Area School Divisions Still Working on Filling Vacant Positions

About 6% of positions in Stafford and Spotsylvania are vacant.

By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR & CORRESPONDENT
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With between one and two weeks left before the start of the 2024-25 academic year, area school divisions still have staff vacancies to fill.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Spotsylvania

There were 136 vacant teaching positions as of July 19, division spokeswoman Rene Daniels said. These positions include classroom and subject matter instructors as well as librarians, speech language pathologists, counselors, social workers, and psychologists.

In addition, there are 69 vacant support staff positions. These positions include clerical, custodial, and maintenance workers.

With a total of 3,587 full-time positions in the school division’s budget for the current fiscal year, about 6% are currently vacant.

Last summer, about 12% of positions in Spotsylvania were vacant, according to reporting from the Free Lance-Star.

Stafford

The largest division in the Fredericksburg area—with enrollment in excess of 30,000 students—had approximately 100 vacant teaching positions and 150 vacant support positions as of July 23, according to the human resources team.

The vacant support positions do not include bus drivers, bus attendants, and school nutrition workers.

There are 4,313 budgeted full-time positions (excluding the employee groups mentioned above), meaning about 6% are vacant.

Last summer, 5% of all licensed positions (teachers, counselors, librarians, etc.) were vacant, according to the Free Lance-Star.

Fredericksburg

As of July 19, there were 11 open teaching positions and 17 open support positions, according to division human resources staff.

Of the 11 vacant teaching positions, three are at James Monroe High School, three are at Lafayette Elementary, three are at Hugh Mercer Elementary, one is with preschool programs, and one is division wide.

Walker-Grant Middle School has no teaching vacancies, staff said last week.

The vacant teaching and instructional positions make up about 4% of the 635 total funded position in the division. That’s about the same percent of vacancies as there were last summer.

Human Resources director Sue Keffer told the Advance last week that teaching positions in special education and foreign language—specifically Spanish—are especially hard to fill this year.

King George

King George County Public Schools also has about 4% of its funded positions vacant, spokeswoman Amanda Higgins said this week.

There are 11 teaching vacancies, two counselor vacancies, and 17 support staff vacancies as of July 23.

The open support positions include paraprofessionals, one custodian, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, bus aides, and one nurse.

There are a total of 730 funded positions in the school division’s budget.

Eight percent of all funded positions were vacant going into last school year.

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