SUBMITTED PHOTO The new teachers of the 2024-25 Marshalltown Community School District academic year “Embrace the Lead” during their orientation. The district has had success this year in bringing on new employees.

After a few tough years, the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) has had a turnaround in hiring new employees. There are 18 open MCSD teaching positions, and there were 23 at the same time last year.

The district has not been the only public school struggling with hiring new staff. Districts across the state and the country are facing the same challenge. The National Center for Education Statistics reported 45 percent of public districts in the United States were understaffed in the 2023-24 school year; 53 percent in the 2022-23 school year. The biggest 2023-24 hiring challenges for public schools were not enough people applying and a lack of qualified candidates.

New MCSD Director of Human Resources Jacque Wyant said the reason for the turnaround is that the district has been more aggressive in reaching potential candidates.

“We’re doing a lot of whatever we can to be creative in how we use endorsements or interests staff have to fill our needs,” she said.

For example, Wyant said, if someone applies to be a substitute teacher, and has some areas of endorsement for special education, that person will be asked if he or she is interested in a full-time position. While there has been recent success with bringing on new employees, she said the district still has problems with filling special education positions, and she is placing a focus on that.

“Some were onboarded, and decided, ‘This is not for me,'” Wyant said. “That’s disappointing, but I’ve already sent the principals who lost some people this week find new applicants.”

She is also looking at potential candidates who are already familiar with the community. MCSD students in the Grow Your Own program are promised an interview in Marshalltown, Wyant said. If she encounters a former student who is in the education field, and that person is married, she will find out what the spouse does for a living and point them in the right direction for a job in Marshalltown. Also, at least 50 percent of the new teachers this year already had a connection.

“We want them back in Marshalltown,” Wyant said. “They know Marshalltown. We want to change the face of the diversity levels of our staff to be as much like our students as possible.”

The district is considering other creative angles, as well. An example Wyant gave was two applicants in the para student-to-teacher program who will do some student teaching this fall. One of them should be ready in October to take on a teacher contract if so inclined.

“We’re excited about their completion,” she said. “We look forward to our applicants finishing their process to become teachers. It’s another alternative way to becoming licensed.”

Wyant said recent national data shows a decline in the number of college students pursuing education as a career. However, alternative pathway interest has increased.

“A couple years ago, a teacher had a masters in math and I had a math opening,” she said, referring to her time as the Marshalltown High School principal. “She didn’t have a teaching license, though.”

Wyant said they checked out the Regents Alternative Pathway to Iowa Licensure program to see how the teacher could obtain a license. The program gave a special license to the teacher and a contract to participate in student teaching. As she was completing the requirements for the teaching license, her time in the classroom was considered on-the-job training.

“She was being paid as a teacher, doing on-the-job training and after that, she got her license,” Wyant said. “It’s connecting people to the right resources. There’s a lot of pieces and moving parts people have to consider when they think about going into education.”

Another key aspect of the turnaround has been an increased focus on branding. She said they are improving the district’s Facebook presence and promoting the great things happening.

“We celebrate the students, the programming, the staff,” Wyant said. “Using our social media platforms to showcase the great things happening in the schools in Marshalltown — we started that a year ago.”

Non-teaching positions

Outside of academic positions, the Buildings and Grounds and Food Services departments are close to being fully staffed. For the first time in a long time, MCSD Director of Transportation Rex Kozak said his department is close to having full staff. Two weeks ago, he needed 10 more drivers and on Tuesday he was only short three.

“We’re getting better,” he said. “We have a couple drivers in training right now, so that will help.”

There are some challenges with hiring new drivers. The average age of an MCSD bus driver is 72, Kozak said. That means he has to be prepared to replace a driver with little notice. So, Kozak keeps the need for drivers in the public, because it is not a quick and simple matter of showing up and applying. He said applicants will need to go through the process and receive a commercial driver’s license, which takes some time.

One of the reasons Kozak believes more people have sought bus driver positions is because of the economy.

“People are looking for a position they are not tied down to all day long,” he said.

Kozak said a person could drive a route in the morning, do another job for a few hours and then drive an afternoon route. The payscale has also increased, with a starting rate of $23 per hour and a guaranteed one and half hours each route.

“So, you’re up $60 for the day,” Kozak said. “Then you pick up some of the other driving. If you’re a young driver looking for a way to make a good income, driving a [regular] route and driving for our activities, you can make some pretty good money. Our activity rate is $17.50 per hour from when you clock in to when you clock out. Most activities are six hours. It’s a good pay rate, and what are you doing? You drive a bus, sit there, watch the game and drive back.”

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.