The Bushnell-Prairie City CUSD 170 Board of Education and West Prairie CUSD 103 Board of Education met at the Regional Office of Education 26 in Macomb to hear a presentation by Superintendent John Meixner on the preliminary findings from the Illinois Educator Shortage Survey during Thursday’s joint school board meeting.
In the preliminary study, Meixner said that 88 percent of district superintendents have trouble finding quality teachers, and 94 percent of district superintendents have trouble finding substitute teachers for their district. Meixner said that as a result of this issue, 22 percent of teacher positions remained unfilled or are filled by unqualified teachers. Three problem areas identified locally included qualified teachers for special education, physical education and mathematics.
Meixner told the school boards that the teachers’ salaries are a common reason for the shortage. He mentioned that teaching is a specialized job and that it should be paid accordingly. He said the Illinois General Assembly has passed a bill that set a minimum teacher salary for all teachers in the state to help alleviate the shortage in the state. He also said that the retirement pension is also another reason for the teacher shortage in the state.
The regional superintendent said the state legislature is proposing some bills to help with the Illinois teacher shortage. One bill will include allowing someone with a bachelor’s degree in a subject area to be able to take two methods courses and pass the required tests to become a licensed teacher. Another bill being proposed will allow licensed teachers to take the content test in a subject matter in order to become certified in that area. He said there has been a lot of interest and discussion about these proposals.
The preliminary study was conducted by Goshen Educational Consulting with the assistance of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools and the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University. The final report will be released later.
The next school board meeting for Bushnell-Prairie City will be on March 18 at 6 p.m. in the Bushnell-Prairie City High School library. The next school board meeting for West Prairie will be on March 5 at 7 p.m. in the West Prairie Middle School library.