Paterson School District Offers $7,500 Bonus to New Teachers Amid Shortage

The new school year barely kicked off, but Paterson Schools sees the impact of the teacher shortage the district faces.

The district is more than 100 teachers short -- with the majority of the vacancies in special education.

Because of this ongoing issue, the Paterson Board of Education brainstormed to come up with a solution and recruit teachers to Paterson. The board's plan? A hiring bonus to bring new educators into district classrooms.

The $7,500 sign-on and retention bonus will be offered to new teachers, however, it comes with a two-year commitment to the Paterson School District. The first half of the bonus would be given when the teacher signs on with the district, and the second half when they return the following September.

There are just over 2,100 teachers for the paterson school districts 25,000 students, many of them multi-lingual.

At the end of last school year in June, the district was short 240 educators. Two weeks before the start of this school year that number was down 30% to 117 but back up to 125 on the first day of school and since then more teachers have left their desks for one reason or another.

And this district has cast a wide net to fund new recruits; from virtual job fairs to online job websites like Indeed and Linkedin to newspapers ads. In the meantime, the district is covering classes best they can: teachers use free periods to cover an extra class, substitute teachers pick up the slack and if all fails combining classes increasing class sizes.