RCSD still facing staffing shortages

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Before the start of school, Rochester School District leaders told us 99 percent of 600 vacant positions at the beginning of summer had been filled. But the Rochester teachers union says otherwise.

It claims there is still a significant shortage, and mostly for teachers. They did a staffing survey of schools in the district and says out of 40 schools it surveyed, only 13 said it was fully staffed with teachers. Not to mention other vacancies.

RELATED: 30 days before school, RCSD is trying to fill hundreds of teacher jobs

“So the district is not correct when they’re 99 percent staffed it’s more like 80 percent staffed,” RTA President Adam Urbanski said.

Urbanski says there are about 78 unfilled jobs in 27 Rochester schools, which Urbanski says is significant but the district is working to hire and retain.

“Which by the way is not as bad as we feared we thought it would be a lot worse.”

There are 46 schools in the district. RTA did a recent survey with 40 of them. Only 13 said it was fully staffed with teachers. The other 27 schools out of that survey are where the 78 vacancies come from.

On the district’s employment website, there is a need for special education teachers, elementary teachers, English as a second language, and more.

The shortage is nationwide but the city teacher’s union says it also got a record number of resignations this past year.

“If you lower class sizes, if you hire more school counselors, psychologists and social workers if you make teacher salaries more attractive, towards fixing the inability to attract and retain teachers,” Urbasnki added.

RTA says it’s in the process of surveying the last few schools. He said he should have those numbers by the end of the week. News10NBC reached out to leaders of the district for more information.