By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Educators across the country are having to adjust as the school year goes along and for some of them, they'd rather change careers or retire than deal with the stress. So far, that's not been an issue in USD 308.
"I'm kind of pleasantly surprised that we have not seen in USD 308 a en masse exodus from the teaching profession," said Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Rick Kraus. "We have only had five people who have announced their retirement or resignation through our early incentive program."
That's below other years.
"I think people are kind of maybe just sitting back to wait and see what's going to happen," Kraus said. "Maybe we're sensing we're near the peak of this challenge, that if we've survived it this far that maybe this second half of the year will go much smoother and they may choose to stay in teaching, which is what we need them to do."
Data from the Kansas Department of Education notes that young teachers are not coming in to the profession as quickly as schools need them.
"There are fewer teachers available to fill vacancies across the state of Kansas," Kraus said. "That's not going to change in the pandemic, unfortunately. My hope is that we do have our teachers that are maybe on the bubble that will just be more reflective about whether or not they want to continue and if they've made it this far, if they will hang in there for another couple of years, because they are the best people we have for our kids. We can't replace experience."
USD 308 will have additional professional development days for its teachers immediately following the holiday break.