ATLANTA — Maya Mahone waded through a stack of books and school supplies, carefully wiping down each item with a disinfectant wipe. Mahone has a few days to get her classroom in order ahead of her first year of teaching.
The recent Georgia State University graduate spent last year student-teaching and will soon teach third grade at Kimberly Elementary School in Southwest Atlanta this fall. Mahone comes from a family of educators, and she first discovered she wanted to pursue teaching when she was in first grade.
"I've always loved school," Mahone said. "I've always been the kid who wanted to go to school, that cried when I missed school. I wanted my birthdays to be at school. This is where I want to be. I want to teach. I want to guide kids because that’s what I really loved to do when I was a child.”
Working on retention at Atlanta Public Schools
Mahone, who described her teaching style as "social-emotional," recognized the burnout some experience in education. It's led to a widespread departure nationwide, and many metro Atlanta school districts have struggled to staff classrooms, putting stress on people like Mahone and other teachers.
“Teaching can be a lot," Mahone said. "I think teaching is not for everybody, because the patience, understanding, the time it takes, the result. If there’s not enough staff in the school, the teacher becomes the nurse, the teacher becomes everything - and that can be a lot on a person.”
Nicole Lawson, chief human resource officer for Atlanta Public Schools, said the district wanted to hire 23 more teachers, 32 bus drivers and 10 more school resource officers. She said the district was 99 percent staffed, crediting the hiring success to offering competitive pay, listening to current teachers and considering their needs.
"You don't have to recruit and hire if you retain your teachers," Lawson said. "Focusing on wellbeing, we have zen rooms within our schools. We have increased our support as it relates to counseling and we also added wellness days to our calendars."
APS said it was in the 75th percentile when it comes to pay, and the district offers incentives to department chairs, hard-to-fill positions and SROs. In total, Lawson said the district had more than 3,000 teachers, about 400 bus drivers and more than 10,000 employees. Lawson said the district had about 1,400 substitutes on the roster who could make up for the hundreds of teachers who may be absent on any given day.
Vacancies at Fulton County Schools
As for Fulton County Schools, officials said the district currently has nearly 7,000 teachers and 11,000 full-time employees. It is nearly twice the size of APS.
HR Chief Gonzalo Lacava said the district lost more than 400 teachers and more than 1,000 total staff since the start of last school year. It currently has around 90 teaching vacancies, Lacava said, and the district still needs to fill 100 bus driver vacancies and nine resource officer vacancies.
"Most of those vacant positions will be covered by long-term subs, substitutes that are retired, have certifications and have been working in the classroom," Lacava said. "We’re offering retention payments, offering a 5.1 percent increase in hard-to-staff schools. We’re also offering a $5,000 supplement for them to work in some of our challenging schools.”
Lacava said potential teachers can use their degrees in other areas, and bus drivers can work for companies that pay more and come with less stress. He said a supportive culture and the right incentives help in a competitive market.
"We invest in teachers plenty, so at the end of the day if we lose them, we're losing a huge investment," Lacava said. "They're walking out the door. We may have the best strategic plan, we may have the best instructional goals, but if we don’t have very talented teachers in front of kids on the very first day, we’re never going to achieve that.”
Mahone hopes to mark a new chapter, prepared for the road ahead. She also plans to get her master's degree at Georgia State while teaching her first class at Kimberly Elementary.
"Education has always built me, raised me, and taught me that education is what gets me to where I want to go," Mahone said. "I think it's all about challenging yourself. It’s all about how you channel your stress, handle it, what communication methods you’re using and how you choose to really work and show up every day for your students. And it’s all about your attitude.”