The West40 Spring 2024 Educator Job Fair was held at the end of last month with local school districts from the West Cook County region present in hopes of meeting prospective candidates.
Among the participating districts were River Forest School District 90 and Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200, along with other neighboring districts including Forest Park School District 91.
The idea for an educational job fair was born out of a request by a local district, said Gina Sierra, educator licensure specialist at West40, a nonprofit intermediate service center serving 38 school districts and three co-ops in West Cook County.
According to Sierra, 29 school districts participated in the job fair and they estimated there were between 50 to 75 job seekers who attended the event.
The teacher shortage has been prominent for years, said Mark Klaisner, West40 Executive Director.
“For nearly a decade, we have been struggling to fill certain positions,” Klaisner said. “The situation has only become more intense and broader. Our districts (and those across the state and nation) are telling us they can’t fill positions.”
According to the latest unfilled positions data collected by the Illinois State Board of Education, which was collected for the 2023 school year, there were 3,105 unfilled full-time equivalence educator positions and 73,311 full-time equivalence educator positions filled, a vacancy rate of approximately 4.06% in Cook County.
In West Cook County, Klaisner said last year’s numbers were north of 5,000 unfilled positions.
Locally, according to the various public school district websites, there are a total of 40 open positions: seven at D90, 18 at D97, and 15 at the high school district.
D90 Superintendent Ed Condon said the district participated in the job fair in hopes of getting a head start on openings they know will be coming up due to various reasons, including retirement.
Condon said school districts usually don’t know how many openings they will have for an upcoming school year until closer to the end of March.
At River Forest, openings include a middle school social studies teacher, a special education teacher, and a pre-k teacher.
The event, which Condon personally attended, creates positive exposure for districts.
“We want to make sure we are out there, being active in soliciting outstanding candidates,” Condon said. “Knowing that the candidates that were more likely to attend this job fair were predominantly from the West Cook area would increase the chances that they are interested in working in a region where they live.”
Overall, Condon said the district has been doing very well in terms of staffing.
“We are aware that there are school districts in the region and across the state where that is not the case,” Condon said. “We count our blessings in River Forest that we are still able to get strong candidates who are eager to work and be committed to our community. We are grateful for that.”
However, that is not the case for most public schools.
According to Klaisner, the pandemic “exacerbated the shortage in all areas of education.”
School districts across the country have struggled with finding bus drivers, parapros, cafeteria employees, crossing guards and even administrators, said Klaisner.
According to “The State of Our Educator Pipeline 2023: Strengths, Opportunities, and the Early Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a report published by Advance Illinois, while there has been an increasing “supply of new teachers,” other positions, such as paraprofessionals, special education and bilingual teacher positions have been tougher to fill.
Finding qualified substitute teachers has also been difficult for Illinois schools.
According to a study of Chicago Public Schools by FutureEd, who produces independent analysis of education issues, from 2017-2018 over 200 schools in predominantly low-income communities only had half of their substitute requests met, while schools in affluent neighborhoods filled more than 95% of their requests.
The study also found that Black students experience classrooms without a substitute more than three times more than white students.
In October 2023, the Associated Press reported that the Advance Illinois report also found that while there were “enough” teachers in Illinois with the credentials to become principals, they were not distributed equally.
“Like many careers, the pendulum could swing around the way in which people perceive the nature of work in any given profession,” Condon said, adding there has been a lot of pressure placed on educators following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other more lucrative careers also exist, Condon added.
“We are competing for individuals who oftentimes have many different choices they can make,” Condon said.
According to the Associated Press, Illinois Rep. Carol Ammons said the issue could be a “structural problem in the economy,” where those who would step into the roles of paraprofessionals and other positions at schools can make the decision to earn more working in other fields, including Walmart.
Investing in teachers, from the early stages of hiring, should be at the forefront, said Condon.
“For probably every school district, certainly including District 90, identifying, onboarding and then supporting high quality teachers should be one of the greatest priorities,” he said.
To fully address any teacher shortages in West Cook County, Klaisner calls for a collaborative effort.
“Long term we need to bring interest back to the profession,” he said. “We need to work with legislature, ISBE and other professional agencies to implement short term strategies…additionally, we realize teachers need to be supported when they are in teaching positions to retain the excellent teachers we have.”