Recession boosts ranks of teachers

With schools opening this week, most of the Mercer-area districts are fully staffed and ready to welcome students. Many are seeing an increase in the number of substitute teacher applications and people trading the private sector for the classroom.

In the Trenton school district, which laid

There are 15 vacancies as schools open this week, Trenton school officials said. Some of the openings are hard-to-fill positions, such as a bilingual math teacher, Lofton said.

The district, which employs 1,027 teachers, did not have many vacancies this year.

"Our sense is that, overall, schools in New Jersey will not have a difficult time filling vacancies," Michael Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said.

Yaple said the "alternate route" program -- which allows people with subject expertise to teach without teacher training -- has helped the state avoid teacher shortages other states have seen.

The economy also plays a role in the increase in alternate-route candidates in some districts. "We've heard numerous reports of professionals from the private sector looking to get into teaching positions, or veteran teachers that want to hold on to their jobs for a few more years."

The pay for teachers can be attractive, especially during a recession. The average salary for a New Jersey teacher in the 2008-09 school year was $57,465, according to the state Department of Education.

For the last three years, the Hightstown-East Windsor school district has filled science, math and music teaching positions through the alternate route program.

About 90 percent of the district's 25 teaching vacancies were filled by June. The district received more than twice the number of applications from alternate route hopefuls that it received last year, said district Superintendent Ron Bolandi.

Bolandi said the increase "absolutely" had to do with the downturn in the economy. "My impression is that when the economy went sour and people got laid off, they looked at alternate route teaching." The district also cut back on three administrative positions in the central office, three elementary positions and two clerical positions this year.

As the Hightstown-East Windsor school district prepares for the first day of school, there are two openings remaining: one for a learning disabilities teacher consultant and another for a middle school special education teacher.

At Princeton Regional Schools, there have been more substitute teacher applications this year, as well as applicants who are mid-career changers who have left the private sector to consider working in a school environment, said Judith Wilson, the school superintendent.

The district, which has about 305 teachers, cut four teaching positions at the elementary level and hired 17 teachers districtwide, including two through the alternate route program, said Wilson and Lew Goldstein, the superintendent for human resources in the district.

Goldstein said the school district also saw an increase in substitute teacher applications from an average of six to seven last year to 20 applications this year.

The Ewing school district is fully staffed for the 2009-2010 school year, with 14 new teachers starting this September.

"We have seen an increase in the number of alternate route applicants as well as substitute teacher applicants. I guess it is fair to assume there is a direct link to economic issues," Superintendent Michael Nitti said in an e-mail message.

In the West Windsor-Plainsboro schools, 30 new teachers will join the approximately 800 certified teachers in district schools, said Gerri Hutner, the district spokeswoman.

"This is the second year where we didn't have any last-minute hires," Hutner said. In past years, the district had not been fully staffed by the start of school.

With about 1,200 teachers in the district, the Hamilton school district is also fully staffed going into the first day of school tomorrow, said Joseph Tramontana, the district's human resources director.

About 75 teaching positions had to be filled by May and June because of district retirements and new federal funding for a couple of teaching positions through 2011.

The overwhelming majority of new hires were traditionally certified teachers, but there were more candidates applying for each opening than in past years.

"The economy is one factor," Tramontana said. "Jobs are becoming increasingly harder to find."