Leander ISD may begin hiring uncertified teachers in an effort to fill vacant teaching positions.

What’s happening?

The Leander ISD board of trustees voted to apply for teacher certification waivers with the Texas Education Agency at an Aug. 24 meeting.

If approved, the waivers will allow LISD to employ teachers without the required state certification for one to three years as they work toward getting certified, excluding bilingual and special education positions. The board voted to utilize the waivers for a two-year period beginning this school year.

“It allows the district to decide the standards that we’re going to use to consider someone highly qualified for that classroom and gives us a period of one to three years to work that out to get them to a place of being certified,” said Rachel Mackey, the district's executive director of human resources.

The district will require the following qualifications for teachers hired on a certification waiver:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher
• Related education or experience in assigned teaching area
• Enrollment in an alternative certification program or standard teacher certification outside of assigned teaching area
• Ineligibility for a temporary classroom permit or emergency permit

LISD will help teachers get certified by tracking their progress toward certification and providing an online test preparation program, Mackey said. These teachers will also be provided the same support as other first-year teachers with professional development opportunities and mentors, she said.

How we got here

LISD has faced staffing shortages with both teaching and nonteaching positions in recent school years.

The district had 36 vacant teaching positions out of 102 vacant campus positions and 405 total vacancies across campus and noncampus positions, such as support staff, as of Aug. 18, according to LISD.

“We continue to have a shortage of teachers,” Mackey said. “That’s not uncommon for state or national numbers.”

In July 2022, the district had 208 campus position vacancies, 95 of which were teachers.

Mackey said hiring new teachers has remained a challenge despite maximizing the district's recruiting efforts through:

• Social media and and job board posts
• Job fairs held locally and across the state
• Alternative certification programs
• Community events
• Cold calling and emailing former employees and applicants

Teachers are most needed for mathematics and science subjects along with elementary education, Mackey said.

Moving forward

The district’s human resources office will begin applying for certification waivers for teaching candidates with the TEA, Mackey said. She said the district is currently considering around 50 candidates for the waivers.

Quote of note

“We’re really committed to the highest-quality people that we can possibly find,” LISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing said. “This just gives us an additional option to find high-quality people who just might not have reached those certification checkpoints in their process yet and for us to help them through that.”