher shortages, especially in California.
Education in the U.S. has been taking a hard hit this year, as major declines in staffing levels have become more apparent and Humboldt County is experiencing the same. Superintendent Michael Davies-Hughes of the Humboldt County Office of Education explained.
“I think in education we have certainly seen the impacts of Covid-19 through the pandemic and then post-pandemic, bringing people back to work and education is one of those areas where obviously we need to have a strong skilled workforce to meet the needs of our students,” Davies-Hughes said. “And also other positions in education. the custodial and maintenance side of things, the transportation side of things, so all those sectors are areas that we need to build the capacity in.”
Recruitment efforts from the humboldt office of education focuses on breaking down barriers for new educators and staff getting into the field.
“We are a service organization and we support the 31 school districts throughout Humboldt County, the 17,600 students, and the more than 1000 teachers that we have across the county, so in order to help recruit those staff members, we work closely with other partner organizations,” Davies-Hughes said. “We have a teacher residency program that we work with cal poly humboldt, and that enables us to be able to provide schooling for staff, classified staff members who have an interest in teaching, in special education and in transitional kindergarten. and we actually underwrite the costs for them to go through school while they still are able to work.”
But it’s not just a shortage of teachers.
“We still have some of those really hard to fill positions. we’re talking about school nurses. we’re talking about special education teachers, occupational therapists, and those areas where there’s some specialization,” Davies-Hughes. “You know, we have some struggles and some challenges in bringing people from outside the area into Humboldt County. we know it’s a fantastic place to live and work and we just want to have that opportunity to bring people in so that they can see that.”
The community can also help bring in possible educators to Humboldt by spreading the word.
“One of the things that we can do as a community to encourage people to come into the profession of education is just the way in which we portray and the way in which we speak about the schools that and the experiences that parents have and families have with our schools,” Davies-Hughes said.
