Central Coast schools seeing teacher shortage

A shortage of teachers across the Central Coast has public educators working around the clock to attract more instructors. On Saturday, the Monterey County Office of Education held its first fall teacher recruitment fair.

“It’s difficult to attract teachers in general right now,” said Rosa Coronado with the Monterey County Office of Education.

Coronado said it’s difficult to attract teachers to the Central Coast because of increased competition across the state.

“Right now we have an influx of money with LCFF. There’s a change in our funding,” said Coronado.

LCFF stands for the “Local Control Funding Formula.” It’s a law passed in 2013 designed to reform public education funding. The purpose of the law was to give local school districts more control over the distribution of money, but school leaders said it’s also created a teacher shortage.

“You have a number of districts who have money out there and teachers are limited,” said Coronado.

That’s the case even in larger districts. The Salinas Union High School District has over 12 positions open. But Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, Randy Bangs said the issue here is growth.

“We’ve had additional positions open because of our student enrollment increase,” said Bangs.

Bangs said the Salinas Union High School District has grown by over 400 students between this year and last year, and the Monterey County Office of Education hopes year-round recruitment will help fill those openings and get much needed teachers in their classrooms.