Morris superintendent: ‘COVID has been the biggest challenge I’ve ever seen in education’

Simply put, not enough people are choosing education for a career.

That is the main reason why both Christopher Mehochko, regional superintendent at the Grundy/Kendall Regional Office of Education, and Shannon Dudek, superintendent of Morris Elementary School District 54, feel Illinois has a shortage of teachers.

Mehochko said small and rural school districts often struggle to find teachers in specialty areas such as special education, speech pathology or high school chemistry, Mehochko said.

Dudek said District 54 has the same challenge with speech/language pathologists and social workers.

“Those people are very hard to find,” Dudek said.

Dudek said District 54 does hire some “incredible candidates,” but the pool of those candidates is shrinking, and other school districts are competing for the same candidates.

The COVID-19 pandemic has definitely impacted the shortage, especially in District 54, which is using a hybrid model.

“COVID has been the biggest challenge I’ve ever seen in education simply because of the quarantine challenge,” Dudek said.

Remote learning and retiring educators

Compounding the shortage is that many teachers near retirement age are retiring early, in part because of the pandemic, so filling their classes is difficult, Mehochko said.

“It’s hard going from being an in-person teacher that’s been that way for 30-some years to, all of a sudden, being asked to stream your classes and provide lessons online through videos and connect that way,” Mehochko said.

However, one positive to adopting some form of remote learning because of the pandemic, Mehochko said, is that the district has become more flexible. So that will prepare the district if it ever must adapt to having fewer teachers, he said.

Substitute teachers

Having enough substitute teachers also has been an issue with COVID-19, Mehochko said. For example, if a district has two fifth grade classes and one of the fifth grade teachers must quarantine, the teacher who isn’t quarantining might switch from teaching “A” section to the “B” section while an aide helps with homework assignments, he said.

“There’s been a lot of flexibility in those types of situations,” he said. “I also see a lot of administration [staff] going back into the classroom, helping out, helping to fill spots.”

Mehochko said that the farther away a school is from Interstates 55 or 80, the harder it is to find subs who are willing to work in Grundy and Kendall counties.

“It’s amazing to me how people think Yorkville to Morris is such a long drive, but it’s not,” Mehochko said. “Lots of people feel that going to Minooka from Morris is a long drive, but it’s not; I drive it all the time. But it’s the way people perceive it. So I think that’s a barrier we see a lot when we have subs coming to register at our office.”

Mehochko said candidates might say, “ ‘I’m not sure I want to go to South Wilmington. That’s a long drive.’ When I tell them it’s 30 minutes from Morris to South Wilmington, they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that. It feels like it’s so long.’ ”

Also, substitute teachers and bus drivers tend to be older and retired, so they may have preexisting health conditions that put them at higher risk of having a severe case of COVID-19, Mehochko said.

Dudek said District 54 has encouraged retired teachers to become long-terms subs, increased sub pay and offered COVID-19 vaccinations to subs. He feels the teacher shortage overall also impacts the shortage of subs.

In the “old days,” if new teachers failed to land a teaching position right away, they still could substitute teach, Dudek said.

“Now, there’s so few candidates, there’s even less substitutes,” Dudek said. “It’s probably one of the most challenging situations we face.”

Hiring and retaining

Mehochko said the competitive salaries and quality of life in Grundy and Kendall counties is emphasized when attracting candidates.

It’s “close enough to the city for those who don’t want to live in the city but want to visit and have some city life,” Mehochko said. “We’ve got some major highways that you can get to different areas pretty quickly.”

Dudek said District 54 tries to recruit and retain good teachers by working with teacher unions to give teachers good compensation packages and benefit plans. It also participates in recruiting fairs, partners with colleges and universities and and networks using social media.

Solutions

Mehochko said students should be encouraged to link their strengths and weaknesses to a possible career in education. This includes students who volunteer with a church youth group or even those who like electronics or automobiles, he said.

Dudek feels the cause of teacher shortage ultimately lies with Illinois regulations, and not with the school districts. The state has required more and different testing and certifications from teachers, he said. Some of those certifications are “extremely difficult to get” and it’s turning young people away from education as a career, he said.

“I think the school districts are more supportive than ever before of our teachers,” Dudek said.

Dudek said the Illinois State Board of Education needs to change its requirements and the state Legislature needs to prioritize education. He said Illinois compartmentalizes school districts based on tests and test scores, causing education to become “high stakes.”

“There’s so many great things happening in school districts, more than just what a state assessment shows,” Dudek said.