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August is arguably the busiest time of year for school districts. Buildings are being turned upside down with cleaning and renovation work, administrators are busy preparing for the return of staff and students, and teachers are participating in crunch-time staff development sessions.
But with all the preparation school officials undertake before the first day, one vital part of the operation won’t be sorted out until Sept. 30: How many full-time students they’ll actually have.
That number, known in education lingo as the unit count, determines how many teachers a school can hire that year with state funds.
Since the unit count isn’t final until more than a month into the school year, districts often hold off on hiring new teachers until the last minute, sometimes days before school begins, when the unit count is closer to being set.
By hiring later, school districts may be missing out on better qualified teachers, especially those right out of college, who are offered jobs earlier in the year.
In June, the state Senate approved the creation of a Teacher Hiring Task Force, charged with investigating why Delaware schools are making job offers so late in the year and coming up with ways to encourage them to hire earlier.
The task force held its first meeting in Dover Sept. 13.
“Although there are a lot of positive things going on with schools right now, with Race to the Top especially, the reality is, we need good teachers in the classroom,” said Lt. Gov. Matt Denn, who chairs the task force. “Our mission is very specific, it is to increase the number of teachers to whom we make earlier offers.”
By Dec. 1, the task force will produce a report for the General Assembly and the governor. And though the timeline may be short for the task force itself, Denn said there has to be ample time for its proposals to be included in the governor’s draft budget, released in January.
Dr. Jeff Raffel, who conducts public education research at the University of Delaware, outlined the problem for the task force members.
Using data from surveys of school district personnel managers and new teachers themselves, Raffel found that more than 60% of teachers hired last year were brought on in August or later.
Raffel said teachers surveyed who were hired late reported they had little time to attend pre-school staff orientation meetings, set up their classrooms and meet their colleagues.
August is arguably the busiest time of year for school districts. Buildings are being turned upside down with cleaning and renovation work, administrators are busy preparing for the return of staff and students, and teachers are participating in crunch-time staff development sessions.
But with all the preparation school officials undertake before the first day, one vital part of the operation won’t be sorted out until Sept. 30: How many full-time students they’ll actually have.
That number, known in education lingo as the unit count, determines how many teachers a school can hire that year with state funds.
Since the unit count isn’t final until more than a month into the school year, districts often hold off on hiring new teachers until the last minute, sometimes days before school begins, when the unit count is closer to being set.
By hiring later, school districts may be missing out on better qualified teachers, especially those right out of college, who are offered jobs earlier in the year.
In June, the state Senate approved the creation of a Teacher Hiring Task Force, charged with investigating why Delaware schools are making job offers so late in the year and coming up with ways to encourage them to hire earlier.
The task force held its first meeting in Dover Sept. 13.
“Although there are a lot of positive things going on with schools right now, with Race to the Top especially, the reality is, we need good teachers in the classroom,” said Lt. Gov. Matt Denn, who chairs the task force. “Our mission is very specific, it is to increase the number of teachers to whom we make earlier offers.”
By Dec. 1, the task force will produce a report for the General Assembly and the governor. And though the timeline may be short for the task force itself, Denn said there has to be ample time for its proposals to be included in the governor’s draft budget, released in January.
Dr. Jeff Raffel, who conducts public education research at the University of Delaware, outlined the problem for the task force members.
Using data from surveys of school district personnel managers and new teachers themselves, Raffel found that more than 60% of teachers hired last year were brought on in August or later.
Raffel said teachers surveyed who were hired late reported they had little time to attend pre-school staff orientation meetings, set up their classrooms and meet their colleagues.
That lack of settling-in time can impact a teacher’s effectiveness, he said.
“I believe the ones who are likely to leave are the ones who are hired late,” Raffel told the task force.
Part of the reason for that, Raffel added, is because teachers who are hired late often are given temporary contracts, particularly when they start after school has begun.
Last year, 39% of late-hired teachers were not offered contracts extending into the next year, the survey data showed.
“Late hiring and temporary contracts send the wrong message to Delaware’s new teachers in a profession which values appreciation and recognition,” Raffel said.
Heath Chasanov, assistant superintendent with the Woodbridge School District, said late hiring all comes down to dollars and cents, specifically how much the state is going to kick in.
“The issue is, you don’t want to overextend your budget,” he said. “The positions we have we want to fill as soon as possible. But, we better make sure we can pay the bills.”
If a school were to hire a new teacher in June, for example, but by Sept. 30 the unit count has fallen short of expectations, 100% of that teacher’s salary must be paid with the district’s local funds.
Red Clay Consolidated School District Board President Jack Buckley said the unit count deadline and the schedule for dispersing state funds makes it risky for districts to hire earlier.
“If we know our enrollment, we know who we’re hiring. But our enrollment can bounce 200 to 300 in either direction,” he said. “There are a lot of unknowns in the summer.”
Though the task force was short on answers to the problem at the close of its first session, there were a couple of suggestions.
For one, Buckley said, districts could do more to encourage retiring teachers to turn in their notice earlier in the summer.
Raffel said the state could explore providing a funding cushion for districts that hire teachers only to have their unit counts drop, whether it be a line in the education budget or compensation in the form of a loan that a district would pay off over time.
Denn said the task force’s next step is to start exploring ideas.
“I think the job for us it to try to put some options on the table,” he said.
Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com
