NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson told the Board of Education Monday night that they are having trouble filling teaching positions for the coming school year.
"We have about 17 openings," Johnson told the board. "This time last year, we felt pretty confident about our positions being filled. We had one applicant over the last two weeks. We don't have any other applicants coming in."
They also have at least one leadership position to fill.
"Cara Schrag from McCandless is going to move to McPherson," Johnson said. "There's just a lot of key positions in the positions that are out there. We've heard about this crisis coming out of COVID, that there's no teachers and we've heard about it that Overland Park or Blue Valley or some bigger schools, really bigger schools than us, that can't fill their teaching positions."
The teachers that are available could even have an effect on how facilities are used.
"That is a concern," Johnson said. "We're going to start taking a look at how do we get creative and fill those positions. It might be a part of the conversation we even have with our facility committee about some options we have. We are getting nervous. I want to put that out there."
The main jobs they can't fill right now are elementary teaching positions.
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