Schools hope math is right on teacher hirings

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT-MESA -- Think of it as a giant game of teacher roulette.

Every year on the eve of school openings, district officials and

principals -- who have spent the summer preparing for almost every other

contingency -- wake up in the middle of the night wondering: “Will we

have enough teachers?”

That’s because until the bell chimes Thursday, school officials won’t

know exactly how many children will be coming to school.

And with budgets as tight as they are, they can’t risk hiring extra

teachers unless they are absolutely certain they’ll have enough students

for them to teach.

To get an accurate estimate, principals personally call parents and

ask if their children are coming back. They whip out their calculators

and perform complicated statistical calculations. And they keep their

fingers crossed.

“It makes me frantic,” said Kaiser Elementary School Principal Daryle

Palmer.

In the last few days, Palmer said, the number of students expected to

enroll has shot up, but Palmer cannot hire any more teachers until she

knows for sure how many students will actually come.

This means fourth and sixth grades will likely be a bit crowded for

the first couple weeks of school.

In an attempt to find out exactly how crowded -- and whether the

school could hire an extra teacher -- Kaiser’s Parent Faculty Assn. last

week paid four high school students to call each and every child who came

to the school last year and ask their parents if they planned to return.

“I anticipate we’ll hire at least one more teacher ... but right now

we’re just in a holding pattern,” Palmer said.

Lorri Simpson, the district’s head of personnel, said Kaiser’s problem

has been seen throughout the district. And when school starts Thursday,

some schools will be bursting at the seams, an some will be emptier than

expected.

“We do as much to confirm as possible,” she said. “But we have to make

sure we don’t over-hire. ... We’re waiting to see the whites of [the

students’] eyes.”

During the summer break, Simpson said the district hired 141 new

teachers. Last week, they hired 21 more, and today, five more are

expected to sign final papers.

But Simpson still is expecting to start the school year with

substitute teachers in a few classrooms. If all the children who are

expected to show up do, then those teachers -- all of whom have

credentials -- will be hired permanently. If all the students don’t show

up, classes will be consolidated and the substitutes won’t be hired as

full-time teachers.

Simpson said she hates the thought of moving students around once

school has started, but noted that often it is necessary.

“It’s unfortunate,” she said. “We know parents and students get

attached to a teacher the first week of school, but we have to [move

people] because of our funding.”