Utah schools still need hundreds of teachers ahead of new school year

AMERICAN FORK, Utah (KUTV) — With students returning to classrooms next month, school districts across Utah are still working to fill hundreds of teaching positions, particularly in elementary and special education.

While Utah has one of the nation’s strongest teacher retention rates, staffing shortages remain a challenge as districts prepare for the start of the school year.

Parent Brenda Petroff said she believes low teacher pay continues to be one of the biggest factors contributing to the shortage.

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“Utah in general has a teacher shortage,” Petroff said. “They can get paid a lot more in other states.”

She said increasing teacher salaries could help attract and keep more educators in Utah classrooms.

“I just feel like they need to be paid more,” Petroff said. “I feel like they need to teach them things that they’re going to use in life.”

According to state data, hundreds of teaching positions remain open statewide, with elementary education among the areas experiencing the greatest need. State data also reports that about 11% of Utah teachers are considered underqualified or not fully qualified for the positions they currently hold.

Cami Harper, a former teacher turned executive director of human resources for the Alpine School District, said an underqualified teacher is someone who has not yet earned the appropriate license for the subject or grade level they are teaching.

“Luckily, the state has made it very easy and is willing to work with teachers to get a license to allow them to be qualified,” Harper said.

The Alpine School District is looking to hire about 22 teachers before the school year begins.

Harper said the district’s greatest staffing needs are in special education and certain specialized secondary subjects, where applicant pools tend to be smaller.

“For us and the state, special education is a very high-need area,” Harper said. “We’ve been blessed to have great candidates apply, but we don’t have as many applicants applying for those positions.”

Harper said Alpine has fewer vacancies than in previous years, in part because of declining enrollment — a trend affecting several districts across the state.

KUTV contacted nearly a dozen Utah school districts for updated vacancy numbers and information about their hiring efforts. Many district officials were unavailable because of the holiday week. This story will be updated as additional information becomes available.

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