Over the summer, and into the first few months of the school year, school districts across the state scrambled to fill not just teaching positions, but also support staff roles, such as custodians, bus drivers and paraprofessionals.
Earlier this week, two Vermont schools — U-32 in East Montpelier and Spaulding High School in Barre — canceled classes due to staffing shortages, amid a spate of absences from Covid-19 and other illness.
Teachers and administrators cite a range of reasons why educators have left the field: pandemic burnout, political clashes over curricula and Covid response, uncertainty about pensions and the potential for higher wages in other fields. Anecdotally, many of these departures are early retirements.
In the years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic, about 360 to 370 Vermont teachers retired each year, according to data from the state treasurer’s office. In the 2020 fiscal year, that number spiked, to more than 460 retirements. It remained high, above 400, in 2021, the most recent year of available data.
In this week’s podcast, two former Vermont teachers describe their decisions to take other jobs. Don Tinney, president of the Vermont-NEA, explains why staffing needs don’t always sync up with enrollment numbers. And James Nagle, chair of the education department at St. Michael’s College, describes how the pandemic impacted teacher training.
A plan for what’s left of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant
Edi Abeneto of Feeding Chittenden on fighting hunger and breaking down cultural barriers
How to raise emotionally intelligent kids
The star-studded history of a small island in Lake Bomoseen
Who is the University of Vermont for?
Synagogue sold — what happens when a historic house of worship becomes something else
‘It dominates anxiety’ — unpacking the process and impact of health insurance premium hikes
How flooding affects Vermont’s wildlife and ecosystems
‘I was in shock.’ — Reporters on the impact of Vermont’s catastrophic flooding
The fraught politics of Vermont’s motel housing program
A spate of deaths focuses attention on Vermont prisons and the Department of Corrections
A VTDigger reporter’s guide to the Statehouse
Deep in the forest, a patch of common ground
What’s happened at Vermont sheriffs’ departments
To go big, or go bigger, on child care
Noah Kahan on ‘existing in a place that you've just written about’
Leveling the funding field for small towns
What 97 acres means to Williston
What’s next for Montpelier’s water system?
What keeps Vermonters together across a widening income divide?
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