Paterson Public Schools District announced yesterday that it has 122 teaching vacancies heading into the opening of schools. In addition, 46 teachers have given notice that they expect to resign or retire in the next two months. The vacancies are primarily in special education and English Language Learners, two areas that many districts are struggling to fill.

According to North Jersey,

Superintendent Eileen Shafer said the district already has made progress by hiring 72 teachers since the end of June, when the total number of vacancies was 240. Shafer attributed the 72 hires to aggressive recruiting by the district’s Human Resources Department, with five teacher job fairs since June 22.

While School Board President School board President Kenneth Simmons said the vacancies were due to the district’s size–it’s the 4th largest in the state after Newark, Elizabeth, and Jersey City, with about 26,000 students— Paterson Education Association President John McEntee Jr. begs to differ. He says Paterson is losing educators due to low salaries. For instance, Newark recently raised its starting teacher salary to $62,000 but Paterson’s current salary guide starts off at $57,500.

The union and the school board have been in fraught contract negotiations for a while and now are at an impasse, as is Elizabeth, where the Mayor is publicly threatening teachers. Last month the Paterson union said the district had  “refused to engage in any meaningful discussion about staff salaries.” The previous month McEntee issued a press release that said in part,

Working as a school employee has never been more challenging, and there are many factors out of our control.  But the Paterson School District needs to do more than just send out letters urging its staff to rest and recharge this summer in the hopes they will return in September.  There is only one way to stop the employees from resigning, retiring, or choosing other municipalities over Paterson:  The Paterson Board of Education must take aggressive steps to fast-track contract negotiations with the P.E.A. and severely revamp its salary packages for all employees.  It’s time to close the wage gap in Paterson and put an end to the revolving door of educators.

The union was especially miffed when last month the School Board voted, without discussion, to raise Shafer’s salary by 15% to $267,900, making her the 6th highest-paid superintendent in the state. This morning they tweeted,

https://t.co/TmRRVA7Ve4

Any board member not screaming to settle the PEA contract is either purposely stalling OR doesn’t care. Until Paterson fixes the brutal salaries, more staff will sprint to other districts. It’s going to get worse! Anyone care? @NJEA #NJ #BacktoSchool2022

— Paterson Ed Assn. (@PatersonEa) August 26, 2022