Local School Districts See Increase In Staff Shortage

Schools all over Green Country are experiencing staff shortages right now.

School districts have said this is a combination of already being short-staffed and having more staff who are out sick with COVID. 

The Jenks Child Nutrition department said it is down 1/4th of their staffing level they need to feed thousands of students every day. This could result in big changes.

“You know I think a lot of the baby boomers have dropped out of the workforce. Baby boomers were a big part of our work staff and when things got better they just didn’t return," said Pat Meadows.

Meadows is the Jenks Child Nutrition Director and said her department is currently down 25 employees. Her department isn't the only one with several openings.

District-wide, Jenks needs to fill 15 bus driver positions and 19 paraprofessional openings.

Union Public Schools said it's also looking to hire and has 11 certified teaching openings, 23 child nutrition positions, and 7 bus driver openings.

The two districts said staff members are also out sick with COVID, since returning from winter break.

“In anticipation of possibly you know that count going up, now we’re taking a look at what are we going to do if we have even more people off because of COVID and we’re looking at possibly cutting lines down," said Meadows.

She said she's hired more staff for her department since the beginning of the year but the new hires leave for various reasons. She hopes to see more applicants fill the openings soon.

“Some of them leave before I even have a chance to hire them. They call me back and say I got a better offer here and there," said Meadows.