Columbus schools say they started year with fewer job openings

Dr. Stanley Ellis came in with a Mission to get Columbus Municipal School District to a B

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s not uncommon for there to be a few job vacancies in a school district at the beginning of the school year, but the Columbus Municipal School District started the school year with 26 unfilled slots last year.

A year later things seem to be running more smoothly.

Superintendent Dr. Stanley Ellis came in with a Mission to get Columbus Municipal School District to a B.

But to get there, the district has to show year-to-year improvements.

So far he feels things are off to a good start. It’s a new year for students and staff in the Columbus Municipal School District.

Last year, the district had more than 20 job openings at the beginning of the year.

“We had several openings for SSOs and SROs. We have filled all of those positions so we’re fully staffed in our schools with SSOs and SROs,” said Ellis.

Ellis said one thing does remain a problem and that’s bus drivers.

“That is a national issue but we are in a better place than last year. We have done a couple of emergency hires for bus drivers and right now we’re looking okay with our bus drivers,” said Ellis.

Last year, one of the big needs was teachers, especially in math. That’s not the case this go-round though. Ellis said classrooms are almost fully staffed throughout the district, but until all the positions are filled he has a reserve to draw from.

“We were able to utilize some of the staff that we had at our central office as a support to the schools until we can find teachers for about three positions and so right now we’re probably down maybe two to three teachers,” said Ellis.

Ellis is thankful this year is off to a smoother start, but there has to be some structure to keep things going well.

“We have to put a laser light focus on teaching and learning you’ve got to inspect what you expect you have to have a sense of urgency and you have to be consistent you have to be fair but you also have to be firm,” said Ellis.

Ellis said that he and his team will see what’s working and what’s not working after the first nine weeks, and then try to make sure things are continuing upward.

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