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Area school districts continue to see a shortage of qualified applicants for job openings and the problem is expected to worsen, officials said.
"You have the candidate pool drying up," said Altoona Area School District Superintendent Charles Prijatelj. "The pool of certified candidates is a puddle in comparison to what it used to be, which means we are hiring the best talent we can find to emergency certify teachers to fit our needs. I literally have positions from last summer I'm filling now with fresh graduates."
The Labor Department said Friday that 4.4 million people quit their jobs in September, or about 3% of the nation's workforce. That's up from 4.3 million in August and far above the pre-pandemic level of 3.6 million.
The Labor Department also reported that there were 10.4 million job openings, down from 10.6 million in August.
The figures point to a historic level of turmoil in the job market as newly empowered workers quit jobs, often for higher pay or better working conditions, government officials said.
Job openings are close to an all-time high for all sectors of the workforce, but without qualified teachers, school districts are struggling to educate the nation's next wave of workers.
Prijatelj said COVID-19 has exacerbated all problems and can at least partially be blamed for the challenges districts face in hiring for open positions.
"We are doing everything we can," he said. "A lot of teachers are doing great things."
Prijatelj said the district is "rebuilding the candidate pool from the ground up."
But the teacher shortage issue predates COVID-19, he said.
The shortage is combined with the larger problem of fewer qualified candidates graduating from college.
Between COVID-19 and college closures, Prijatelj said getting student teachers into buildings has been a challenge. That, coupled with fewer students choosing a career in education, may have schools feeling the pinch for a while.
"In general you look at what is happening with state teacher colleges; enrollment has fallen so far that they're actually combining. Smaller schools are being merged, medium sized are being downsized and some large schools are still doing OK, but the reality is, the number of teaching candidates has fallen two-thirds. It's half to a third of what it used to be in the last eight years," he said.
In July, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education approved merging six institutions -- Bloomsburg, Mansfield, Lock Haven, California, Clarion and Edinboro universities, known for their education major programs -- into two larger state universities to address financial sustainability and falling enrollment.
Prijatelj estimated that in the 2012-13 school year, 27,000 teaching candidates graduated from college and that the number went down to roughly 12,000 two to three years ago. Now, he said, that number is approximately 10,000.
According to Tyrone Area Superintendent Leslie Estep, the issue stretches across the entire commonwealth.
"The commonwealth is certifying about half as many teachers as they did five to 10 years ago," Estep said. "This is absolutely a statewide issue."
Estep added that her district is no exception. At a recent meeting, the school board approved five resignations.
"We've experienced, just like everybody else, a teacher shortage, so we are continuing to fill positions as they become available," Estep said. "Sometimes, they're support staff, sometimes teaching staff and there are a lot of things going into the teacher shortage right now."
"Lots of things happened at the state level that have undercut the ability to recruit candidates for teaching positions," Prijatelj said. "At this point, we need to totally rebuild the pool of candidates. We have to promote it at the high school level so they can make significant impacts right from the get go. The need has never been higher, and the candidate pool has never been lower."
Still, Prijatelj said, there is hope. He said he's grateful that his district has seen improvement in the past month. Currently, he said, he's only looking to fill two or three positions.
Prijatelj added that other positions, such as support staff, are becoming easier to fill as interest increases.
"We always have problems with special education aides, and it's a high turnover position, but since changes with unemployment, we've seen more applications; same with custodians," Prijatelj said. "It's still an issue, but it's getting better. With teachers, it's different."
That isn't the case in the Spring Cove School District, however, according to Superintendent Betsy Baker.
"We're really having trouble finding support staff and paraprofessionals," Baker said. "Not as much with teachers, as far as full-time, but there definitely aren't as many applicants. We're also having a hard time getting subs. We hope more people will get into this profession in the future."
Mirror Staff Writer Andrew Mollenauer is at 814-946-7428.