While the city’s public school district’s teaching staff has finally stabilized, it now faces huge shortages in support areas like teachers’ aides, custodians, and food-service workers.
The district expects to call back some of the teachers it furloughed last year, and will make additional social worker and counselor hires this year. But Alexis Howard, director of talent management, said it’s crunch time to hire the staff that make the schools run outside of the classroom.
“It’s literally all hands on deck. We need people if we’re going to really make a difference in children’s lives,” she said.
District-wide there are more than 30 paraprofessional teacher aide openings, more than 30 custodial openings, and a handful of nursing and security openings. The district is offering sign-up bonuses and increased wages to lure applicants during a series of upcoming job fairs — including one at its central offices between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Howard said that the district did not have to advertise positions or host fairs this way before the pandemic.
“I think that the world of work is changing. We really have to push these jobs out there and say, ‘This is what we have to offer. It’s not just a job, but a future,’” she said.
All positions except nursing require applicants to live within city limits. The Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers has urged the district to lift the residency requirement for paraprofessional teachers' aides as one way to increase the number of applicants. Union leaders have argued for years that aides can’t find affordable housing in the city.
Howard said the she could not comment on the requirement because those negotiations are ongoing.
While the district doesn’t have as many open teaching jobs as it has in past years, that could change over time as more teachers retire. Last year the state issued a record-low number of certified teachers according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In 2021-22 the state issued about 5,100 new teaching licenses — down from more than 16,000 just a decade before.
