Teacher shortage forces hundreds of Spotsylvania students back to online learning

SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. — Hundreds of students in Spotsylvania County started the new school year learning online once again. 

School Board member Nicole Cole says at least 600 students at Chancellor High School are learning math in the school building, through an online program called Edgenuity. 

"It's happening for subjects like Algebra 2 and Statistics. These are difficult subjects to learn especially when not having an in-person ability for students to interact with a teacher to be able to answer their questions in real time," said Cole. 

Cole believes the problem spans across the county, sharing that in other schools there are students in their classroom getting virtual instruction from a teacher who is physically at a different school in the county. 

"I would venture that there are probably 800 to 1000 students across our school division who are being taught virtualy in the school building," said Cole. 

Several parents whose students attend Chancellor High School shared recent updates from the school's principal with WUSA9. One letter, addressing staffing, read that the school year started with fewer vacancies than last, but that three math teacher positions still needed to be filled. 

"I applaud the principal of Chancellor High School who is managing as best he can and really trying to pull in staff to replace Edgenuity with actual staff," Cole said. 

Teacher shortages are a problem at many schools in Virginia and across the country. However, Chancellor High School was among the top 10 schools in the state last year with the worst teacher vacancies, according to data from the Virginia Board of Education. 

The latest report from the VDOE shows there were more than 3,500 unfilled teaching positions across Virginia for the 2022-2023 school year.

These extreme vacancies sparked recent efforts from Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine to address the issue both statewide and nationwide. He recently re-introduced a new bill over the summer.

The PREP Act It would expand the definition of “high need” divisions, to provide additional federal resources and set aside federal funds to address teacher shortages and improve educator preparation programs.

In Spotsylvania County, Cole tells WUSA9 she believes the current culture with a divided school board and administrators play a major role in not attracting qualified teachers. 

"The politics, the divisiveness, not caring about staff, making decisions that are not hostile to our staff, that would make them want to leave this school division," said Cole. 

WUSA9 reached out to Spotsylvania County Schools about the current teacher shortage. We asked where things stand with vacancies, an exact number of students learning online, and what the district is doing to addess the issue. WUSA9 was sent the following statement: 

"It is heartening to see the teacher shortage receive greater attention. While school staffing is a huge challenge for school divisions across the state, SCPS continues to make progress toward being fully staffed at all schools. Reports on math instruction at Chancellor High School have so far failed to mention that progress was already made between last year and this year. Recent interventions by central office leadership are aggressively addressing this problem." 

Mark B. Taylor, J.D. 

SCPS Superintendent