While school districts grapple with the effects of a teacher shortage in Texas, Tomball and Magnolia ISDs are keeping positions filled by increasing teacher salaries and prioritizing retention.

Nationally, 500,000 teachers exit the industry each year, collectively costing school districts as much as $2 billion annually in recruiting and training teacher replacements, according to a report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national education policy and advocacy organization. Just in Texas, the lofty turnover rate costs school districts $235 million annually, the report stated.

MISD and TISD lost 15.8 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, of their teachers between the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years, according to the Texas Education Agency’s most recent data.

However, Magnolia ISD Chief Financial Officer Erich Morris downplayed the effects of the statewide shortage at the school district.

“I think we are attractive enough for teachers to want to come and live in our district,” he said. “There’s no indicator that the teacher shortage in any capacity is really causing us any issues at this point.”

Tomball ISD Superintendent Huey Kinchen also said TISD has yet to see a significant effect from the statewide trend.

“We have not experienced a teacher shortage in Tomball ISD,” Kinchen said. “However, retaining quality teachers is very important.”

Nevertheless, MISD and TISD are increasing salaries and evaluating staffing ratios to stay competitive while avoiding excessive turnover and keeping up with enrollment growth.

Competition for talented teachers in the Greater Houston area has pushed starting salaries in 2016-17 above $50,000 per year in most suburban school districts.[/caption]

State, local challenges

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Texas was federally recognized for teacher shortages in several subject areas for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. These include: English as a second language, career and technical education, computer science, mathematics, science and special education on the elementary and secondary levels.

MISD Director of Communications Denise Meyers said although recruiting teachers for some subject areas—such as science, technology, engineering and math courses—is harder than others, the district has not struggled to fill vacant teaching positions.

“We have the teachers that we need. I think the challenge is finding the specialty areas and that’s always been a challenge—like those STEM classes, the high-level chemistry classes, bilingual teachers,” she said. “Those are always a challenge [to find].”

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Morris said he believes the teacher shortage is largely due to a lack of decision-making ability at the district level.

“We talk about the high stakes test accountability, the inability in general for districts to make local decisions without concern of how the state or federal government is going to respond [and] constraint for creativity,” he said.

Funding has also been a challenge for the districts over the last few years.

Texas public schools shouldered a $5.3 billion cut to education during the 2011 legislative session, which resulted in districts statewide cutting teaching positions. MISD cut 72 teaching positions following the budget cuts, which the district did not totally regain until the 2015-16 school year, according to data from the TEA. TISD did not cut teaching positions.

“Obviously Magnolia ISD was not immune to that, as [were] most districts,” Morris said.

He said MISD tried to maintain student-to-staff ratios despite the cuts.

The average salary for teachers is on the rise locally, statewide and nationally as school districts grapple with rapid population growth.[/caption]

Adding students, teachers

Gary Godsey, executive director of Association of Texas Professional Educators, said thousands of new students enroll in Texas public schools each year, requiring districts to hire thousands of teachers across the state.

“Every year when 80,000 new kids enter the [Texas public education] system, that creates thousands of jobs that need to be filled just to educate those 80,000,” Godsey said. “That’s about the size of a Fort Worth school district coming on board every single year in Texas.”

Since the 2010-11 academic year, TISD has added 3,451 students, according to the Population & Survey Analysts demographics firm. Meanwhile, MISD has added 993 students in the last five years.

To keep up with increased enrollment, MISD added 15 classroom-related positions for 2016-17. Meyers said MISD has a total of about 150 new teachers starting in 2016-17.

TISD added 63 new teaching positions for 2016-17 to staff its new Creekside Park Junior High School, which opened in August. A total of 135 new teachers joined the district this year.

“When you’re used to being in a district that has student growth and economic growth, you have to plan for it,” Morris said.

Recruitment and retention

To counter the growing teacher shortage and rising student enrollment, school districts are boosting salaries and looking beyond Texas for teachers.

Recruiting teachers from out of state is a growing trend throughout Texas. The number of out-of-state teachers receiving Texas certification increased from 2,370 teachers in 2011-12 to 3,875 teachers in 2014-15, according to the TEA.

However, Morris said teacher recruitment costs MISD between $5,000-$10,000 each year. He estimates 70 percent of MISD teachers come from within the state.

“We don’t do near as much [traveling to recruit teachers] as other districts do,” he said.

Although local districts are not spending significant funds on recruitment efforts, they continue to increase salaries to stay competitive with other districts. TISD and MISD increased salaries for returning teachers by 2 and 4 percent, respectively, for the 2016-17 school year.

In TISD, the starting salary for a TISD teacher has grown from $51,250 in 2015-16 to $52,000 for fiscal year 2016-17. A first-year teacher at MISD will receive $49,500 in FY 2016-17, compared with $48,000 last year.

According to a report from the Texas Association of School Boards, the average starting annual salary for a teacher in Texas schools with more than 10,000 students in FY 2015-16 was $47,804.

In an effort to retain teachers, Kinchen said TISD not only focuses on offering competitive salaries but also strives to shows its teachers they are valued.

“We offer teachers continued support through professional development, and we have increased technology for teachers to use in the classroom,” Kinchen said. “We continually look for ways to enhance the workplace environment so that our teachers know and feel they are valued.”

Morris said MISD strives to offer teachers a salary competitive to the surrounding districts to encourage teacher retention as well as increase supplemental income, such as benefits and extracurricular stipends. He said the MISD board of trustees is focused on increasing teacher retention.

Although it is higher than the statewide average salary, MISD’s starting salary is lower than that of nearby districts, such as TISD, Cy-Fair ISD and Spring ISD, all of which have higher student enrollment.

Morris said one way to solve the teacher shortage is to again value the teaching profession, encouraging students to become teachers.

“There’s a need for a mindset change at our federal and state government levels in terms of getting back to the era of valuing our teachers and the teaching profession—just as we do within our district,” Morris said. 

Districts across Texas, including Magnolia and Tomball ISDs, are striving to keep up with enrollment growth.[/caption]