Miles Hercamp, Director of Instruction for Southern Hancock schools
NEW PALESTINE — While many schools are expanding programs to meet growing technology and work-ready needs, some learning opportunities are falling by the wayside due to teacher shortages for specific classes.
As an example, currently Indiana students need three years of one world language or two years of two world languages for an Academic Honors Diploma. Plus, many colleges require or recommend world language classes in high school for college acceptance. While a Core 40 diploma does not require a world language, students could choose to take a class or two as part of their electives. However, that becomes a little more challenging when officials can’t find a foreign language teacher to offer lessons.
Officials with the Community School Corp. of Southern Hancock sent out an email to parents shortly before the start of school this week which said, while they’re excited to have students back in class, unfortunately after an exhaustive search they were unable to find a qualified French teacher for the 2023-24 school year at New Palestine High School.
“At this time, our best option to meet the needs of French 1, 2 and 3 students is to offer a virtual learning option through Indiana Online Academy based in Indianapolis,” the email said. “Through this program, the students will have a qualified and certified French teacher to support their learning.”
Southern Hancock officials are not the only ones looking for teachers. A senior director of educator talent for the Indiana Department of Education, Rebecca Estes noted an estimated 3,200 job openings exist statewide at schools, and more than half of the vacancies are teaching positions.
Miles Hercamp is the Director of Instruction for Southern Hancock schools. He said they had to do the same thing last year for Spanish 3, opting for a virtual learning opportunity and, while not ideal, it worked.
“Unfortunately, it is getting more difficult to find teachers in specific areas,” Hercamp said.
Due to the teacher shortage, many district officials need to find other options to meet the needs of students. Hercamp said for additional student support they will have a staff member present in the physical classroom while Indiana Online Academy supplies a virtual French teacher.
“At this time, we have 65 students who are in this situation,” Hercamp said. “The counselors are talking with the students to give them their options.”
District officials went on to say their goal is to continue the search for a NPHS French teacher for the current school year, but the chance of finding one is slim.
“We have looked at many avenues to find a teacher,” Hercamp said. “We have contacted multiple world language groups to advertise the position, but at this time, we have no applicants.”
Parents and students shared the news about the online situation on social media and while some thought the situation to be workable, others were hesitant.
“So sad,” one person wrote, “I know I had to have Spanish online my second semester of sophomore year. I’m not sure about everyone but it was really hard for me to do online.”
Another person wrote, “It’s ridiculous. State of Indiana requires 6-8 credits of foreign language to be able to graduate with Academic Honors and schools can’t get the teachers needed to teach these courses.”
Still, others say give the virtual school a real opportunity before tossing the idea aside.
“Indiana Online is great,” a person wrote. “My school sends our students there for any additional classes and I work for an online school.”
Greenfield-Central Superintendent Harold Olin said they were lucky and were able to find a teacher to keep German classes at the high school this year.
“Fortunately, a retired G-C teacher, Cathy Clements, agreed to teach for us again,” Olin said. “She is a fantastic teacher,” Olin said.
However, he noted that they may encounter some trouble maintaining an eighth-grade world language survey class.
“We are looking at options that may include something virtual for our students at that level,” he said. “There truly is a shortage of world language teachers, and most of the licensed teachers prefer high school settings.”
Southern Hancock community relations director Craig Smith said that, while enrollment is growing, the teaching profession is not.
“We’re struggling to get teachers,” Smith said. “But, that’s where our program ‘Grow Your Own’ is so important because we’re getting a crop of students into education who are then coming back to our district to teach.”
Smith also noted if the pandemic had anything good come from it, it was the fact teachers and students learned to work virtually, so taking a virtual class now and again shouldn’t be a big challenge.
“A little bit of virtual is becoming more common, and our students and even teachers are comfortable in that environment,” Smith said.
Officials with Mt. Vernon and Eastern Hancock schools say they are fortunate and are not experiencing a teacher shortage this year when it comes to foreign language classes in their districts.
