Area schools looking for qualified teachers, other workers

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect the correct starting date of school.

From teachers to coaches to food service workers to bus drivers, public and private schools are still advertising for help even as their August start date draws nearer. The first day of school is Aug. 13.

Cape Girardeau School District communications director Dana Saverino said six positions are open right now, and seven that applications are being taken for, such as bus monitor, custodian and substitute teacher.

About 35 new people are coming onboard within the Cape Girardeau School District this fall in a variety of positions after about 200 were interviewed, Saverino said in an email.

Eighteen people retired last school year, which Saverino said was typical. The district finds employees through several specialized websites, newspaper ads, job fairs and college postings.

The Jackson School District had five retirements in the 2013-2014 school year, Merideth Pobst, director of foundation/communications, said in an email.

Jackson has openings for one full-time paraprofessional and one teacher of the visually impaired, according to its website, there also are several part-time openings, plus applications are being taken for substitute teachers, bus monitors and drivers.

Beth Emmendorfer, assistant superintendent for administrative and student services, said Jackson will have 30 teachers and four cooks coming on -- so far -- this fall.

"[It's] nice to get all those people into place and start preparing for the school year," Emmendorfer said.

New teachers have professional development Aug. 5 through 8. Teachers return Aug. 11 through 12 and students come back Aug. 14, she said.

Parochial schools

With few current openings, St. Paul Lutheran School, Saxony Lutheran High School and Notre Dame Regional High School are pretty well set for the fall.

St. Paul Lutheran School principal Tim Mirly recruits locally.

"There is a great local pool of individuals qualified and eager to fill most any role we may have open at St. Paul," Mirly said in an email. "Where we go outside of the local pool is when we're seeking classroom teachers who have specifically trained in education and theology from a Lutheran university, and there is time before the start of the coming school year."

Mirly said he had one retirement and one resignation this past year on a staff of 36. He said the number of people who retire or resign tends to go in cycles. Some years, no changes occur.

The hiring process is never easy, but Mirly said St. Paul has been fortunate over the years.

"The interview process reveals a lot about an individual. Working in a parochial school and church setting can be very demanding. It seems you have a lot of bosses to answer to, and are often called upon to fill a wide variety of roles," he wrote.

Saxony Lutheran High School principal Mark Ruark uses newspaper ads, association church bulletins, teaching job websites and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod St. Louis to advertise.

He has 22 employees, plus the coaching staff, most of whom are not full time. He doesn't have to replace anyone this fall because all his spots have been filled, but he's still seeking qualified substitute teachers.

He had one retirement this year, but because of an increased enrollment of nearly 30 students for the 2014-2105 school year -- up to 210 -- teaching staff in art and choir were added. And because Saxony is starting an agriculture education program, an ag teacher was added.

Base salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience is $27,000. Ruark said tuition and fundraising are the school's main ways of creating income.

First and foremost, Ruark wrote, Saxony looks for "highly qualified people who want to work in a Christian environment, who also want to work with great students and push them to achieve their [maximum] potential.

"You gotta love kids if you want to work in a high school. That is the other thing we look for," Ruark wrote. "Our current staff does a great job in that area. That is one of the reasons our senior class of 2014, all 39 of them, earned nearly $800,000 in actual scholarship money and scored an average of 24.6 on the ACT, which is about 3 points higher than the state and national average."

Ruark said he's excited about the coming school year.

" ... We hope the growth will continue and that adding staff each year will become typical for Saxony. We do not have a high turnover rate; most of our staff has been here five-plus years," Ruark said. A custodian retired and the previous principal left to accept a position at another Lutheran school in St. Charles that was a step up in pay for him and his family, he wrote.

Tony Buehrle, development director at Notre Dame Regional High School, said all hiring is done at contract time in the spring. "It is not easy, but we are fortunate to be a top 50 school, so we can draw from the best teachers," he wrote.

The top 50 refers to the Catholic High School Honor Roll. Since 2004, the Honor Roll has recognized excellence in Catholic identity, academics and civic education at Catholic high schools across the United States.

Notre Dame sees a retirement every year or two, but principal Brother David Migliorino plans for those and looks to train or place qualified, experienced people from within and hire entry-level positions that will grow with the school.

"We did lose our head coach for basketball and a business teacher this year and filled those ... this past spring. ... Brother doesn't like surprises and works with his administrative team to foresee changes," Buehrle wrote.

Job placement

Diana Rogers-Adkinson, dean and professor in the College of Education at Southeast Missouri State University, said the college graduates an average of 250 students each year.

It works closely with local districts and makes contact when openings arise. The college also places job notices on its Facebook page. Asked if most graduates take jobs locally, Rogers-Adkinson said, "More go north" -- to the St. Louis area, or over to Illinois, where "quite a few students" are from. However, some take positions at local schools.

Rogers-Adkinson said the university conducts a large job fair where districts may screen candidates, but some large districts will send an email with a link about openings and ask the College of Education to share that with its candidates.

For example, a school district in Arizona scooped up several Southeast graduates last year.

Some of the reasons teachers leave the profession are pay and having to take a summer job every year to make ends meet, and respect, which Rogers-Adkinson said is a big issue right now.

"Bashing teachers -- or the teachers' union, and by default the teachers," she said. "It's the political whipping child right now to keep attacking public education that really is negatively impacting the morale."

The average base salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree at Cape Girardeau schools will be $32,000 a year for 2014-2015 and $33,500 at Jackson.

Nationally, the average salary for all full-time public schoolteachers in 2012-2013 was $56,383, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

A December story said the average yearly salary for Missouri teachers is $46,213. This excludes extended contract salaries, career ladder supplements and extra-duty pay, the site said.

In other countries, teachers teach fewer hours and have more planning time. Having just returned from Chile for a university-connected trip, Rogers-Adkinson said teachers there have 11 hours a week to plan, as opposed to one 50-minute period a day. Some teachers here may not have a planning period.

"Teachers are there because they want to teach children. The mission of an educator is to help create a learned, democratic society," she said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address: 301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO

614 E. Adams St., Jackson, MO

2004 Saxony Lane, Jackson, MO

265 Notre Dame Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO

One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO

216 S Russell St., Jackson