By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
While USD 428 Assistant Superintendent John Popp told the Great Bend school board last week that all teaching positions have been filled in some manner, the district did a good amount of shuffling positions around to meet their needs.
While the teacher shortage has been documented for years, Popp
said the transition to teaching programs are growing and may be the district’s
best bet to hire staff.
"As a talk around the state, the belief is that we will see less and less traditionally licensed teachers," said Popp. "We'll start to see more and more of people in your community who you recruit because they're good and you get them licensed on their way through."
Professionals outside the field of education who have a bachelor’s or master’s
degree in an area they want to teach and are seeking a career change can begin
serving as a teacher in Kansas right away. If accepted into the program, the
transitioned teacher will take coursework to expedite their path to becoming a
licensed teacher.
"Some of our best teachers have transitioned into teaching," said Popp. "We're finding these non-traditionally trained employees can be extremely good teachers. It's a whole different recruiting strategy though."
Popp added the strategy used to be to attend job fairs in other states and try
to recruit them to work in Great Bend. Now, the approach is to focus on finding
people in your community and growing them into teachers and they will probably
stay in the area.