By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – According to the Regional Education Office’s top brass, a national teacher shortage is beginning to impact central Illinois schools.

“It’s been exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Mark Jonty, the Regional Superintendent for DeWitt, McLean, Livingston, and Logan counties. “The last couple of years with people just choosing to leave the profession. But the fact that we have a shortage in 2022 is not a surprise. That was going to be the case regardless of the pandemic; it’s just created some larger numbers that are not currently filled.”

According to Jontry, some districts in his jurisdiction are pushing larger class sizes and, in some instances, are canceling some classes.

“There’s a shortage with substitute teachers, bus drivers, teachers aid, teacher aid is as big as a shortage of anything. Certintatly all the support staff positions, via the cooks (and) custodians, we are really seeing that across the board. And a lot of ways it kind of mirrors what the shortages that the general workforce is seeing in business and industry outside of K-12 education.”

Jontry’s jurisdiction represents over 40,000 students in 30 public districts and 15 private schools.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].