News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Alpena Public Schools Human Resources Director Michele Vilas speaks to the APS board of education about staffing data on Monday night.

ALPENA — A shortage of staff, particularly teachers and instructional assistants, is a statewide and local issue for school districts in Michigan, including Alpena Public Schools.

At the APS board workshop meeting Monday night, the board heard the annual finances and human resources update. APS Human Resources Director Michele Vilas discussed employment trends in the district.

“HR has had no real data in the past,” Vilas said. “So we had to go back and try to recreate some data, so when it’s just a generic spread, it’s the best data that I could get.”

Vilas started her role as HR director last September.

As of Aug. 31, the district has 532 employees, Vilas said. The majority of those employees are teachers and instructional assistants. There are 209 teachers and 107 instructional assistants.

Vilas also listed the total number of staff entered into the system each year since the 2020-2021 school year. In that school year there were 553 staff. In 2021-2022 there were 664 staff, which was the highest number listed. This school year, there have been 589 staff entered into the system, and that number will increase by the end of the school year.

Open positions in the district include three relief drivers, three custodians, five food service workers, 27 instructional assistants, two teachers, and six special education teachers.

On top of the large number of instructional assistant positions available, the district has a shortage of substitute teachers.

The district also processes leave of absence requests, which causes more spots to fill. So far this school year, there have been 25 leave of absence requests that have been approved. Of those requests, nine are Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and 16 are non-FMLA. Whether they are FMLA or not, all staff members requesting leave get 12 weeks, Vilas said. Instructional assistants make up 15 of those requests and teachers make up five. With 15 instructional assistants on leave of absence, that makes 42 openings for instructional assistants.

“We process probably 125 leaves of absence a year,” Vilas said.

This school year, Vilas and others on the administrative team were able to reduce the number of people in need of a mentor. All teachers as a state requirement are required to have a mentor for their first three years. In 2024-2025, 95 teachers at APS were required to have a mentor. This year so far as of Aug. 18, 62 are in need of a mentor. That means the district is getting a little bit of tenure with the teaching staff, Vilas said.

A total of 13 of the teachers hired this year are not certified teachers. They are in the process of being permitted. Teachers that are not yet certified are in a number of programs to earn their certification, Vilas said. Of the new teachers hired, 49 are already certified. A total of 30% of teachers need mentors and are within the first three years.

There were 50 teachers with sub permits last school year, and only 26 this year, which means that there are more certified teachers this year, Vilas said. The district is doing a better job hiring and people are passing the programs they are in.

As of Sept. 10, there are 109 instructional assistants. A total of 33 are high school diploma level and 64 are highly qualified, which means they’ve passed a test or have 60 college credits. There are three paraprofessionals in that group, four security, and five from the paraprofessional CTE program.

Vilas also pointed out numbers showing the shortage of substitute teachers. In 2020-2021, 27% of substitute needs could not be covered, which was the least amount in the last five years. In 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, over 40% of subbing needs were not covered. In 2024-2025, 28% were not covered.

Average tenure has been trending down. In the 2021-2022 school year, teachers had 16 years of average tenure, which has dropped to 10 in 2024-2025. On average for all staff, the number of years of tenure has dropped from 13 to eight.

The district has hired 44 staff as of July 1 and has had 14 resignations. There is still a lot of ground to cover and a lot of openings, Vilas said.

She also said they need to do a little more work with getting instructional assistants onboarded because they are not sticking around once they’re hired.

She is working on looking at where they are losing people and why.

The number of staff nearing retirement is also a concern for the district.

Over 200 staff members are over age 50 and staff can retire with 30 years of service, so the district could potentially lose 200 staff members to retirement in the near future.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.