Hiring certified teachers has become one of our greatest challenges in Summers County. The extremely low number of students in our colleges and universities entering teacher education programs is alarming. Applicants for teaching positions in Summers County are too few to replace the teachers who are retiring or for those teachers who leave Summers County to accept positions in our five surrounding counties that offer eye and dental benefits as well as higher pay. Additionally, we do not have enough substitutes for our daily needs. These are serious problems that negatively impact student achievement.
The West Virginia Department of Education has created the Alternative Certification of Educators (ACE) program that attempts to increase the pool of teachers available for classrooms around the state. The West Virginia Department of Education has established the guidelines for the (ACE) program and oversees the program. ACE candidates for Summers County Schools must be approved by the State Department of Education. Summers County Board of Education did not create this ACE program and our Board did not create the guidelines. The Summers County Board of Education follows the guidelines required by the State of West Virginia for the ACE program and other programs.
The Teacher in Residency (TIR) is a program that pays a reduced teacher salary to college students who are about to become certified teachers, but have not begun their student teaching practice. These candidates begin teaching in a school system for reduced pay, are assigned a mentor from the school in which they are teaching, and the college or university sends college supervisors to monitor and guide these teachers. Our superintendent utilizes both the ACE and TIR programs to fill in the gaps, but we still have classrooms that do not have teachers.
Since the TIR and ACE programs do not fill all of our teacher shortages we resort to using approved substitute teachers as long-term substitutes. Even so, there are days the system cannot find a substitute teacher.
Without these three remedies for the teacher shortage in Summers County Schools our system would not be able to function as a result of the critical shortage of teachers.
Superintendent Warvel and his central office staff will be on a recruiting mission to Concord University for the purpose of attempting to hire students who are about to become certified teacher graduates.
Stan Duncan
President of Summers County Board of Education
Jackie Farley
Vice-President of Summers County Board of Education
Summers County School Board President
Stan Duncan
Summers County School Board Vice-President
Jackie Farley
