YORK COUNTY — During a York County School Division (YCSD) regular school board meeting on Monday night, Nov. 23, YCSD leadership gave updates on the divisions latest hiring statistics, as well as a COVID-19 vaccination update.
Dr. John Carroll, the YCSD’s chief operations officer, said that just under 15 percent of children ages 5 to 11 in York County have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
YCSD helped boost those numbers by holding a shot clinic at the Grafton School Complex on Nov. 19. Of the 316 people who attended, 124 of them were elementary age children. The remaining 192 were ages 12 and older. Another clinic is scheduled for December 10.
Carroll also gave updates on YCSD’s ongoing bus driver shortage.
“We remain significantly understaffed,” Carroll told the school board. “However, we keep incrementally adding people. It gets a little better everyday.”
He attributed the uptick in hiring to incentives YCSD recently rolled out, such as paying retired bus drivers more than the normal substitute driver rate to come out of retirement. To date there are 25 bus driver positions still vacant.
Chief Human Resources Officer, Dr. Anthony Vladu updated the school board on the hiring for teaching and support positions in YCSD.
Currently there are more than thirty open teaching positions through out YCSD. Vladu mentioned that five of the vacancies were due to newly budgeted positions, including a special education coordinator, school psychologist, a systems behavioral analyst, social worker and a student achievement coach.
There is a surplus of open support positions throughout the district as well. YCSD is in need of 14 special education para-educators and 17 para-educators. Custodians are also in need, with 18 open positions.
“We are making progress,” Vladu assured the school board. “However every position matters and every position is critical. I am grateful for the hiring managers who continue to beat the bushes and getting all of our candidates to the tables so that we can get them onboarded and supporting our schools.”
To watch the entire school board meeting, go to the YCSD YouTube channel.
