No shortage in Independence district

  Any teacher shortage in the Independence School District has been corrected and all positions have now been filled.

Superintendent Jim Hinson said there was a small problem last week with not having enough teachers for the number of students that showed up the first day, particularly in the western Independence schools. Six new schools were transferred into the district from the Kansas City School District earlier this summer.

 Hinson said more than 200 students who had not pre-enrolled came to school Aug. 18. This caused, he said, class sizes to be temporarily higher than what is deemed acceptable by the state of Missouri.

 “We no longer have a teacher shortage,” he said. “We have filled all positions in those problem areas.”

Hinson said the teachers were pulled from the more than 3,000 applicants that had been screened and interviewed earlier in the year. The biggest problem was at Nowlin Middle School.

In addition, he said about 90 students who had not pre-enrolled were at Van Horn High School. However, the district had purposefully overstaffed that building so there were not any problems with finding places for students.

“This is really a normal problem for a lot of districts. There are a number of kids that are not preregistered when they show up to school the first day,” he said. “At some of our other schools, we had a high number of kindergarteners who showed up. This is not uncommon, and it happens every year.”

Despite any first week bugs with teachers, Hinson said the first few days of school “could not have been better.” He said in all district schools everyone has settled in and is doing a good job to make things work.

“When we were going through the heat of the legal battle this summer, I had no idea what to expect with the start of school,” he said. “When those things concluded, I knew we were going to be on the right track. Things are just simply going well right now. The accolades all go to the employees and the community.”

Hinson said there are even people continuing to volunteer at the schools, even with the completion of Extreme School Makeover. The weekend-long event in July helped to refresh and revitalize the schools for the coming school year. Volunteers worked on painting, cleaning and landscaping throughout the weekend.

“We knew the level of community support would be outstanding and we knew that people would show up for Extreme School Makeover,” he said. “But we are so grateful that the community is remaining so acutely engaged. It is gratifying to know people want what is in the best interest of these children and will do what they can to make that happen.”