As the school year draws to a close, two challenges loom over the Haines School District, low funding and a shortage of teachers for the next year. According to Superintendent Roy Getchell, those challenges are being met.
The Alaska Senate Finance Committee heard from dozens of educators and Alaska residents on Thursday as they considered increasing per student funding. (web: Senate Bill 52, an increase in base student allocation for educational funding.) One of those invited to speak in Juneau was Haines Superintendent Roy Getchell.
Getchell told KHNS about the message he shared.
“I was able to really just tell haynes’s story, you know, I tried to tell the story of my colleagues across the state. And in my own experience, when I think about how far Alaska has come, you know, not in a good way, as far as recruitment and so forth, and the challenges that we face. And I think they have a hard job, you know, there’s finite resources. Obviously, as an educator, I think that, that their most important responsibility is to school, I just do that’s from the bottom of, of me, and who I am and what I think. But they have a tough job. But it’s, I think there’s a recognition that something has to be done, we can’t continue down this trajectory in this path, as a state.”
Besides funding, the greatest challenge to the Haines School District is the high number of faculty vacancies in the upcoming school year. Despite this daunting task, Getchell says that the district has managed to fill nine of 10 positions with what he describes as a veteran staff.
“If I look at the average years of experience, it’s probably 15 or more, when you add up all nine of these candidates that we’ve brought in…I think that’s impressive, and, you know, I tell you the truth, I would because of you know, I’m not going to sugarcoat this crisis that I think Alaska is in, but this class of people that we’ve hired, and that’s what I’m going to call them, you know, as the class of 23. There are so many, it’s 39% of our certified staff. But this would be a great class, no matter the year, you know, if even if it was a year where we had, you know, back in the good old days, when there were hundreds of applicants for each position, we were able to get there early enough, we had enough support, and people to quickly move to, you know, we are our board members have worked incredibly hard. We’ve had parents involved in meeting staff involved in in interviews, Lily has just worked over time, reference checking, I can’t and other staff have gone out of their way to try to support and call candidates and help not convince them but just tell the story of hanes and who we are as a community and, and why this is a great place to live, work and become a part of.”
Among the incoming teachers are Zach Torvill, who currently works in the physics department for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Lacy Schultz from Minnesota who has over 20 years of experience in special education, and Jeff Anderson of Bend, Oregon.
“He’s one that definitely you want to interview right away for high school social studies. 25 years of experience, a lot of it is with international baccalaureate, he’s bilingual, his references said, you know that he’s a fixture, you know, they’re gonna miss him, he’s been a department chair, he and his wife wants something different, you know, after 25 years in Oregon, and Haines is different, and we think it’s going to be a just a perfect match.”
While the U.S. continues to face a chronic teacher shortage, Getchell is proud that his children will continue the family tradition of education and help to alleviate that shortfall.
“Yeah, I’ve got two daughters, both are going to be kindergarten teachers. She was going to go into something else, but did an internship and kindergarten this year and said, Dad, I think this is what I was born to do. And I’m like, I knew it, but I wasn’t going to tell you. Because if I did she wouldn’t do it. But yeah, but you know, I, sometimes I hear people say why would you encourage your children to go into education, and I can’t imagine my life not doing what what, what I was born to do, and the impact that that I think teachers are able to have, and the the difference that we can make, and just the at the end of the day when I walk away from this whenever that whenever that may be I hope it’s a long time from now, but to say Well, I I did something that mattered. And I think that everybody, I hope can say that no matter what it is that they work with or what they do, because I think that everybody needs to find that within themselves. And I’m glad I found it for me and I think my girls have found that for them and I’m glad it’s education.”
Getchell says that the district is working to fill the last faculty vacancy, a one-year 5th grade position, and is optimistic about having it filled in the next week. The district also recently completed negotiations with the local union Haines Education Association that included a 10% pay increase for staff which Getchell says will help Haines continue to compete for high quality staff.
Listen to the full interview below.
