Local schools work through staffing shortages

BOWLING GREEN Ky. – The Barren County School System, along with the Edmonson County School System, are both having unique experiences with the ongoing national staffing shortages in schools.

In Barren County, there is a greater focus on maintaining auxiliary staff. According to Heather Gardner, who works with the school system, the positions that are open are mostly not teachers.

“So things like bus drivers, custodians, instructional assistants and those people play a key role in how well our schools function. Any time you start the school year and you still have open positions, you know that that makes things more challenging,” Gardner said. 

In Edmonson County, the focus is on finding and supporting teachers that aren’t necessarily fresh out of school like many would think. School superintendent Brian Alexander says that the creation of a mentoring program for new teachers has helped raise the quality of schooling in his district. This, along with the unique pipeline of teachers they have found in the county, seems to be working considering they do not currently have any vacancies.

“We get people that are coming out of the workforce that are perhaps retired from a first career and starting a second career or have been in a career and decided that they wanted to change and do something a little bit different,” Alexander said.