Sonia Smith, an English teacher at Thomas Dale High School (Photo by Jay Paul)
After serving four years as president of the Chesterfield Education Association, Sonia Smith, an English teacher at Thomas Dale High School, returned to the classroom last fall. What she found was an education system in turmoil.
As the country emerges from the worst of the pandemic, school systems across Central Virginia are in the early process of recovery, but the shockwaves of the past two years are still reverberating.
“What I’ve observed more than anything else is the worry and concern for students,” Smith says. “Last year, there was a lot of back and forth. … You had to prepare for virtual school as well as face-to-face school. Making sure that everything was tight and right as we flipped back and forth — that did a number on folks.”
While the focus has rightly been on students suffering from learning loss, the pandemic’s impact on teachers has been equally traumatic.
“We saw a lot of people leave the classroom at the end of last school year,” Smith says. “Those teachers didn’t come back, and I don’t hear them talking about coming back. That’s the piece that a lot of people didn’t expect.”
Seventy-six of the state’s 132 school divisions reported nearly 5,000 teacher vacancies at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, according to the Virginia Department of Education. Locally, there were five vacancies in Richmond Public Schools’ education positions, along with 16 in Hanover, 118 in Henrico and 258 in Chesterfield at the start of the 2021-22 school year, according to state data. Some subject areas were hit particularly hard by vacancies; for example, there are 67 unfilled math teaching positions in Chesterfield alone.
“What that means is that everybody — everybody — in the math department has to teach an extra class,” Smith says. “That is incredibly taxing on your body, on your voice and on your energy level. It really, really burns you out quickly. There are no reinforcements.”
Catching students up after a chaotic two years has been a challenge as well. During the pandemic, test scores plummeted in Virginia. Pass rates for the math Standards of Learning (SOL) test across the state dropped from 82% in 2019 to 54% in 2021; over the same period, the science SOL pass rate fell from 81% to 59%. This year, there is no reprieve.
“The state policy is basically, ‘We understand that COVID happened, but you have to hit the ground running,’ ” says Andrea Dungee, a primary school teacher with RPS. “Everyone has to take their SOLs, and we have to pick up as if it’s a normal day.”
To stop the bleeding, school officials have been forced to get creative with teacher recruitment and retention efforts. For instance, Henrico County Public Schools is introducing a “career ladder,” in which teachers can increase their salaries by attaining certifications, says Kenya Jackson, talent acquisition ambassador for the school system. It’s also hosting job fairs virtually in order to widen the talent pool.
Chesterfield recently began offering $3,000 stipends for certain positions to attract and retain teachers in high-needs schools.
According to Chris Whitley, assistant superintendent for Hanover County Public Schools, the number of college students in education programs is also declining. Whitley says the school system is introducing a new program to help prospective teachers gain full licensure in the county.
Making matters worse, teachers have also been vilified in the political arena over the past couple of years, with parents voicing frustration over mask mandates while politicians, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin, have accused educators of teaching “divisive concepts” such as Critical Race Theory. (CRT isn’t actually taught in Virginia’s public-school classrooms, but many in the GOP have adopted the term as a catch-all for educational topics surrounding race and equity.)
“The second Tuesday of each month, you can tune in to the local School Board meetings and hear a group of parents who maintain that CRT is being taught in our classrooms,” Smith says. “I have to laugh to keep from crying.”
There are bright spots, however. Many school districts are raising teacher pay, and teachers unions, granted the power of collective bargaining by the General Assembly last year, are starting to gain traction.
In December, Richmond Public Schools became the first district in Central Virginia to approve collective bargaining. Others, such as the Chesterfield Education Association, are hoping to follow suit.
“Just the simple act of having a voice on what you’re going to be doing for your job — I don’t think people realize how empowering that is,” Smith says, “and what a sense of pride, joy and relief it can be for your workplace and your career.”
