The 2024-25 school year is starting with districts seeking help. Across Colorado, many districts are again short of teachers, staff, and bus drivers. 

In Jefferson County Schools, which resumes for most students on Thursday, the district is still looking to hire 11 teachers, 35 paraprofessionals, and 27 special education teachers, despite decades of declining enrollments due to a drop in birth rates and rising housing costs.

In the Boulder Valley School District, officials are seeking to hire a dozen teachers as the district opens. They are offering a $3,500 signing bonus to bus drivers.

“What we’re trying to do is be proactive and engage the community,” said Superintendent Dr. Rob Anderson. “We’ve been talking about this for several years.”

The district has been marketing its efforts to educate and address the shortage.

“We found schools that have lower enrollment. We’re looking at new academic programs and new marketing to let folks know we have room in our amazing schools here in the Boulder Valley School District,” Anderson said.

In Jefferson County, the district addressed a shortage of bus drivers last year by noticing the number of buses that were not full and purchasing 18 smaller buses that do not require commercial driver’s licenses. The district is now fully staffed with drivers for this year.

Last school year, districts in Colorado were about 1,400 teachers short.

“We have more than enough people with educator licenses right now that could fill the need,” said Kevin Vick, president of the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Colorado Education Association. “There are more people licensed than working in the profession. They are simply not staying,” Vick said.

Colorado ranks last in competitive professional pay. But it’s not only about pay. There are also concerns about safety and standardization of teaching practices, according to Vick.

“It’s important to understand there’s a difference between standards and standardization,” Vick said. He believes standards are appropriate, but standardization frustrates educators.

“They prescribe a certain way of teaching, a certain curriculum, or certain grade level expectations, and they find that when they are teaching the kids, the kids need something else,” Vick said. “It’s about the same as expecting kids to all be the same height.”

Some educators have left for jobs outside of teaching. Denver Public Schools will start the year with dozens of teachers and paraprofessionals short. 

Parent Henry moved his 7-year-old and 11-year-old children to a different school this year due to what he described as problem students at his children’s previous school.

“Who doesn’t love teaching young, happy little minds? But when it becomes that difficult and you don’t have any power for any kind of discipline whatsoever and the kids know that, what are you going to do?” Henry said.

He also worries about teachers trying to push some students while leaving others bored and not challenged. Nevertheless, he believes his children have had good teachers who care.

“It is cool to see teachers who are passionate about it and really put their heart into it despite major challenges,” Henry said.

Back-to-school season is in full swing! Yet as a new school year begins, many Colorado districts are facing an old problem – a teacher shortage.

According to the Colorado Department of Education, that shortage is worsening. Last year, there were more than 1,400 open positions in schools state-wide. However, a program with Colorado State University – Global aims to help end the shortage.

“We support the teachers to support the kids,” said Dr. Audra Spicer, CSU Global Provost. “We seek out partnerships with Colorado school districts to bring in their teachers and upscale them.”

Spicer explained CSU Global is the country’s first 100% online, fully accredited state university. Among its many programs are Masters of Science – Teaching and Learning (MSTL) and Principal Licensure (PL) degree offerings. By partnering with school districts around the state, busy teacher-turned-students can receive tuition assistance.

“We have 8-week courses, and we have new courses starting every month,” Spicer told CBS Colorado’s Kelly Werthmann. “This means teachers who are busy people with committed lives, professionally and personally, they can stop and start in and out of their coursework as they need.”

That flexibility was an immediate appeal to Cara LaMark, an educator with Aurora Public Schools.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can go to school and pay for it without student loans [because of the partnership with APS],’” said LaMark.

LaMark has worked in education for more than a decade and never really considered moving into a leadership role until she was approached by a colleague at North Middle School to become assistant principal.

“She introduced me to the CSU Global program,” she said, “It was available to me any time I had available… and as a teacher, mother of two kids… that convenience piece really made a huge difference.”

Not only does the online university provide affordable and convenient opportunities for educators to advance their careers, Spicer explained it is also helping to curb Colorado’s teacher shortage.

“We know that 95% of our MSTL completers stay in Colorado, working in our school districts,” she said. “And 91% of our PL earners are still working in Colorado. We have partnerships [with school districts] from Denver, the Front Range, the Western Slope, and across the entire state. It’s so important for Colorado that we have wonderful teachers who stay here.”

Teachers like LaMark, a proud CSU Global graduate now promoted to assistant principal.

“I love this job,” she said. “It’s the best job ever, it really is.”

Storms will continue across Colorado on Wednesday, threatening the state with heavy rain, strong winds and waves of hail, according to the National Weather Service.

“Scattered thunderstorms will move from the mountains in the afternoon onto the plains in the late afternoon and evening,” NWS forecasters said in a hazardous weather outlook. “While storms will be less numerous and less intense than the last several days, there is still potential for localized heavy rain, wind gusts up to 60 mph and small hail.”

According to forecasters, the metro area and Eastern Plains could see hail up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter — about the size of a ping pong ball.

Thunderstorms are expected to hit the Denver area between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. and will be strongest on the Eastern Plains between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m., according to NWS forecasters.

Denver will see temperature highs of 87 degrees Wednesday before dropping into the high 50s overnight, forecasters said.

Thunderstorms and 80-degree weather will continue in the Denver area Thursday before the storms dry up and daily temperature highs rise back into the 90s for the rest of the week, forecasters said.

The potential for storms — including large hail, flooding risks and strong winds — will increase again beginning Sunday, forecasters stated in the hazardous weather outlook.

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