Unit 4 promises tutors amidst a staffing shortage
By Patricia Bradford | May 20, 2024
CHAMPAIGN — The Champaign Unit 4 School District is tackling more than one problem at a time.
Stephanie Kinney, assistant principal of International Prep Academy (IPA), said they were unable to start their dual language pre-K program due to an insufficient number of applications. She said they especially have a hard time because they’re looking for dual language educators.
“We can’t get people to apply,” said assistant principal Kinney. “Currently we’re adding pre-K [to the dual language program]. We should have added it this year but couldn’t get teachers. We simply don’t have any.”
According to the Champaign Unit 4 School District website, the district currently educates over 10,000 students in grades pre-K through 12 in Champaign, Savoy, and Bondville.
IPA is the only school in the Champaign Unit 4 School District that follows a dual language two-way immersion instruction model. This means the English and Spanish language are integrated during instruction for both native English speakers and native Spanish speakers, according to the Champaign Unit 4 School District website.
“We are really trying but it is just so difficult. There is not a lot of foundational dual language curriculum and being the one school trying to dive into this has been very difficult” said Kinney in the November school board meeting.
Stephanie Kinney says the district is not used to some of the requests that the dual lingual school has and so getting support can be difficult sometimes.
“They don’t know how to answer all of our needs and our problems,” said Kinney. “because Champaign Unit 4 is new to dual language just as much as we’ve been for the past [few] years.”
Although, IPA is not the only campus in the district that is struggling with staff. As of Nov 6, there have been 219 job postings to the Champaign Unit 4 website, according to the assistant director of human resources Nancy Whitehouse.
Unit 4 is the third largest employer in Champaign County, according to the assistant superintendent of human resources and organizational effectiveness Ken Kleber during the November board meeting. He said unlike many districts, Unit 4 generally does not outsource any support services so they rely heavily on “inhouse” employment.
In a survey from Oct 2022, The National Center for Education Statistics found 18% of public schools had one vacancy whereas 26% had multiple teaching vacancies. The survey also notes that bilingual, special ed, and computer science teaching positions have the highest vacancy rate.
The board was granted 740,000 for the next 3 years by the Illinois State Board of Education for the Teacher Vacancy Grant Program. Which according to the ISBE website is aimed at addressing chronic shortages by giving the state’s most understaffed districts the resources to hire, support and train new teachers. The grant is also dedicated to teacher turnover and retention.
The first year grant approved the following features: commitment and attendance incentives for teachers, district-paid tuition for both support staff members looking to obtain a teaching license and teachers looking to obtain additional endorsements, relocation reimbursement along with funds for expanding advertising and recruiting teachers.
“Many of these programs we have already rolled out to staff,” said Kleber. “We are going to allow people to figure out a program that works for them, because this then might give us some other ideas of programs that we can replicate in other areas of the district.”
Kleber hopes that the current staff will take advantage of the programs in order to create a foundation for future staff and faculty that may want to see the programs through.
Although, the board brought up a few concerns during the November meeting. Much of its revolving staff are students of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that only find themselves in the district for a few years before finding employment back home.
“If we can get people here and see what a great place Champaign is and they can stay for a few years, like, the longer a few years is right, like 3 or 4 years, we can kind of hook them and get them to stay.” Kleber said.
Although teaching as a whole is just not something people are studying or going into right now, according to assistant principal Kinney.
According to a Champaign Unit 4 mother-and-daughter duo things are not so easy. Sophie Hickman is an employee for the Champaign Unit 4 School District working in the transportation department as a bus driver while her daughter Zephania Hickman is a Central High School student.
“Trying to get tutors and help is a lot harder,” said junior Zephania Hickman. “Just because there is that shortage, I’ve had to rely more on individual time with my actual teachers and my peers in order to get help a lot.”
Which isn’t always the best because teachers don’t have open availability, she said.
“To have a sub in math class that doesn’t know math I’m like okay I need to go up to school,” said her mother Sophie Hickman. “Then they expect students to take a test even though for four days [a week] there hasn’t been a teacher there forreal. There’s been an adult there to supervise a class but they’re not teaching whatever it is that the class needs to be taught and I’m like we need help!”
They say it has been an uphill battle but they are making it work as they prepare for college. Zephania said she hopes she is doing everything she needs to be successful after she graduates.
On the other hand, some are not seeing the effect that this shortage is having on students and teachers everyday.
“Our staffing level is now the highest that it’s ever been because of the growth we’ve seen in the district,” said Whitehouse assistant director of human resources. “We’ve hired more people since Jan. 2023 than any other time in recent history, probably ever.”
So far in 2023, Unit 4 hired approximately 634 people as of Nov 6. These positions include part-time and full-time and as-needed positions. This is in fact the highest number of new hires in five years, according to Kleber and Whitehouse’s update.
Although the district is making strides to fulfill most of the vacant positions they are aware that some campuses are struggling more than others. They hope that the following two years with the teacher vacancy grant will bring in a lot of new residents and teachers.
“We put our dollars where we value them and we value our students,” said superintendent Dr. Sheila Boozer during the November board meeting. “And with our strategic plan, educational access and instructional excellences this is a part of all those things. This is our district. We are Unit 4.”