ACS on WATE - Anderson County schools work to fill positions ahead of new school year

Posted Date: 07/21/2022

ANDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — Despite having positions open across the board, the Anderson County Schools system is confident it will be ready to begin the school year with a full crew of teachers, coaches, assistants and personnel.

“We have positions ranging from kindergarten, preschool, all the way up through 12th grade,” said Ryan Sutton, director of Communications and Public Relations & ACTV Station Administrator. “We’ve never started a school year without being fully staffed so we don’t anticipate it this year.”

However, as teaching positions fill up, the system is struggling to fill classified positions. Positions include educational assistants, custodians, cafeteria monitors and other jobs that are non-instructional.

Despite those challenges, school leaders do not expect students nor parents to be impacted once the new year begins. 

Sutton added this type of situation is a common occurrence as one school year ends and another begins.

“Toward the end of the summer we do have a time where teachers do transition from district to district, which can sometimes artificially inflate the number of positions we need. But we’ve got applications, we’re interviewing every single day, looking to fill those roles,” Sutton said. 

Anderson County Schools are not the only ones who have several positions open and not a lot of time to fill them. 

As of Wednesday, July 20, there were over 100 teacher open positions listed on the Knox County Schools‘ website. There are several listed on Blount County Schools‘ website.