Teachers feeling lack of respect

CHEYENNE — When Michael Jennings started working for Natrona County School District 30 years ago, applications would flood in to compete for open teaching positions. 

But today, the district is “scrambling to find staff.” 

“We’re facing shortages in areas that we normally don’t see,” he said. 

There are four openings out of 14 positions for school psychologists. The district is down about 15 bus drivers out of roughly 120 bus drivers overall. Roughly 35 teaching assistant positions are open. Special education teachers and educational support personnel are hard to hire. There’s a lot of turnover. 

“It’s more challenging to hire today than it ever has been,” he told the Legislature’s Joint Education Committee on Monday. 

According to a new survey from the Wyoming School Board Association, a top factor hurting hiring and retention challenges could be a lack of respect and trust shown toward educators. 

The survey was meant to collect information about non-monetary issues that are contributing to school staff shortages. 

Out of Wyoming’s 48 school districts, 42 responded. More than three-quarters of the respondents said that a lack of respect and trust toward school staff was the top factor contributing to recruitment and retention challenges. They specifically noted being “frustrated” by what they see as this lack of respect and trust shown by state legislators toward the education community. 

“I think historically, Wyoming education has felt a strong partnership with the Legislature, but, as you know, there are numerous instances today where that partnership feels strained,” Wyoming School Board Association Executive Director Brian Farmer told the Joint Education Committee.

This past legislative session, lawmakers brought forth a bill that would have required educators to list all the teaching materials they intended to use on a public platform. While some saw this simply as a means to increase transparency in schools, many said it was insulting toward the education community and would add another burden to already overworked teachers. 

“I think the characterization of the lack of respect or the lack of trust speaks to the diminishing relationship that we’ve experienced in the last several years,” Farmer said. 

School districts also said that the extra work that educators have to pick up because of staff shortages is another big reason for difficulties in hiring and retention. 

Kim Amen, a 26-year veteran teacher at Pioneer Park Elementary School in Cheyenne, attested to that; she has been back in the classroom for about six weeks. Already, she’s exhausted. 

“Nobody gives us enough time to do the work we’re supposed to do,” Amen said. “We’re just supposed to do it.” 

“Teaching and learning should be full of joy, and education should instill a love of learning in our students,” she continued. “We feel so overwhelmed that the joy has been sucked out of our day on a pretty regular basis.” 

The difficulty in hiring and retaining staff appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon among most of Wyoming’s school districts, according to the school board association’s survey. 

Roughly 67% of responding districts reported experiencing hiring challenges this school year, 57% last school year and 33% in the year before that. 

A third of respondents said their districts have had trouble hiring staff for the past five years or more. 

Districts reported that certified teachers are the most difficult to hire and retain, followed by substitute teachers, classified and support staff, para-professionals, special education staff and professional staff.