D.C. Has All Its Teachers, But Some Lack Certificates

D.C. school system officials have filled all teacher vacancies before the start of the school year, largely by retaining hundreds of uncertified teachers who were threatened early this year with dismissal.

The school system had 866 teacher vacancies because of dismissals and early retirements, yet it will begin school Monday with only 20 unfilled slots for part-time librarians. That is in sharp contrast with recent years, when the system was struggling to fill vacancies long after schools opened.

Officials said they filled more than half of this year's vacancies by rehiring 470 uncertified teachers who still need at least a year to complete requirements. The teachers must take up to four classes in their subject areas -- such as math, reading or special education -- and pass exams to receive certification.

Superintendent Clifford B. Janey allowed the uncertified teachers to apply for openings for which the system could not recruit teachers with full credentials after school officials acknowledged that it would be difficult to find more than 800 certified teachers over the summer.

In January, Janey moved to end the practice of allowing uncertified teachers to remain in classrooms by announcing that he would dismiss 1,100 of them. Some of those teachers obtained certification. Although Janey dismissed 370 others who would need more than a year's worth of courses, he acknowledged that the system could face a shortage of teachers if it did not include some uncertified teachers in the pool of applicants for vacancies.

The 470 uncertified teachers rehired are either taking or planning to take courses to obtain their credentials, said Tony Demasi, the school system's executive director of human resources.

"The teachers made an honest effort to move forward, and we didn't want to punish them," Demasi said. "When I got here in 2002, we didn't begin hiring new teachers until the third week in August. . . . We were not able to fill all the vacancies until several months into the school year."

Nathan Saunders, vice president of the Washington Teachers' Union, said school officials have worked with the organization to improve the recruiting situation. "We've got a good working relationship," he said. "Where problems have exposed themselves, we've been successful in resolving them expeditiously."

Still, Saunders added, "we're in a mode of cautious optimism." He said the union is asking all 4,400 members to notify him and other officials if they have not been assigned. "I'm personally . . . going to monitor the progress on issues on the first and second weeks of school."

School officials also have filled 32 principal vacancies, created by retirements and Janey's decision not to renew one-year contracts.

Two schools will have acting principals -- Barbara Childs at Cardozo Senior High in Northwest and Kyle Bacon at Drew Elementary in Northeast -- the same number as last year, said Nicole Wilds, the school system's director of recruitment.

School officials said they hired an uncertified teacher only when they were unable to find a certified one. "We always went to the certified pool first," said Erika L. Wesley, the system's licensure administrator. The schools hired the uncertified teachers when the certified teachers left in the pool did not match the positions.

Wesley added that principals decided whether the 470 uncertified teachers would be rehired for their previous positions.

Seventy uncertified teachers who were unable to find positions will go into a pool -- which includes 100 other candidates recruited from across the country -- from which the system will draw if teachers leave in September, Demasi said. Uncertified teachers will be removed from the pool if they are unable to find jobs in the system by the end of next month, Wilds said.

Wesley said her office is working closely with the uncertified teachers to ensure that they obtain their credentials by the June deadline.

Moreover, she said, her office is working with the union to provide workshops for teachers to help them pass the exam required for certification.

In June, the Board of Education ordered the system to close five underenrolled schools.

Demasi said the system has reassigned all 120 or so teachers from those schools. The majority of the teachers, he said, were transferred to the same schools as their students.