LOS ANGELES — With less than two months left in the school year, many of Los Angeles Unified's highest-needs schools remain significantly understaffed, impeding academic recovery and prompting Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho to deploy credentialed administrators and staff back into the classroom.
The district's teacher shortage — a deepening problem in California and nationwide — has hit hardest at schools in parts of South L.A. and several other low-income neighborhoods, according to a report by Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit group that manages schools in underserved communities. Fueled by a record $20 billion pandemic-aid-enhanced budget this year, L.A Unified had promised a hiring spree unseen since the late 1990s, with thousands of new teachers, counselors and other workers who would help lift students from struggles following a year of distance learning and pandemic hardships.
The additional 6,000 new hires announced last summer included psychologists and psychiatric social workers, teachers, school nurses and custodians. By November, about half of those positions were unfilled, the Partnership report found. Among the 15 schools with the highest number of vacancies, 10 were part of the district's much touted Black Student Achievement Plan, according to the March report.
