CORPUS CHRISTI — As the 2023-24 school year starts off, districts across the nation face teacher shortages, including the Corpus Christi Independent School District.
CCISD’s Chief Human Resources Officer Debbie Cruz said by the end of the 2022-23 school year, they were fortunate to have a normal amount of resignations and retirements.
Cruz said over the summer, the district hired 200 teachers but as of the first week of August 2023, there was still 150 teacher vacancies.
“That number was based on an increase in projected student enrollment,” Cruz said. “So, we’ll see on the first day of school as far as whether are not those enrollment projections are met and then be able to make any adjustments at that time.”
Cruz said vacancies will be filled by long-term substitutes that could just be waiting on their certifications. Once they receive them, they will officially be hired as a full-time teacher for that classroom.
CCISD has more than 1,000 active substitutes.
Cruz said CCISD is doing more to compete with other area districts.
“Our teacher starting salary is $52,000 a year and we have recently increased our stipends for our most critical shortage areas including bilingual education and special education,” Cruz said.
CCISD also raised minimum wage for auxiliary employees to $13 an hour.
“And, in addition to that, the district is really generous in providing an 88 percent contribution rate on the cost of our health insurance premiums,” Cruz said. “So, that’s almost $7,000 a year that the district subsidizes us, as well.”
Cruz said the district updates their website everyday with their full and part time openings.
