PATERSON PRESS

Paterson schools scramble to fill 35 teaching jobs

Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press

PATERSON — The city school district is scrambling to fill the 35 new jobs created this month using the extra $4.3 million in state education aid provided to Paterson over the summer.

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The district has hired people for 13 of the positions, but 22 vacancies remain, according to a report issued this week. Eleven of the open slots are for special education positions, while six are for bilingual and English as a second language programs.

The district also is using about $525,000 of the additional state money to add 15 security positions in city schools, but they are being hired through the private firm that handles that work for the Board of Education.

During Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting, officials boasted that the district’s number of instructional vacancies for the start of the school year was at an all-time low, with more than 99 percent of the positions filled.

But those public assertions did not take into account the fact that the district this year changed the way it was counting vacancies.

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This year’s count of 12 of what the district called “true vacancies” did not include positions that are becoming vacant through retirements and resignations that take effect after Aug. 1, officials acknowledged. In past years, the late resignations and retirements were counted among the vacancies, officials said.

A district report shows that 19 teaching positions became vacant because of departures that took place after Aug. 1. The district also has gotten word that 15 more teachers are leaving, with most of their departures taking effect in October.

The report distributed at Wednesday’s board meeting showed the real number of actual teaching vacancies was about 50.

Officials said they have been hiring new people on an ongoing basis and expect the number of openings to be lower when classes start in September. The district uses substitute teachers to cover vacant classes.