National staffing shortage affecting Rush-Henrietta school district

HENRIETTA, N.Y. — There is a national crisis when it comes to staffing shortages in schools.

Last night, we showed you how a bus driver shortage severely impacted schools in the South.

But that isn’t the only position schools are looking to fill.

The Rush-Henrietta school district has a job fair on Wednesday, and they’re looking to fill a slew of positions.

The Rush-Henrietta superintendent said there are openings but under no circumstance will that affect the start of school.

“We would like to have quite a few candidates; our hope is to have at least 100 applicants so that we can have a diverse pool of candidates across multiple areas,” Superintendent Barbara Mullen said.

Rush Henrietta has a lot of openings it needs to fill, and they’re hoping this job fair will help them do just that.

“We’re looking in specialized services, so special education secondary. We’re looking in our science field area as well. We’re looking in what we call English as a new language so supporting our English language learners, behavior specialists and of course on our operation side we’re looking for bus drivers as well,” Mullen said.

Every teaching position needs specific credentials. But positions like cafeteria workers, janitors, office staff and bus drivers are entry level.

“We are not particularly concerned that students won’t have a trusted and caring adult in front of them, but we want to make sure that the staff that we bring in are permanent staff in areas that we really don’t want to have to have substitute teachers. That we have highly credentialed, qualified staff in front of students from day one,” Mullen said.

The superintendent tells me that the school year will start as usual even if they don’t hire anyone. But, these are positions that will need to be filled at some point.

“It’s one of the only places where you can have a direct impact on the future no matter what your role is,” Mullen said.

The job fair is Wednesday, Aug. 16 at Roth Junior High School, 4000 East Henrietta Road, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.