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in the last two weeks, four teachers at the elementary school returned their contracts for the coming year—unsigned. The administration can now add vacancies in physical education, special education, sixth grade and kindergarten to the list of empty slots. With the start of classes a little over a month away, Rappahannock’s school system has currently 10 openings for teachers.
If the Superintendent and School Board Chairman are right, three of the new vacancies at the elementary school won’t be hard to fill. Dr. Bloomer and Mrs. Massie have maintained that the county’s problem in filling empty positions is primarily due to the fields in \yhich those empty positions occur.
According to Dr. Bloomer, many of the vacancies are in disciplines with a limited supply, such as learning disabilities, child development specialist and other areas of special education while most applications for employment come from teachers with certification in standard fields of physical education, social studies and early childhood.
But this doesn’t explain why positions in reading, science and math at the high school have proved difficult to fill. Nor does it answer the primary question of why so many of the county’s experienced teachers are leaving in the first place.
At this point, criticizing the School Board and administration for not taking steps to keep good, experienced teachers is almost like beating a dead horse. But we hope that the continuing recruitment problems the system is experiencing this year will be kept in mind during budget time next year.
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