Staff Shortages Take Center Stage In Chatham BOE Discussions

CHATHAM, NJ — After more than two years of dealing with Covid-19 disruptions and intense public scrutiny, several burned-out teachers have left the profession, reducing the available pool of teachers and paraprofessionals.

The School District of the Chathams has been publicly confronted with a continuing decline in both teachers and paraprofessionals within the district and has been looking for ways to attract new employees.

A potential future referendum, according to the board, could help the district retain teachers and paraprofessionals who are currently leaving to teach in other school districts. According to Bradley Smith, chair of the board's finance/facilities committee, one of the few things that would help is more money.

Caryn Badian, a speech pathologist at the Lafayette School, spoke out at the Jan. 9 board of education meeting about how the teacher shortage is affecting teachers in the district.

"We know the lack of qualified substitutes has been an issue discussed at most board meetings since the start of the pandemic…We want to acknowledge the immense toll this has taken on staff. While everyone claims we have 'returned to normal,' clearly normal has taken on a new definition," Badian said.

Since before the start of the pandemic, the School District of the Chathams has also been dealing with an enrollment decline, according to Chatham Superintendent Michael LaSusa.

While it's unclear how much the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions contributed to the district's enrollment drop, Richard S. Grip, Executive Director of Statistical Forecasting LLC., did report a 309 student drop during the 2020-2021 school year.

To combat this, the district has been considering the implementation of full-day kindergarten in the future, which would necessitate a reconfiguration of the school district.

The reconfiguration, according to LaSusa, is a plan that will be discussed and explored throughout the school year, and if approved, it will not be implemented until the start of the 2024 school year.

The district's current restructuring plan would also include a shift to K-2 elementary schools, grades 3 and 4 to Lafayette, and fifth graders to Chatham Middle School, which would then accommodate grades 5 through 8.

A consideration brought forth by the board was how the reconfiguration would affect teachers and classroom sizes. "You can't ask the second grade to go from 25 to 32," Board of Education President Jill Weber said.

"We are constantly changing schedules, last minute notice to cover classes and expected to continue to achieve at the highest level. We continue to make our students our priority, but please know this is not easy to accomplish from an educational and psychological perspective," Badian said.