Grand Rapids Public Schools has started ramping up its hiring efforts this school year, and has filled about 170 positions across the district over the last month. (MLive File Photo)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Grand Rapids Public Schools has hired around 110 teachers and 60 school staff over the last 40 days, filling a significant number of the district’s staff vacancies since the new school year started.

GRPS, the largest school district in West Michigan, was preparing to enter the new school year with 397 unfilled positions on Aug. 4, according to data presented to the Grand Rapids Board of Education during its Monday, Sept. 19, regular meeting.

Since then, the district has ramped up its hiring efforts and filled around 170 positions over the last 40 days, Anya Lusk, assistant superintendent of human resources and general counsel, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press.

The district still has 279 staff vacancies as of Monday afternoon, Lusk told the board. Even though the district was able to fill dozens of positions over the last month, there were some additional staff vacancies that opened up since then, Lusk said.

The hardest positions to fill have been school nurses, social workers, psychologists, child care workers, paraprofessionals, custodians and math, science and special education teachers, according to Monday’s presentation.

The same trend is happening across the state – teacher shortage data shows vacancies in Michigan are mostly noticeable by type of staff. For example, Michigan saw a 1.1% decline in the number of special education teachers from 2019-20 to 2020-21 – the state dropped from 10,071 certified special education positions filled to 9,957 during that period, data shows.

RELATED: Does Michigan actually have a teacher shortage?

To ramp up its hiring efforts this year, GRPS started offering more sign-on bonuses and raised pay for new employees. The district also has simplified its hiring process and started trying different, unique ways to find new recruits, Lusk said.

One of the most interesting ways the district is seeking out new recruits is by working with a third-party company to get visas for employees that live out of the country, she said.

“This is especially great for Spanish-speaking individuals who might want to come to America to teach,” she explained. “Unfortunately, there’s only a very specific number of J-1 visas that are issued by the government every year, so we missed this year. But we’ve contracted with a company to start doing that for next year.”

The district also continues to offer a $1,000 sign-on bonus for Grand Rapids Education Association members, including teachers, and is working on a new $250 referral bonus for support staff positions. GRPS has also increased wages for all positions across the district this year, including for substitute teachers.

Lusk also explained some of the ways GRPS is trying to simplify the hiring process to retain people while they’re going through it. For example, school leaders have stopped using a teacher screening tool called the Haberman, which the district previously used to assess teachers but had become a hassle in the process.

“It turned out that (the Haberman) really didn’t provide us with the information we were looking for, and we weren’t really utilizing it, and it also was somewhat of a barrier and created kind of a log jam in the hiring process, so we’ve cut that out,” Lusk said.

GRPS is also helping cover some of the costs associated with the hiring process, like fingerprinting costs for all new employees, Lusk explained. GRPS Chief of Staff Larry Johnson is also trying to purchase the district’s own fingerprinting machine to help mitigate those costs, Lusk said.

“That can be quite a significant barrier — it costs about $65 for some employees — so we’ve been covering the cost of that,” Lusk said Monday.

The district has also paid for substitute teaching permits for GRPS support staff members so they can help substitute in classrooms from time to time.

Lusk highlighted the district’s robust student teaching program this year. GRPS welcomed 58 new student teachers this fall, which is 20 more than the district had last year. Lusk attributed the rise in student teachers to a new $10,000 stipend the district is offering student teachers per semester.

The money can be used to help cover the costs associated with student teaching like finding housing in Grand Rapids and transportation to and from school, she said.

The district’s stipend is separate from the $9,600 student teaching stipends that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed in this year’s school budget, Lusk explained. Student teachers at GRPS had the option to choose between the district’s $10,000 stipend and the state’s $9,600 stipend this year.

GRPS has also significantly increased its funding for marketing and advertising of open positions. The district increased paid advertising on recruiting websites like LinkedIn, as well as ramped up social media advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

GRPS board member John Matias praised school leaders for their efforts in seeking out new staff and simplifying the hiring process this fall. Matias said board members have been pushing for “radical changes” to the district’s hiring process to help reduce staffing shortages.

“It is good to see that now, a lot of those barriers are being removed from the hiring process, and (offering) incentives,” Matias told MLive after Monday’s board meeting. “I think we need to put our money where our mouth is in that regard.”

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