Superintendents Don’t View House Bill 100 as a Solution to Staffing Shortages

Superintendents Don’t View House Bill 100 as a Solution to Staffing Shortages

Superintendent Joseph Libby. SweetwaterNOW photo

SWEETWATER COUNTY –– Sweetwater County’s two school superintendents voiced concern about a house bill that would allow school districts to hire uncertified teachers and administrators.

Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Superintendent Jospeh Libby said the bill would remove the need for teacher certification as districts could hire uncertified staff.

“This would mean that you could have a person with only a high school diploma, or less, able to teach in the public school setting, Wrote in an email to SweetwaterNOW. “This bill would disregard the undergraduate, graduate, and post graduate work that current teaching staff do to gain and maintain their certifications, building quality instructional teaching strategies, and years of institutional practice working with school aged kids prior to ever stepping in front of them.”

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Libby views the bill being used as a means of lowering teacher pay if passed. Since districts would no longer have certified staff, Libby believes the state could potentially reduce school funding by saying uncertified employees don’t need to be paid as much as certified staff.

Craig Barringer, superintendent of Sweetwater County School District No. 2, said the bill isn’t an answer to staff shortages and questions if parents would want teachers who only had to pass a background check and being at least 18 years old.

“I am not sure many parents would want their child in a classroom with someone whose only qualifications are that they passed a background check and are at least 18 years old,” Barringer wrote to SweetwaterNOW. “This is a simplistic way to look at a complicated problem that has been predicted for years, but ignored.”

Barringer said the state allows districts to hire teachers who qualify, but might not be certified by the Wyoming Professional Teaching Stands Board. He said the board has worked with SCSD No. 2 in the past with that sitation.

“In my time here the PTSB has worked with our district to help place teachers who may not have teaching certification,” he wrote.

The bill received support from Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, and Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, when the two signed to cosponsor the bill. Kolb views it as a bill that allows districts more control over how they operate, while Heiner told SweetwaterNOW he thinks it could help bring people into classrooms who may have adjacent experience in a subject but don’t have a certification to teach. Heiner also told SweetwaterNOW he would like the bill to have an age requirement of a teacher being at least 21 and have experience in a field adjacent to the subject they would teach.

The bill has its opponents in Sweetwater County as well, with Sen. Stacy Jones, R-Rock Springs, Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, and Rep. JT Larson, R-Rock Springs, previously speaking against it.

“This bill is also a slap in the face of our existing teachers who have invested their time and money into their education in order to become teachers,” Larson wrote in an email to SweetwaterNOW.