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GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — As students head back to classes there are still teaching vacancies in school districts across South Carolina and it's a problem that seems to occur yearly.
Jane Turner, the director of the South Carolina Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement, tells The Greenville News (http://grnol.co/2b3BwTT ) that each year about 4,000 teachers retire in the state.
But the state's colleges and universities are only turning out about 2,000 teachers a year to replace them.
Students go back to classes in Greenville, the state's largest district with about 74,000 students, on Tuesday. But the district still has vacancies 19 full-time and seven part-time teachers.
There are also more than two dozen coaching vacancies and the district also needs aides, clerks and workers for after-school programs.
Shortages as the school year begins aren't unusual and there are usually more of them in rural districts, Turner said.
As school opened last year, there were nearly 450 vacancies statewide, according to a study compiled by the center. Another study in May found districts in the state would be about 160 teachers short as this school year begins.
Just because the district is short on full-time teachers doesn't mean students will be going into empty classrooms, said Lynn Gibbs, the district's human resources director. Greenville relies on more than 1,000 substitutes - many of them retired teachers - to lend a hand.
It's not just finding teachers. Getting kids to school can also be a challenge and Greenville is short about 40 bus drivers.
David Poag, the district's bus routing coordinator, says substitute drivers, trainers and managers will be filling in. But the district has already warned parents that buses on some routes may be delayed.
Poag says finding drivers is tough as is the job.
Drivers work from 5:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. with a break in the middle of the day. They have to keep order on a bus with as many as 60 students and also concentrate on their driving. And it generally takes four to six weeks to train a driver.
The best candidates, he finds, are retirees, pastors and people who can work while their child is in school.
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Information from: The Greenville News, http://www.greenvillenews.com
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