East Union Schools face staffing crisis

AFTON - During discussions revolving around the proposed four-day school week at last week’s community forum, a deeper issue arose: East Union Community School District is facing an employment problem.

Before diving into his presentation on the schedule, Superintendent Tim Kuehl stressed the issue. “We’ve had a real struggle with recruiting and retaining teachers.” In the presentation, he showcased multiple positions that were unable to be filled, including dedicated chemistry, physics and math teachers.

Applications for these positions have not bore fruit, something familiar with the entire state of Iowa. Kuehl said, “I was under the impression this was a rural Iowa thing. Schools like Des Moines, Sioux City, I was with the Sioux City superintendent, and they were 30 teachers short this year.”

Despite continuing efforts in attending job fairs, contacting colleges for student teachers and continued application openings, East Union is still unable to fill their staff. Bill Meiners, the secondary principal for the school, said, “The problem is, it’s like fishing without a worm in a pond with no fish.”

Struggle

With no dedicated staff available for some classes, a shuffling of duties is placed onto the existing teachers, increasing their workload and forcing them to go without prep periods.

The scale of the work creates social pressures on the teachers. “This is the reason why a lot of teachers are reluctant to take time off because there’s a guilt piece,” said Deborah Aldrich, a middle-school language arts teacher of East Union. “If I have to go to a doctor’s appointment and I know that four other teachers are losing their prep period because I need to be gone, I know how stinky that is. It’s not good.”

The teaching environment of today, especially post-COVID, is also drastically different. Autumn Hoadley, a 17-year veteran teacher for East Union, said, “It has changed. It is so much harder today than 17 years ago. Our society has changed. There is so much on teachers.”

Paula Barnett has been teaching at East Union for long enough to have taught most of the parents in the community forum room. “Whether it’s a four-day, five-day, I don’t care. I just need help,” she said. “I’m teaching two classes at once. I have a high school class and a middle school at the same time in my room.”

Meiners was bullish in making sure any community issues with the staff was not directed towards the teachers. “Whether it’s elementary, middle-school, high-school staff, these are phenomenal people.” He invites any criticism of the situation towards the administration rather than the teachers.

Alternative Options

When the school can’t provide teachers for these classes, students have to look elsewhere, including taking classes at Southwest Community College in Creston or go fully online. This creates new problems with the district being unable to meet offer and teach requirements set by the Department of Education.

Jason Riley, the curriculum director for East Union, explained the difficulties of these problems. “We hope, since we can’t offer face-to-face, we get enough kids that will take an online class to be able to get us to offer and teach. Two of the last three years we haven’t been able to do that.” In connection to the greater employment issue, he continued, “We’re trying to get them to take those classes without a teacher because we don’t have a teacher for them.”

Audrey Young, a senior attending East Union, has gone through both SWCC and online courses. She laments East Union’s inability to offer higher-level classes because of the teacher issue. “Currently I’m taking an organic chemistry class, and that class is really hard, and I wasn’t fully prepared from East Union to take that class because I didn’t even take a chemistry class at East Union. We don’t offer that.”

Attracting New Teachers

East Union also exists in a community of districts that have already switched to the four-day week, which would make attracting new teachers more difficult. Murray, WACO, and Mormon Trail are all school districts in rural Iowa that could entice teachers far easier than East Union.

In regards to inviting new teachers, East Union has already reached out and created programs to make student teachers feel more welcome, but feels that they need more incentives for the district.

In February, the Iowa House passed House File 2611, which would increase teachers’ starting salaries to $50,000 over two years. The bill is great for enticing new teachers into Iowa, but it doesn’t give the same support for veteran teachers, and would in some cases encourage teachers to leave their current district.

Hoadley, in reference to veteran teachers such as herself, said “You’ve gotta give [veteran teachers] something. You’re going to lose us.” One community member suggested the administration were unaware of the reasons why teachers were leaving the district, recommending more thorough exit interview processes.

The turnover of positions is also a major issue, exemplified by the superintendent position itself. Kuehl recalled an event where a community member joked about the turnover, asking Kuehl where he was going next year. Kuehl reflected on that, saying “I think there is that culture of people that aren’t going to stay. I think that’s horrible.”

The workload on teachers is far more than simply teaching students. “It’s not that teachers are making lateral moves to different districts,” said Meiners. “They’re leaving the profession because they’re getting paid $40,000 a year to be a counselor, to parent, to educate.”

Moving Forward

No matter what happens with the four-day school week, the priority is still about getting students the education they need. Riley offered his empathy toward student struggles and frustration about being unable to help them, saying, “We still have kids sitting in this room taking physics, where I can go, buddy, I have no idea. I don’t know.”

Barnett is still proud to be an East Union teacher. “I take pride in my students and I want our school to do well. I want our kids to be proud of this school and having to teach two classes at once, I don’t feel I’m doing these kids justice.”

The East Union School Board will make a decision on the four-day proposal, which they hope will bring in and retain more teachers, on March 21 during their regular board meeting.