By ZEPHAN MATTESON
Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) and the county’s teachers union are squaring off, as the county faces a staffing crisis in its public schools.
Negotiations between the PGCPS board and the Prince George’s County Educators Association (PGCEA) started in March but have not gone well. On June 4, the PGCEA issued a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Millard House II and his administration.
According to the PGCEA, there are currently not enough teachers at county schools. Because of the lack of staff, regular teachers have to take on increased workloads. This can mean having more kids in classrooms or getting less time for grading, lesson planning and breaks.
“Vacancies drive the workload,” said Donna Christy, PGCEA president. “Teachers are having to take extra classes, or classes are being divided up, and kids are being added to their classes, so there’s that many more kids they have to grade for, and plan for, and manage on top of what they normally would have to do.”
Christy pointed to the pay discrepancy between what PGCPS teachers get and what teachers in Montgomery County or D.C. public school systems get as fueling the staffing issues.
“It was one thing when we paid less, when Prince George’s was the only place with vacancies,” Christy said. “But now that every district has vacancies, and teachers can go to whatever district is paying the most, teachers are exercising that option.”
Both the Montgomery County and D.C. systems have higher negotiated salaries for teachers. For instance, a PGCPS educator with just a bachelor’s on their second salary step with a 10-month contract makes $56,731. In Montgomery County, that teacher would make over $63,000, and in D.C., that teacher would make over $64,000.
Prince George’s County Councilmember Wala Blegay (District 6) said that educators’ needs have to be addressed.
“There has to be something given, even meeting the teachers halfway, which hasn’t been done, to get them the pay that they want,” Blegay said. “Because if not, we’re just going to see a continuing mass exodus of teachers, and then we’re going to have a hard time keeping new teachers.”
The county has turned to hiring more conditionally licensed teachers to fill the void. Schools in Maryland can hire someone with a degree in any area as a conditional educator. Once hired, the educator is expected to obtain a teaching degree and become professionally certified within a set amount of years.
Christy said that in other Maryland school districts, these conditionally licensed teachers are often experienced educators who are “just waiting on one or two I’s to be dotted or T’s to be crossed,” but Prince George’s County is becoming increasingly reliant on educators who are making complete career changes.
These conditionally licensed educators are expected to teach classes in areas that they may have very little experience in, and with very little training, according to Christy. Additionally, they have to complete coursework to become professionally certified, which adds to their workload.
“In addition to teaching and doing all the things that a regularly standard licensed teacher is doing, you’re also taking all the courses that you need to then become a professional licensed educator,” Christy said. “They need a lot more support, and those supports just aren’t there.”
According to Christy, many of these teachers don’t stay in the school system long enough to become fully certified.
“It’s a revolving door,” Christy said. “They thought they wanted to do this, and then, because they’re overwhelmed, [and] they’re not supported sufficiently, they don’t even last the five years to get the license.”
Conditionally licensed teachers in Maryland have five years to become fully certified. Conditionally licensed special educators have three years to do so.
According to the Maryland State Department of Education, this year there were over 6,000 conditionally licensed teachers across the state, and they made up 10% of the teaching workforce.
The deadline for a new contract to be signed is June 30, which means the two sides need to come to a tentative agreement by June 10, according to Christy.
In a written statement, Superintendent House said that PGCPS and the teachers union are engaged in “open negotiations to thoroughly consider nearly 40 proposals while balancing looming budget impacts, the needs of our students and the community at large.”
However, in the same written statement, House said that PGCPS and the educators still remain far apart on many issues.
Without a new agreement, PGCPS won’t have a contract to share with prospective employees. Christy said this would make summer hiring even more challenging.
Christy said she is “deeply concerned” that negotiations will not be made in time, as the school board and the teachers union only meet weekly. She added that the issues PGCPS and the union are still farthest apart on are employee compensation and workload.
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Zephan Matteson is an undergraduate journalism major at the University of Maryland.