Merced County school districts dig deep for high-demand teachers

If you’re looking for a job, it’s probably a good time to consider teaching – especially in math, science or special education.

School districts across the country had to dig deeper than ever to fill their teaching positions for the 2015-16 school year. Some districts offered signing bonuses. Most granted provisional internship permits so teachers could begin working while they completed their credential.

“If you want a guaranteed job, teaching is a guaranteed job nowadays,” said Elmano Costa, the department chair of teacher education at California State University, Stanislaus. “If you want multiple job offers, have a math, science or special ed credential. That will guarantee you multiple offers.”

California is experiencing a major teacher shortage as districts look to refill positions eliminated during the recession and enrollment is down in credential programs. Science, math and special education teachers are in highest demand.

“Very, very quickly, we went from teachers getting laid off to everybody getting hired,” Costa said. “That quick turnaround didn’t give us enough time to get ready for the ramp-up.”

At CSU Stanislaus, enrollment for teacher credential programs was slashed in half during the recession, Costa said. Those numbers slowly are increasing.

In June, CSU Stanislaus issued 34 special education credentials, 83 multiple subjects and 70 single subjects. Of the single subject credentials, only eight were math and eight were science, Costa said. Applications for the multiple subject credential program are up this year at 164 compared to 109 in fall 2014. Single-subject credential program applications are at 116, up from 102 last year. Special education, the smallest of the three programs, increased by two.

Districts all over Merced County recruited new teachers from CSU Stanislaus, Fresno State and Fresno Pacific University through job fairs. Some, such as Atwater Elementary School District, began the recruitment and hiring process as early as the end of March. Los Banos Unified and Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified both are offering $5,000 signing bonuses for math teachers, according to the Edjoin, a job posting website for education in the U.S.

In Delhi, school started Monday, but the district still hopes to fill 10 positions, said Adolfo Malera, superintendent of Delhi Unified School District. About one-third of the district’s teaching staff – 50 positions – were open at the beginning of summer. During the recession years, the district laid off about 25 teachers, he said.

“We’re very thankful to the substitute teachers who are helping us, as well as the coaches and administrators filling in,” Malera said. “It’s all hands on deck because our students deserve the very best. We are aggressively reposting and pursuing these (open) positions.”

Merced County Office of Education, which hires mostly specialty teachers, still has about eight openings, said Eva Chavez, the assistant superintendent for human resources. “It’s an ongoing issue for us,” she said.

The county office of education for years has granted provisional internship permits, Chavez said, which means teachers are hired while they are completing their credential. The county is looking to offer a signing bonus, she said. The county’s hiring challenges are perhaps different from other districts because it employs mostly special education teachers.

“It takes special people who want to work with special children,” Chavez said. “It’s a challenge so it’s not as easy to come by.”

Merced Union High and Merced City school districts both just barely filled all of their open positions, officials said. Each district filled about 40 credentialed positions, including teachers and counselors.

At Merced Union High School District, math, science, English and special education teachers were offered $5,000 signing bonuses, said Ralph Calderon, the assistant superintendent for human resources.

Merced Union High School District introduced about 40 new teachers to the governing board Wednesday.

Michael Grijalba was one of them. He was hired on a provisional internship permit to teach special education at Atwater High School. He is set to earn his credential from National University next year. Despite the statistics, he feels there is a high interest in special education and there was a lot of competition during the interview process.

“I did feel like I had to prove myself,” Grijalba said. “I didn’t know I got the job.”

However, Briana Vincent, a new agriculture teacher at Livingston High, said the department head approached her and encouraged her to apply for the job. She had the job lined up as she completed her credential in the spring at Fresno State. “I was still nervous,” she said. “You never really know. I was worried about a job. It’s always a concern.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Merced County school districts dig deep for high-demand teachers."